Counter-reactionaries working to staunch the wokee cultural tide

    For those of you who don't know yet, I'll be launching a website next week that should help shed a whole lot of light on Critical Social Justice. Getting excited to show you some of what I've been working in for the last few months.https://t.co/mgEe1wFSpj

    — James Lindsay, being effective again (@ConceptualJames) February 22, 2020

    Between New Discourses and Cynical Theories, it's going to be a good year for explaining what's going on with Wokeness and helping people understand what it is.https://t.co/wVQYt2SsDQ

    — James Lindsay, being effective again (@ConceptualJames) February 22, 2020

    Comments

    Another, doing it tongue-in-cheek: The Woke Temple



    Kenan Malik @ The Observer @The Guardian.com

    Stop telling authors what they can write. The only limit is imagination

    Condemning a white novelist for writing on Mexican migrants is to create gated cultures

    What insults my soul,” Zadie Smith has written, “is the idea… that we can and should write only about people who are fundamentally ‘like’ us: racially, sexually, genetically, nationally, politically, personally.”

    Both as novelist and essayist, Smith is one of the most subtle guides to the fraught terrain of culture and identity. The problem of “cultural appropriation” – writers and artists being called out for having stepped beyond their permitted cultural boundaries to explore themes about people who are not “fundamentally ‘like’ us” – is an issue that particularly troubles her. Too often these days, on opening a book or on viewing a painting, we are as likely to ask: “Did the author or painter have the cultural right to engage with that subject?” or: “Does he or she possess the right identity?” as: “Is it any good?”

    [....]

    What both sides seem to have forgotten is what fiction is for. Fiction, as Smith observed in the inaugural Philip Roth lecture in 2016, “is a way of asking… what if I was different than I am?” Today, though, she notes elsewhere: “The old – and never especially helpful – adage write what you know has morphed into something more like a threat: stay in your lane.” To do so, Smith insists, is to deny the very possibility of fiction.

    [....]

    In any case, the context of the debate is a literary and artistic culture that increasingly does insist that people artappraisershould stay in their lanes. “Where did the new orthodoxy arise that writers must only set stories within their own country of origin or nationality?” the writer Aminatta Forna has asked. In trying to constrain the imagination by identity, she points out, it’s not the privileged but those on the margins who most lose out. The “white male writer” is called simply “writer”; all other others have to be “hyphenated”, writing, in Nesrine Malik’s words, “as a”: as a woman, as a Muslim, as an immigrant.

    [....]

    Beware the politics of identity. They help legitimise the toxic far right, Feb. 23

    The vile ideas behind the Hanau attack have moved from the fringe to the mainstream

    [....] If the right’s obsession with immigration has helped give new legitimacy to arguments of the far right, so has the left’s blindness to the consequences of the politics of identity. Many on the left now embrace the idea that one’s interests and values are defined primarily by one’s ethnic or cultural or gender identity.

    The politics of identity is, however, at root the politics of the reactionary right. The original politics of identity was that of racial difference, the insistence that one’s racial identity determines one’s moral and social place in the world. Now, identitarians of the far right are seizing upon the opportunity provided by the left’s adoption of identity politics to legitimise their once-toxic brand. Racism became rebranded as white identity politics.

    It’s an expression of the pernicious befuddlement of today’s politics that rightwing critics of identity politics are among the most vehement defenders of the idea of a European homeland to be protected against immigrant invaders, while leftwing critics of white identity are staunch defenders of every other form of identity politics [....]


    Great global point:

    Few messages are worse for the developing world than the consistent ones out of critical Theories: "Science, reason, liberalism, etc., are white, Western, male systems and not for you. It's white, Western males trying to colonize you to say otherwise."

    This stuff is cancer. https://t.co/bo9YmtIN01

    — James Lindsay, makes stuff up (@ConceptualJames) February 24, 2020

    Correct. Liberalism, as it arose in the West, was the first successful bid at really transcending these harmful human impulses. It led us to learn better.

    Critical theories are expressly anti-liberal, intentionally. A critique of liberalism is a pillar of critical race Theory. https://t.co/n59netqIMV

    — James Lindsay, makes stuff up (@ConceptualJames) February 24, 2020

     


    Had not realized that Liz Warren had all these "plans" pandering to the "intersectional" lobby/crowd/crew until I read this spin on her from Suzanna Danuta Walters at The Nation

    I hope it's not accurate



    Oof, you're paying for my Tylenol - just downed a whole pack. Too late/early for a beer.


    America’s First Postmodern President

    Trump's ascendance is no accident. He's the culmination of our epoch of unreality. What does that herald for the resistance?

    By Jeet Heer @ TheNewRepublic.com, July 8, 2017


    Didn't there used to be an actual discipline called "Comparative Lit".? What happened to that? SIGH

    Looks like identity-based "progressivism" continues to get even more regressive.https://t.co/TUqUHwuSyT

    — James Lindsay, making new discourses (@ConceptualJames) March 4, 2020

    enlightened



    Let me know, have to dress different for seppuko vs old fashioned hanging, and then there's one to the temple - light gauge please, heavy bore makes such a mess.



    Colonizing space takes verve, bringinging whiteness into dark. Of course white Nova's vs black holes says it all - total expansion vs rec ding/giving way, and ultimately no escape. Beam me up, Scotty - there's no intelligent life left here.


