Elsewhere (239)
Uri Harris on the ideological hegemony of the social sciences:
[In a survey of the political preferences of social psychologists,] there were almost as many people who chose the furthest possible point to the left as there were who chose all the conservative points, the centre-point and the most moderate left-of-centre point combined… People that freely self-identify as far-left in the abstract, in other words irrespective of specific political issues, seem to me to be signalling something: that they are committed to an ideology. The fact that such a large portion of the most influential people in academic social psychology do so suggests that this ideology is entrenched in their field.
Which in turn suggests that what they’re actually doing may not in fact be science.
Franklin Einspruch on free speech and the prattle of Lindy West:
West possesses a mysterious gift of psychic progressivism that lets her see into the hearts of men and unearth the real intentions behind their stated ones. Or so it would seem. These men are only pretending to care about freedom of speech, for example. They really want to harass marginalised people for having opinions… “They’re weaponising free speech to maintain their cultural dominance,” she says, obsequiously quoting Anita Sarkeesian, another psychic progressive. That flushing noise you hear is the sound of productive dialogue disappearing into the rhetorical toilet. Identitarians like West have never grasped that it is impossible to found a good-faith discussion on bad-faith premises such as these… The irony of [West’s] essay is that its main point – that all this defence of free speech is really about deflecting criticism – is coming out of a camp of left-identitarianism that spent much of the last decade answering criticism with charges of bigotry.
When not deliberately knocking sleeping passengers with her in-flight luggage and boasting about it in articles for feminist publications, and then complaining that no-one wants to sit next to her on a plane, Ms West, a “fat activist,” shares videos of herself eating biscuits.
And Ace’s CBD on the obliviousness of the protesting class:
At the Impeach Trump March in Chicago 7/2/17, a group of protesters applaud a speech comprised almost entirely of Adolf Hitler quotes given by Shad Daley. This was 20 seconds after saying they need to fight fascism. After the speech, the organising member of refusefascism.org was desperate to get Shad more involved.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
After the speech, the organising member of refusefascism.org was desperate to get Shad more involved.
LOL
And Ace’s CBD on the obliviousness of the protesting class:
Somewhat Related
I haven’t seen any of this reported by the MSM.
“They’re weaponising free speech to maintain their cultural dominance,”
They’re weaponizing victimhood to maintain their cultural dominance.
a group of protesters applaud a speech comprised almost entirely of Adolf Hitler quotes
Top trolling. 🙂
Slightly OT but why do so many Americans pronounce Adolf as A-rhymes-with-day-dolf? I’ve always found it a bit odd.
Thanks for the feature. Despite West’s July 2 announcement that she was to be a “weekly columnist (well, Contributing Opinion Writer) for the New York Times,” the weekend passed mercifully free of new Lindy West writings and now I’m not sure what’s going on with her status there. I would apologize for the confusion but I don’t think I caused it.
the weekend passed mercifully free of new Lindy West writings
The suspense is unbearable.
“According to journalist, activist and feminist Laurie Penny, it’s toxic masculinity that’s killing the world.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08x4rdz
“According to journalist, activist and feminist Laurie Penny, it’s toxic masculinity that’s killing the world.”
It’s always a pleasure to hear Laurie telling us, repeatedly, just how “radical,” “challenging” and “threatening” she is. As one does.
Laurie’s working hard to make you guys behave.
From the BBC link about our Laurie:
There’s a new collection of her writing out now called ‘Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults’. She joins Jane to discuss.
What’s best for skin? Cleanse, tone and moisturise? Or cleanse, serum and moisturise? Facialist, Abigail James, has some suggestions.
” How to be a clueless, leftist bitch but still have great looking skin.”
Regarding Harris:
With all due respect, I believe we have found the missing 26-37% from the “[R]ecent surveys”.
Not really, the proper response to all social “science” and the practitioners of those dismal arts is just to point, laugh, and ignore.
Laurie’s working hard to make you guys behave.
