Academia Anthropology Media

Elsewhere (321)

February 4, 2024 by David 91 Comments

At our glorious state broadcaster, that beacon of human progress:

A senior BBC employee branded Jewish people “Nazis” and white people “parasites” in a string of social media posts. The BBC has been informed of statements made online by Dawn Queva, who is a scheduling coordinator at BBC Three…

Posts made on her Facebook page include calling Jewish people “Nazi apartheid parasites” that funded a “holohoax”. Her posts repeatedly attack white people, calling them a “virus” and “mutant invader species.” […] Other posts state that white people have disturbed the natural order of the planet, and that they are a “barbaric bloodthirsty rapacious murderous genocidal thieving parasitical deviant breed”.

Hiring the very best, I see. Ms Queva has also denounced her employer as the “Bigoted Broadcasting Company.” Don’t worry. I’ve hired a truck to help shift the pile of ironies.

Peter Saunders on forgotten knowledge, now all but taboo:

For the best part of thirty years I’ve been trying to explain to governments, educationalists, journalists, and other opinion-leaders that our system is to a large extent meritocratic, and that the social class gap in educational and occupational achievement is largely down to differences of ability rather than differences of opportunity. But… politicians don’t want to know. They feel much more comfortable telling people that the system is unfair than explaining to them that some kids are simply brighter than others, and maybe their kid isn’t one of them. 

Noah Carl on the “diversity” trilemma:

Basically, you can pick two out of the following three: social stability, civil liberties, non-selective immigration. If you want social stability and civil liberties, you have to be picky with immigration. If you want civil liberties and non-selective immigration, you won’t get social stability. And if you want non-selective immigration and social stability, you’ll have to infringe civil liberties.

Since social stability is paramount for most governments (winning re-election is hard when people are rioting in the streets), there are really only two ways to “solve” the diversity trilemma: by being picky with immigration, or by infringing civil liberties. To date, Britain has opted mainly for the latter. 

And in technological news:

A professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh recently expressed concern over the lack of diversity among the robot population.

The educator in question, Mark Paterson, worries that black children “could end up interacting with white robots.” Specifically, “robots with reflective white surfaces.”

Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.




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