    It looks like they have funding for marginalized groups to obtain grants for advanced degrees working with semiconductor science.

    Edit to add:

    Outreach to include students not traditionally associated with the sciences seems rational. Increasing numbers in the sciences is important. As Yang says, "Learn math". 
     

    The NYT had a great article about a black mathematician, and how isolated he felt in his profession.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/edray-goins-black-mathematicians.html

    Effects to increase diversity should be encouraged, not ridiculed 




    Though here's a perfect example of when criticism might be warranted. I admit I did laugh:

    Uh...perhaps she could have chosen her words more carefully. https://t.co/N3Dj1YMWmV

    — Harrison Manlove (@AzmarayFury) March 18, 2020

    (comes to mind a sense of humor about this type of thing can do a lot)



    I wonder if Germans have a split reality, where they see Nazi villains in movies as a completely different tribe? I mean, there's always a bad German like in Die Hard (dutifully played by the late great Englishman Alan Rickman), I assume Germans just learn to disassociate and become a Bruce Willis or Sgt Powell American for the duration of the film. I mean, that *is* what movies bring us, fantasy, no? And besides, are Germans the Adenauer new capitalists or the Ossi retrogrades? 30 years even that divide fades for the under-40 set.


    well I do definitely see disassociation on Angela's part here, she's thinking "I'm just another 21st century western leader like all the rest of em", yeah and I think it's actually a good sign of conversion to global-think. It's a similar thing to white American descendants of Ellis Ilsland hordes being blamed for slavery, they go "say what? that has nothing to do with me"


     

    Good thread rounding up headlines exhibiting the media’s fixation on covering the emerging pandemic through the lens of racism.

    In retrospect this was a long reductio ad absurdum and yet the same imperative that generated these headlines will shield them from scrutiny https://t.co/B6Klwc5to1

    — Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 23, 2020

     

    Comes to mind it can be a dangerous distraction and in that it has little difference from how Trump operates by using distraction. Where all coverage is put within the context of a certain frame.

    Like he says:

     

    At this point if you uncritically trust the media or any number of other institutions and you have even minimal capacity to think through what you see in the world, you will quickly realize that you are being regularly played for a sucker. That has to stop before anything else.

    — The End Times (@TheAgeofShoddy) February 28, 2020

     

    That's Trumpies and Trump too. It's just pandering to demographics, identitarian demographics. Not to offer information to open minds but to reinforce ideological beliefs with cherry picked coverage, bias confirmation.


    Trump is pandering all right to a demographic called the American People. Most Americans are not as stupid and gullible as you need and wish them to be. Trump supporters already know we have a Marxist Mockingbird Media and so do snowflakes. The difference is they like you love and thrive on these lies Fortunately some of the snowflakes have developed indigestion from a diet too rich in deceit and are no longer consuming the junk food offered by our Soviet style media.

    Look, if you dare, at what happened to Moscow Maddow's viewership after her Collusion Delusion was humiliated by the Mueller Report.


    Did Trump's team meet in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer summer 2016 to discuss lifting sanctions?
    Did Trump's incoming NSA call the Russian ambassador several times in Dec 2016 to discuss sanctions, informing Trump about it but "forgetting" when interviewed by the FBI?
    Did Trump's campaign manager, personal lawyer, National Security Advisor, & dirty tricks guy Stone all end up either convicted or pleading guilty?
    Did Russia hack DNC & Podesta emails, doing a slow drip release via Assange/Wikileaks (and did both Manafort & Roger Stone meet with Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy?
    Did Manafort pass polling data for PA/MI/WI/MN to Kilimnik, who likely passed it on to GRU (KGB)?
    Did Butina pal around with NRA & US Congresspeople trying to compromise especially Russians?
    Did Richard Pinedo get convicted for creating fake PayPal accounts to launder money for Russia?

    You keep spewing so much asinine bullshit while doing your best to ignore the heap of convictions.
    You're a fucking liar. Collusion Delusion? You have your head so far up Putin's ass, it's a wonder you can breath, much less see.
    https://www.vox.com/2018/10/10/17959244/mueller-richard-pinedo-trump-russia


    Get behind me Beast I reject thee.

    Don Jr and others met with a Russian lawyer who was working with Glenn Simpson of FusionGPS and she consulted with him before  and after this meeting. She also reportedly carried a memo written by Simpson containing some useless dirt on the Clinton campaign. 

    Even a snowflake dummy should recognize a set-up like this and staged traps carried out bu Mfsud, halper, Downer and the FBI in the Flynn frame-up.


    I don't get this stupid game the right plays by pretending the American people agree with them or that those that  agree with them the only real Americans. The American people are all the citizens of the United States of America and those citizens are all real Americans. All the evidence is that Trump has never been able to get even half of the American people. His approval rating has always been less the 50%, he always polls less than 50%, he wasn't even able to get 50% of the vote. The evidence is overwhelming that Trump is talking, or pandering, to less than half of the American people.


    Yes, he used identity politics against identity politics to get elected and he continues to use it on his fan base. That's the core thing going on, that's basically the only important thing to see about Trump. As personally he has no policy goals or ideology, he's a narcissist and is into doing it for demagogic personal attention.

    Identity politics is divisive, tribal. He not just reinforces identity politics but fans its flame.