What’s remarkable is that in 10 years or so, and despite a free year of study at Harvard, she hasn’t gotten any better at it. It’s still a series of bald pronouncements and almost random incantations – “toxic masculinity” and “rape culture” being but two of them. There’s always the pretence of immense dangerousness and outsider status, despite all evidence to the contrary. And every time, there’s an air of crisis, of some vast and unprecedented social transformation, usually based on something that her friends said or tweeted. As if her own, rather uniform social circle were the sum total of all possibility. And note just how rarely she’s pressed on any of this, or asked to substantiate anything she says.
Having read Franklin Einspruch’s article, I agree with it entirely – but he misses an essential point of the SJW; they don’t want a productive discourse. THEY are RIGHT and WE are WRONG { – just ask them – } and their sole desire is to Trigglypuff that into your face until you shut up and leave them in unchallenged possession of the podium.
“And I don’t want a debate. I want to talk about my pain.” – Oh and, they want a law passed that we MUST listen.
a group of protesters applaud a speech comprised almost entirely of Adolf Hitler quotes given by Shad Daley
Oh I do hope this becomes a thing.
That Uri Harris piece is -exactly- what I wanted to explain the Hugo Awards hard turn to the Left. It’s genius.
Back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and TV was black and white, I took my degree in Anthropology. At that time, the late 1970’s, I could see that things were not progressing logically. Nobody in Anthropology was interested in measuring anything. It was all Marxism, and Post Modernism was begining to rise as an issue. The big uproar that made my decision was E.O. Wilson’s landmark book, “Sociobiology.”
Quite apart from the book, the -reception- to it was unprecedented. People didn’t argue about the contents of the book. There was plenty to argue about, and I published a paper about it, but the books opponents didn’t do that. They attacked Dr. Wilson directly. They went after him in public. They disrupted his lectures, they threw stuff at him, they attacked him -personally- in books and magazines.
My initial instinct was confirmed by the Suzuki/Rushton “debate” where blowhard Dr. David Suzuki publicly vilified Dr. Philippe Rushton for having the gall to write “The Bell Curve.” Again, there’s plenty to argue against in The Bell Curve, Rushton’s theory has holes you can drive a bus through. But that’s not what his detractors did. They essentially forbade discussion of the subject.
Fast forward to today, working at a university is getting to be a tightrope walk while balancing teacups, across a flaming pit. One wrong move and your career is kaput. People must be silently freaking out in schools across the nation.
I made the right call becoming a house painter instead of an Anthropology professor. The money was about the same (oh yes, it was!) and I still have all my marbles.
This “purity spiral” exactly describes what’s been going on in my favorite genre, science fiction. Publishers tend to chase awards, and awards are increasingly decided by Leftists. Hard Leftists, who think Stalin was on the right track but didn’t go far enough. This has gone on to the point where any sort of non-Leftist themes are simply not being published by Big 5 houses.
The thing Harris describes is the mechanism that creates our present environment. Very satisfying ideas.
Just wanted to try this out.
Philippe Rushton did not write The Bell Curve.
Phantom – Rushton wrote “Race, Evolution, and Behavior;” Herrnstein and Murray wrote “The Bell Curve.” They came out about the same time in the mid-90s, so it’s easy to misremember. I do recall accounts of the ‘debate’ between Rushton the fruit-fly guy, and it did boil down to ‘you’re not allowed to ask that question.’
Just wanted to try this out.
For reasons that escape me, the spam filter snagged it.
Bad spam filter.
[ Beats spam filter with rolled-up newspaper. ]
a group of protesters applaud a speech comprised almost entirely of Adolf Hitler quotes
Woke.
Hi Phantom, you aren’t by any chance referring to the Hugo awards, are you? Of which I had never heard until science fiction writers and fans began battling over them, so much so that some of the writers began blogging about it, which is how I found out about it.
Woke.
Heh.
For reasons that escape me, the spam filter snagged it.