    That the Republican party goes along with him to try to enact its political agenda is another matter entirely, separate.Trump doesn't care about their goals, whatever they are, he cares only about identity politics, that's what he does, that's the only thing he knows how to do-culture warring, and his only goal is continually feeding his narcissism. There is no goal except perhaps a continual game of victimhood olympics. All just to get personal attention!


    Lying about what other people are saying or thinking just makes your weakness look more pathetic. 

    Trump speaks to all Americans and many listen and there is evidence that more are listening. Many of them may never vote for Trump but they have taken the Red pill and are no longer listening to the howling Marxist Mob.






    Hughes is criticizing the author, Ibram X. Kendi:

    If aliens invaded Earth hoping to exterminate humanity, a certain type of person would lose sleep worrying that more than 14% of their victims were black. https://t.co/GAffbpCQYD

    — Coleman Hughes (@coldxman) April 1, 2020

     


    So we really don't have to care that ethnic minorities may be more likely to be excluded from access to life saving care? It should be something we expect to happen?

    Edit to add:

    WTF is Quillette?

    In drug and vaccine trials, age, ethnicity, gender, economic status, etc will be part of the data base. Some drugs may be effective in one group and not in other groups. Gender responses may differ..

    When it comes to vaccines, some groups may be vaccinated at lower rates than others. This happens with the flu vaccine, for example. 
    https://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/influenza/news/online/%7B45d75411-5907-43ac-b509-ebe2f2c5d491%7D/we-have-a-problem-experts-highlight-racial-disparities-in-flu-vaccination-coverage

    Of the 1000 things racial informant is important. Not taking public health info from a 24-year old who writes for something called Quillette.


    Found it

    Last year a study revealed that a widely used algorithm to access health which excluded race, still managed to discriminate against black patients 

    Racial bias in health algorithms

    The U.S. health care system uses commercial algorithms to guide health decisions. Obermeyer et al. find evidence of racial bias in one widely used algorithm, such that Black patients assigned the same level of risk by the algorithm are sicker than White patients (see the Perspective by Benjamin). The authors estimated that this racial bias reduces the number of Black patients identified for extra care by more than half. Bias occurs because the algorithm uses health costs as a proxy for health needs. Less money is spent on Black patients who have the same level of need, and the algorithm thus falsely concludes that Black patients are healthier than equally sick White patients. Reformulating the algorithm so that it no longer uses costs as a proxy for needs eliminates the racial bias in predicting who needs extra care.

    Abstract

    Health systems rely on commercial prediction algorithms to identify and help patients with complex health needs. We show that a widely used algorithm, typical of this industry-wide approach and affecting millions of patients, exhibits significant racial bias: At a given risk score, Black patients are considerably sicker than White patients, as evidenced by signs of uncontrolled illnesses. Remedying this disparity would increase the percentage of Black patients receiving additional help from 17.7 to 46.5%. The bias arises because the algorithm predicts health care costs rather than illness, but unequal access to care means that we spend less money caring for Black patients than for White patients. Thus, despite health care cost appearing to be an effective proxy for health by some measures of predictive accuracy, large racial biases arise. We suggest that the choice of convenient, seemingly effective proxies for ground truth can be an important source of algorithmic bias in many contexts.

    https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6464/447

    We are in a pandemic. This is exactly the time to be talking about race.


    Quillette is French, n'est-ce pas?

    Though their accuracy seems in question.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quillette


    Whatever they are, they don't have any authority on health care.

    Kendi has interesting takes on race

    For health care, I listen to the professionals, not Quillette or Kendi.

    We should not be ignoring race during this pandemic.


    Ah, experts like The Root and Ta-Nehisi?


    Bring them up on issues of race.

    I linked to scientific literature on the racial bias in medicine 

    At any rate, the racial data will eventually come out.

    Edit to add:

    The last two times that I read Kendi (outside of his books) was when a dagblog poster linked to someone named Coleman Hughes attacking Kendi.


    go argue with Coleman Hughes on Twitter. I'm not engaging. And this thread is by me for me to collect things I am interested in as to the what I believe is the current corruption of academia and those attempting to rectify that. Which I feel has little difference from the Marxists that overran and corrupted what was taught at UW Madison humanities when I was an undergrad there.I thought they were the bee's knees as an undergrad. I went on to be a proudly educated person and learned that ideological bias and propaganda, no matter how well meaning, is a killer of knowledge.


    You linked to Hughes to criticize Kendi. I am free to respond

    Here is Mark Morial leader of the National Urban League on the need to make sure that blacks are not overlooked.It runs counter to Hughes and is directlly on point.

    https://www.miamitimesonline.com/business/blacks-crisis-and-economics-during-coronavirus-pandemic/article_e42c849e-7420-11ea-bd41-735dbd2c4ef4.html

    Here is USA Today contradicting Hughes. We do need to address disparities during the pandemic 

    “The virus is an equal-opportunity crisis … but the impact and the burden of it is not going to be shared equally,’’ said Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a public health expert and assistant professor at Columbia University in New York City. “Like most things in society, it's going to be regressive. It's going to be felt disproportionately by the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized, and obviously that falls down in this country on communities of color.’’

    As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, advocates and civil rights groups are pushing to get local and federal lawmakers to focus attention on communities of color and steer resources to places like reservations and community health centers that serve them.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/30/coronavirus-cases-could-soar-blacks-latinos-and-native-americans/2917493001/

    From the Hill

    https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/490563-coronavirus-shows-black-americans-must-be-protected-from-surprise-medical

    Public health expert 

    https://theundefeated.com/features/public-health-expert-says-african-americans-are-at-greater-risk-of-death-from-coronavirus/

    You bought Hughes into the discussion. I am simply pointing out that his position is as out of touch as Trump's statements about coronavirus. 
     

    In addition, a myth suggesting that black people are immune to coronavirus is being confronted 

    https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article241316536.html

    Hughes would have us overlook everything. You brought up Hughes. Hughes is wrong.

     

     


    Doctors Are Concerned That Black Communities Might Not Be Getting Access To Coronavirus Tests

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/coronavirus-tests-covid-19-black

    Hughes is free to express an opinion. Quillette is free to publish his opinion.

    Hughes can be criticized when goes off the rails. 


    Univ of Michigan, 12.7% black, 7.9% Asian


    County health officials said that due to structural and environmental disadvantages, African Americans are more likely to have underlying health conditions like heart disease, asthma and diabetes, and are less likely to have access to health care in both Washtenaw County and across the country. The health department said those factors may be able to explain some, but not all of the disparate effects COVID-19 is having on African American communities.

    Because race is being used as a marker, we can delve into why there are differences 

    The health department said those factors may be able to explain some, but not all of the disparate effects COVID-19 is having on African American communities.

    Edit to add:

    The reason for investigation into race, is to determine if there are different presentations of the disease, different risk factors, disease that can be triggered with lower levels of exposure, etc. It is all data that can be captured during the initial medical interview. This data is especially important in a pandemic.


    ProPublica compiles data suggesting a worse outcome for blacks with COVID in several other cities

    https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate

    This is important information. The factors creating the impact must be accurately identified. 
     

    Edit to add, fro the article

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks virulent outbreaks and typically releases detailed data that includes information about the age, race and location of the people affected. For the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC has released location and age data, but it has been silent on race. The CDC did not respond to ProPublica’s request for race data related to the coronavirus or answer questions about whether they were collecting it at all.

    Experts say that the nation’s unwillingness to publicly track the virus by race could obscure a crucial underlying reality: It’s quite likely that a disproportionate number of those who die of coronavirus will be black.


    Please post all this demographic info.elsewhere. It doesn't apply to what this thread is about, which is apparently something you don't understand. It's about approaches to scholarship. And furthermore, you appear to want Coleman Hughes to see it and he is not here and is not looking at it.


    I agree about more selective posting on these topics.

    It will make it more interesting for others.


    There is a post ,about a new Labour Party leader in the UK

    This was followed by commentary making fun o Shaun King

    I responded to a post about demographic data with demographic data.



    The woke never rest. Thank God for James. https://t.co/qOYXYnFaiS

    — Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) April 2, 2020

    Not to be outdone @ColumbiaLaw had talk today on “the risks of deepened inequality within the COVID-19 pandemic, and how governments can use a human rights-based and intersectional approach to ensure the rights of all persons are protected.”https://t.co/AE44unexYf https://t.co/VpOmnJIhRj

    — Timon Cline (@tlloydcline) April 2, 2020

    Why blog when I can just post this...?


    Unfortunately  for me James doesn't do much on art history. When I look at scholarly publications in my field,  about 50% of the articles have the word "colonialism" in the title. Shock and awe at how the youth have been indoctrinated. I don't know who to blame, did they all use Howard Zinn as their history textbook in high school or what?


    I feel ignornt for not knowing Howard Zinn. A new bout of "all makes sense" going thru me Gulliver (wow, Clockwork Orange ref 50-60 years old. Malchicks not so young anymore, all in senior homes)

    https://inthesetimes.com/article/22296/howard-zinn-peoples-history-of-th...
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/reclaiming-history-from-howard-zinn-1155812...


    One goal quoted in the article 

    They also recommend broadening bailout and stimulus packages to prioritise those most at risk, making policy responses cross-sectoral and committing to leadership diversity: pointing out that, to date, policy making has been dominated by white, Christian, cis-gendered, heterosexual, able-bodied wealthy men.

    Is there something wrong with that goal?

    Jared took center stage at the podium 

    Mike Pence, who had to pray before making a health care decision regarding the use of needles, was also on the podium. 
    In this setting, the goals proposed don't appear to be absurd.

    Edit to add:

    We are in a pandemic, attacking this group is a distraction 

    Here is what Jared Kushner said from the podium

    "You also have a situation where in some states, FEMA allocated ventilators to the states and you have instances where in cities they're running out, but the state still has a stockpile and the notion of the federal stockpile was, it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use," Kushner said.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-coronavirus-briefing-federal-stockpiles-blames-states-ventilator-shortages-2020-4

    Given the pandemic, Kushner is the real threat. He is hoarding life-saving materials. The Queens group is questioning whether access to health care is fair.



    The reason for obtaining demographic data in a pandemic is to prove that your assumptions are correct. If it is all about poverty, obesity, etc, that fits the assumption. Demographic data tells you if after correcting for all the variables. there are still more adverse outcomes in some groups. The CDC needs to provide true demographic data to resolve the issue. Why be opposed to obtaining demographic data regarding coronavirus?