Thanks David, you really should upgrade to a steam-powered filter.
why do so many Americans pronounce Adolf as A-rhymes-with-day-dolf? I’ve always found it a bit odd.
Probably from wartime propaganda, especially things like Warner Bros cartoons, where it was pronounced that way, presumably as a form of mockery, and it stuck.
why do so many Americans pronounce Adolf as A-rhymes-with-day-dolf?
Don’t get me started on niche or aluminium.
and it stuck
Oddly enough, I find I always pronounce Hitler’s name as “AY-dolf”, but others with that name as “AH-dolf”, like one of Hitler’s Luftwaffe generals, Adolf Galland – who I found to be a very charming fellow, btw.
(sorry for the shameless name-dropping)
Woke up this morning
Felt around for my shoes
Woke up this morning
Felt around for my shoes
I feel so bad
Got them hetetopatriarchal blues
Don’t get me started on niche or aluminium.
Here’s what the folks at Merriam-Webster have to say:
Here’s what the folks at Merriam-Webster have to say
I’m sensing tension in the room. It could kick off at any moment.
[ Reaches under bar, fingers revolver. ]
[ Reaches under bar, fingers revolver. ]
Let’s call the whole thing off.
:: clears throat ::
singing
You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let’s call the whole thing off!
:: ducks ::
[ Mutters under breath. ]
Goddamn heathens from the colonies, coming over here with their savage ways and their total bollocksing of the Queen’s tongue.
[ Pours large one to steady nerves. ]
[ Pours large one to steady nerves. ]
I’ll drink to that.
… there were almost as many people who chose the furthest possible point to the left as there were who chose all the conservative points, the centre-point and the most moderate left-of-centre point combined
Ahem:
Freshman enrolment … has fallen by more than 35 percent in the two years since [the campus protests].
Before the protests, the university … was experiencing steady growth and building new dormitories [but now] the university is temporarily closing seven dormitories and cutting more than 400 positions.
Students of all races have shunned [the university], the drop in freshman enrollment last fall was strikingly higher among blacks, at 42 percent, than among whites, at 21 percent.
By sheer numbers, the drop in white students has caused the greatest damage, since they make up a majority of those on campus.
Tyler Morris, a white student from St. Louis, said he was afraid of being stereotyped as a bigot
Somewhat apposite.
They do say fools rush in …
They do say fools rush in …
Heh.
Once again, the perfidious French. If that isn’t a good enough argument for Brexit, nothing is.
Before the 1990s, academic psychology only LEANED left. Liberals and Democrats outnumbered Conservatives and Republican by 4 to 1 or less.
Interesting definition of “leaned”. In most other places, a 4 to 1 superiority is considered decisive.
I want to say this is a fine, fun site and I’m delighted I found it.
(That ought to keep David from yammering on about that twenty bucks I owe him.)
[ Reaches under bar, fingers revolver. ]
Um. revolver, or revolver?
(That ought to keep David from yammering on about that twenty bucks I owe him.)
No Refunds, Credit Note Only
I have a no-refund policy too; that’s why I haven’t refunded David that $20! 😄
Oh yeah? Well it’s JAG-wahr, not JAG-you-wahr.
[ exits, stage left ]
Oh dear, now you’ve done it…
[ downs his Boddington’s, tips the publican, slides out the door ]
Mark Steyn.
And I do like the notion of a “social justice warrior locust storm.”
This just in: Apparently, “biological sex” isn’t “inherent in nature.”
Unfortunately Farnsworth it seems as though social “science” practitioners have the ear of government everywhere and are trying, and occasionally succeeding, in making their unfounded beliefs into law. To paraphrase Trotsky, you may not be interested in the SJW\government complex but the SJW\government complex is interested in you.
This just in: Apparently, “biological sex” isn’t “inherent in nature.”
I clicked and it was like stepping into a right hook of ignorance.
How on earth can the trans and feminist movements stay aloft when they’re fueled by this level of sheer stupidity?