     

    Edit to add :

    In Chicago, new data released Saturday showed that 70 percent of people who have died from COVID-19 in the city were Black, according to a report by the radio station WBEZ. Black people make up 29 percent of the city’s total population.

    For those who can get to a hospital, more problems may await. One study of several states, highlighted by NPR, indicated that doctors may be less likely to refer Black individuals for testing when they come in with symptoms like fever, coughing, and trouble breathing. And in some low-income neighborhoods, it can take longer to get a test because testing centers have struggled to acquire equipment and protective gear.

     Not sure why there is a backlash to looking at demographics.


    Professor Reed feels that he already knows the answer

    Ziad Jilani, whoever he is, thinks that he knows the answer

    Trump knows that hydroxychloroquine works

    Like Fauci, I'll wait for the data
     

    Edit to add:

    It is known that blacks receive a lower level of care for hear failure

    Black and Hispanic patients admitted with HF are less likely to be treated in cardiac units than white patients and have a higher rate for readmission within 30 days of discharge, according to a study published in Circulation: Heart Failure.

    Researchers observed that black (adjusted rate ratio [aRR] = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.84-0.98) and Hispanic patients with HF (aRR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.97) had a lower rate for admission to the cardiology service compared with white patients.

    In addition, 26% of white patients were readmitted within 30 days after discharge compared with 29% of black patients and 29% of Hispanic patients (P = .0043).

    Moreover, admission to cardiac units was independently associated with readmission within 30 days (HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.72-0.97), whereas race was not (black vs. white, HR = 1.09; 95% CI, 0.92-1.29; Hispanic vs. white, HR = 1.14; 95% CI, 0.91-1.42).

    “These findings also highlight other structural inequities that exist, such as barriers to accessing outpatient cardiology care for our black and Latinx patients, leading to decreased admission to cardiology service and subsequent worse HF outcomes. We urge health care policy makers to recognize how our current health care systems promote the interests of dominant group members and recommend that care delivery be designed to prioritize the care of our most marginalized patients,” Michelle E. Morse, MD, MPH, hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Healio. “We believe there are a multitude of interrelated structural drivers that are pervasive across our health care system and consequently in our institution. Black and Latinx patients likely have barriers to accessing outpatient cardiology care as they were less likely to have an outpatient cardiologist at our institution, which was the strongest predictor of admission to the inpatient cardiology service.”

    In other findings, black patients discharged after admission to general medical services rather than a cardiac unit had higher risk for death within 30 days (3% vs. < 1%, P = .01), but there were no differences for white patients (4% vs. 4%, P = .82) or Hispanic patients (3% vs. 3%, P = .85). In addition, of white patients admitted during the study period, 38% were seen in follow-up visits to a cardiology clinic within 30 days vs. 34% of black patients and 45% of Hispanic patients (P = .04).

     

    https://www.healio.com/cardiology/practice-management/news/online/%7B08a44228-2d4c-42ae-82e0-2863dfcac596%7D/racial-disparities-in-emergent-hf-care-outcomes-identified

    Black women receive a lower level of maternal health care

    AMERICA IS FAILING ITS BLACK MOTHERS

    For decades, Harvard Chan alumni have shed light on high maternal mortality rates in African American women. Finally, policymakers are beginning to pay attention.


    https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/america-is-failing-its-black-mothers/

    Questioning coronavirus care is logical

    Edit to add:

    Economic class does not prevent poor outcomes

    Colen used decades of research focused on the experiences of middle-class black Americans. According to her data, more money isn't enough to rid black Americans of higher rates of chronic disease or shorter life expectancy. Black women with a graduate education are still at higher risk for pre-term birth and infant and maternal mortality than white women with high school educations. Black women with a Ph.D. and high take-home pay are also more likely than white women who have only a high school diploma to die from birth-related complications.

    https://psmag.com/social-justice/even-as-black-americans-get-richer-their-health-outcomes-remain-poor

     

     

     


    plopping here as a reminder to read it, haven't done so yet:



    I do not expect to wade through that essay to decide for myself if it is serious. Listen here starting from the beginning if you choose or at the five minute mark for two or three minutes listening and you will see [hear] enough to know what I mean. It is hilarious what Lindsay and his partner in crime accomplished in the academic world.   


    I guess. Sure, any community gets overserious and you can find ridiculous holes. "Academic" in a backwater means enthusiasts. Papers are judged by normal flawed people, and some suffer confirmation bias.

    A funny thing - a few decades ago we talked about whether people are homosexual or not. Now we often just think of who someone likes, and then we've split categories a bit more, not that various levels of crossdressers and trannies haven't been with us a while. How much is "real", how much is "trendy", who knows... But people/researchers try to understand behavior that was off limits not long ago. Some will be foolish, some will be tricked.


    Pharma study faulty -

    same issue -they know the answer they want, didn't follow procedure.

    Even doctors against hydroxychloroquine use for Covid-19 found the study majorly flawed.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/29/covid-19-surgisphere-hydro...






    Sir, you haven't gotten the memo.

    We are not black. We are Africans.

    At least according to most black Americans. https://t.co/O9YMXgkFbG

    — Dr Sam Oyèyínká (@DrFeruke) June 7, 2020

     



    Black students at Oxford are having trouble recommending the school to African students. Guess things have Gottem repressive compared to Kenyatta's day.


    When I started this thread, I had some skepticism about how bad it had gotten in academia, that it was exaggerated. I.E. Camille Paglia cancellation show here and there by the undergrads just for the drama and power of it and media attention. But since I started paying more detailed attention to what is considered top scholarship in art history now: no longer think it's an exaggeration. It's a disaster in humanities. I'm actually frightened now of the newest college graduates in humanities, and how they think.


    I'm sorry, if you keep talking this way, I'll have to cancel you. Nothing personal, you understand. Now go to your room, Karen, and try to find the words to repent so we can have a good show trial before we lay you out.


    Kenyatta was more than 40 years ago. A Kenyan student today would be more familiar with Kenya 2030.

    Given the current state of both the United Kingdom and the United States, they are less likely to be taken seriously when they talk about shithole countries.


    They have the most money, so unless these students want to go thru life with their heads up their ass,maybe theyll consider the access & opportunity that money in wealthy countries provides. Or you can admire all the failures and impossibilities of sub-Saharan Africa and worry about whether Kenyatta Is too old to contemplate. Always some pretentious bullshit to wade through. I'd say most people go to Oxford or Cambridge Is fór the education, but i guess u might way all that political correctness is worth its weight in good - if not one of these famed slušivé & shortlived African goldmines.


    You brought up Kenyatta

    In this blog, concern about academia in the United States has been expressed.

    Obviously, the US and the UK are not the only options 

    Russia and China would have prime opportunities to encourage students to attend universities in their countries 

    Racism in those countries is probably less well known.


    Why would racism be less known in Russia and China? Unaware of China's activities in Africa or treatment of Uyghurs + Russian abuse of Central Asians?

    And i doubt you know anything about British education - Kenyatta or more recent, but that never Kreps you from giving an opinion.


    Ah, I read it backwards.


    Yep


    Jut two Brits talking:

     


    Interesting anecdotal of that Brit thing:



    The complaint appears to be that readers are picking up books about race that reconsider how we look at the issue. Perhaps the reason that these books are being read is that there is no rational differing opinion coming from other authors.

    Take John McWhorter, in "All About the Beat", he argued the hip hop could not save the world. Many wondered who thought that it would. Thomas Chatterton Williams makes a similar argument about the dangers of hip hop. Yet, the protests have been lead by young people who listen to hip hop, and some cities are considering police reforms.

    The counter to these young people appears to be people sitting on the sidelines telling the protesters that they are doing things wrong. McWhorter and Loury, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd on video, use their podcast to shout that the statistics prove white men are killed by police. The duo are as tone deaf as a person who in the midst of crashes involving Boeing aircraft comes out yelling that air travel is safe and there is nothing to see here. They have no message.

    Come October, they will still be sitting on the sidelines yelling when an author who previously ignored racism publishes his book about how he became an angry black man.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/opinion/sunday/black-racism-.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Sunday%20Review

    If you use Andrew Sullivan to make your argument, you already lost.

     



    If either Sullivan's or Williams read the book, Kendi admits to his own racism

    So, according to Kendi, it’s time to start accepting our own racism so that we can begin working to erase it—just as he himself is doing. “I’m striving each day to be an anti-racist, to see the racial groups as equals, to support policies that lead to racial equity,” he says. Still, he says, he is not immune from saying, thinking, or doing racist things. “When I do those things and other people point them out, instead of me denying them, it’s critical for me to accept and admit them so that I can be different.”

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/racism-antiracism-podcast-ibram-x-kendi-book/


    Two complaints about racial identity tests:

     



    https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill/status/1266738730485891072

    Cant get the twitter feed to format

    Williams' brother had his teeth knocked out by police.

    Williams argues that his brother wasn't killed like George Floyd because his brother was protected by class.

    The reason Williams deflects to arguments about identity politics is to distract from the nonsense he actually believes.

    All we get from McWhorter, Loury, Williams, etc. is what everyone else is doing wrong.



    I figured we're all racist to varying degrees, And that getting that racism below some threshold Is important, as Is increasing outspokenness and effectiveness in fighting racism. But not everything to do with race is racism either.



    I wonder if McWhorter, Loury, Williams, et.al., believe that investigations in the cases of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd would have proceeded without community pressure? It seems that their arguments focus more on the protest than the homicides.



    Another member of the group that offers criticism, but no advise on how to solve the situation.



    Re: she’s urged students to “not participate in violence or looting.”

    Just ran across this related:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


    The United States passed Civil Rights laws in the Sixties in part because it was a laughing stock overseas. How could the U.S. criticize foreign governments when it had glaring problems of its own?

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-06-11/george-floyd-moves-world

    Trump is clearly incapable of creating a coalition to address our current Civil Rights crisis. As Chris Murphy notes the current protests could lead to a foreign policy victory by showing that the United States can find a solution.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-06-12/new-civil-rights-movement-foreign-policy-win

    The overwhelming majority of protests were peaceful 

    But the death of George Floyd, a black man whose neck was pinned to the ground under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparked the most widespread mass demonstrations in recent memory. Despite the threat of a global pandemic, crowds large and small – from rural towns, to suburbs, to big coastal cities – gathered to protest racial injustice and police brutality against African Americans.

    The vast majority – 80% – appeared to be peaceful, according to new research that contradicts the emphasis the White House has often put on the instances of looting and rioting.

    As of Tuesday, more than 970 protests had taken place in about 400 cities and towns across the country, according to research conducted by the marketing firm Ipsos and teams from the Universities of Chicago and Oxford. 

    Where they are:Tracking protests across the USA in the wake of George Floyd's death

    "The numbers and the breadth are actually pretty impressive," said Chris Jackson, senior vice president at Ipsos. "We're seeing these protests happening in all 50 states. ... It's not just the big cities; it's towns across the board. And the large majority of these protests have been peaceful protests."

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/10/george-floyd-black-lives-matter-police-protests-widespread-peaceful/5325737002/

    There will likely be protests because of the death of an unarmed man in Atlanta. The country will survive this. There will be loud critics lamenting what the protesters are doing wrong. The critics will have zero impact. The activists will force change. The change will likely be incremental, but a change is going to come.

     


    Are you running for office? Who are you to declare so righteosly and assuredly "The critics will have zero impact." Pretty sure the guys who control the US political system will have an impact as usual.


    Not running for office. Just seeing hope.

    I expect slow change, but I expect change.

    The critics that I focused on were ones frequently cited here, McWhorter (with his buddy Loury), Williams, and Yang.

    The Secret Service admits that they used tear gas.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/13/secret-service-says-it-used-pepper-spray-on-lafayette-square-protesters-316482

    Trump changed the date of his Tulsa rally.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/trump-tulsa-rally-juneteenth.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

    The protest for police reform in front of the D.C. Mayors office is peaceful dancing. 

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protesters-return-to-dcs-black-lives-matter-plaza-for-16th-day-of-demonstrations/2020/06/13/534d0936-ac37-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html

    There were two peaceful protests in Minneapolis

    https://www.startribune.com/emotions-run-high-at-minneapolis-protests/571240752/

    Protests here inspired protests overseas.


    Here ya go the reality you are trying to express, summarized by Prof. Andrea Benjamin.

    Protests are a reflection of a culture or sub-culture. They don't actually affect anything. They do tell you how people feel, like a poll.

    Example: Throwing a statue into the water and thinking that will accomplish something real is a little like voodoo? It's reflective of a very strong mindset, like putting out a curse on someone. It's a very primitive symbolic action. I believe it is much more productive to vote an actual living politician out of office, but who am I to dictate religious ceremonies by people who are passionate about a grievance?

    In this case and in most, the statues are being picked and worked on by restorers and then put in storage. The taxpayer gets the bill from the restorer. And the essential city workers clean up the mess left behind...


    Symbolism can be magic. Whats the voodoo of the Boston Tea Party? Did it rouse the citizenry, focus the resistence, cut into actual tax revenues, lead to more withheld taxes, prompt King George overreach? Or more reprisals, British & Hessian troops boarded in colonist homes, less representation, good shortages or Kiss of export markets, allout War? It certainly has livedbon in imagination some 250 years.


     

    “This for the next white person who finds himself excoriated for doing some racially offensive thing. It is to beg that unlucky individual to not compound the transgression by retreating to the cliche of cliches: ‘I am not a racist.’”
    My latest column: https://t.co/QLut4K4y1a

    — Leonard Pitts, Jr. (@LeonardPittsJr1) June 12, 2020

    Pitts' suggested apology sounds like he is familiar with CRT. 


    Ever since a Vietnamese Buddhist set himself on fire, I'm wary of the self-immolation thing. Or even being immolated (even tho it's the height of flattery)


    Beyond the advice, I think he is making an excellent point that I hadn't thought of before, that what we call "cliches" are a big part of the whole problem! When you respond to politically correct policing with nuance instead of cliche, it breaks their whole system of thought. It's why it's so easy to make fun of something like Chairman Mao's Little Red Book or even stuff like "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten."


    I see James Lindsay is arguing right now with someone who insists he needs to be "anti racist" rather than just "not racist." But then he's got a main agenda of not wanting to join any activist teams spinning an ideologically-tuned world view, so he's not willing to just confound and bow out:

    Well, you're wrong, I'm *not racist*, and you can stick your antiracism wherever soothes your guilt the most effectively. Best if you leave other people out of it, though, because it's not their responsibility to change so you can feel marginally better about your own issues. https://t.co/wnv2pfzbmd

    — James Lindsay, anti-revolutionary (@ConceptualJames) June 14, 2020

     


    WaPo's Jonathan Capehart

    Now that we are engaged in yet another conversation on race, might I recommend Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” But if you are white, I implore you to read it.

    When you are black in America, your knowledge of white people in America and of the intricacies, contradictions and double standards of racism and white supremacy can only be described as intimate. As a result, as movie director Kasi Lemmons wrote in The Post on Monday, African Americans know whites “very well. We’ve had to. We had no choice. ... We had to know you to survive you.”

    I have been wild about DiAngelo’s book since I read it last year because the associate professor of education at the University of Washington at Seattle is a white woman writing unflinchingly to white people about race. DiAngelo forces white people to see and understand how white supremacy permeates their lives and to recognize how they perpetuate it. More importantly, she shows them what they can do to change themselves and dismantle this pernicious system.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/dear-white-people-please-read-white-fragility/


    This isn't on topic. An example of what would be on topic: someone criticizing Jonathan Capehart's op-ed suggesting people with white skin need to read "White Fragility".


    I was actually planning on doing that since I thought the article was bullshit. But I'm putting up a fence in the 100 degree Arizona sun and didn't have energy to get into it again with rmrd today



    The last section of Schneider's article about Bari Weiss, Bret Stephens, Kevin Drum, Andrew Sullivan's, and Matthew Yglesias.

    Overall, this discussion isn’t about Fang. It’s more about how influential white pundits and reporters with large followings don’t care to listen to their Black colleagues and (somehow still) don’t understand how racism is perpetuated.

    In his essay, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell said that “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” That’s especially true when it comes to writing about race.

    If anything, I’d rather journalists be more up front about their refusal to interrogate their own biases. If you want to offer a critique of young Black reporters at the Times or elsewhere without considering that you might be contributing to the problem, own up to it.

    Just be upfront: Say you don’t value what your Black colleagues think.

    https://medium.com/@gabemschneider/how-to-erase-black-journalists-824a3f97cd12


    Here's some woke-bait, is trollish but true. Challenges them to think about what their real narrative is:

     


    An unarmed man was shot in the back by Atlanta PD

    They want police reform 

    Police officers have been fired

    There is a move, even in Congress to remove the names and statues of traitors from government institutions 

    NASCAR and the NFL have changed.

    I think that they have a narrative.


    You don't even get what this thread is about. Puhleez just take your attempts to find someone to argue with by turning it to your preferred topic elsewhere.

    Take it over to the NASCAR thread if you want to talk about pop culture change. Most of which happened without many of those people reading "White Fragility." (I'd venture If many of them did, they might get pissed and change their minds back.) If you want to talk about the desire to reform police forces, take it to one of those many news threads, most of which I posted. Etc.


    Problems in academics seem to be a core issue. Some academics have lost contact with their students. Instead of teachers reassessing their own biases, they see the students as the problem. Any opposing view is taken as an attack. Opponents are dismissed as the "woke". 

    "White Fragility" is a fraud. Kendi and Coates are flawed, etc. etc. "Woke" means that Whiteness is under attack. I will bet that NASCAR and NFL officials have read Kendi, DiAngelo, or Coates. They read and made changes in their organizations

    The "woke" are doing protests. The argument is that " woke" protests and toppling statues do nothing. But, legislators and mayors are working on change. The complaining academics have nothing of value to offer, so they stand on the sidelines and complain.

    If the complaining academics version of Liberalism was of any use, "Woke" culture would not have been able to gain a toehold.

    It is an argument, but I am arguing that the complaining academics have passed their sell by date.

    The complaining academics are holding a pity olympics party

     


     


    What does "hotep" mean?

    — Wesley Yang (@wesyang) June 15, 2020

    I'll provide the twitter definition...It is a derogatory term used by college-educated Black people to dismiss poor and working-class Black people criticisms of intersectionality or wokeness. It is usually etched in not so subtle classism.

    — RationalReformedBlipster (@oa683456) June 15, 2020

    Edit to add another of the more interesting answers:

    Black man who subscribes to afrocentric history as the basis for an essentially right wing pro-black ethos. Against race-mixing, anti-feminist.

    — J. Reuben Clark (@JReubenCIark) June 15, 2020

     


    So a person who dismisses people as "woke" asks about people dismissed as "hotep" by others.

    Corrected to "hotep".

     





    New to me, a professor (therefore very brave to take the stance in these times) very good at expressing his thoughts:


    "Platform"? Insanity. BLM has had 5+ years to stop being a joke.

    Meanwhile I seem to agree with Gladwell's presumed conclusion that ending the "Kansas City method" of policing in all but the worst crime *blocks* would address a huge portion of the injustice and anger that spawned these protests - Black people always under a police microscope, seconds from a baton/heel. Besides that, I miss the 90's when it seemed there was some consensus to start adressing Black community problems non-antagonistically, multiracially. I thought we were going there in May, but now the jokesters are taking over the consensus. "I came for Peace, Love, & Understanding, and all i got was some removal of flags & statues." Would rather have a t-shirt, frankly.


    all i got was some removal of flags & statues." Would rather have a t-shirt, frankly.

    Big corporations got a lot more than that and you can shortly I am sure have one of these NBA T-shirts for your very own

    https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill/status/1277249513275691008

    It's so ironic that the conquistadores from 500+ yrs. ago are evil colonizers but international corporations of today are A.O.K. because they are going to be selling wokeness.

    If you told all the woke kids to sit down and watch Paddy Chayesky's "Network", which addresses basically the same topic they would say "ok, boomer" and ignore you as clueless.

    It is what it is. I don't see any way to change it except let them grow up. I'll be dead by then so I need to understand what's going to be the near future. It's what's going to be sold. Because they are naive. The way of the world, it's their world, more's the pity.


    We need more flair.


    Here's Proctor & Gamble's new little project--I note Buzz Feed happy to take their money (I would be too if I ran a media company, get it wherever you can). Only reason I saw the tweet because it was "Promoted by Proctor and Gamble"


    Hyperbolic on point:




    Ayee! Take a circle and caress it, it turns Vicious.





    Weird article

    we generally have an empathy gap that means we acknowledge women’s suffering more than men’s. There is also an argument to be made that much of society is held up by a romantic gynocentrism that puts women (white women in particular perhaps) up on a pedestal.

    We acknowledge women's suffering more than men's? Post-partum depression, rape, domestic abuse, job discrimination, all the responsibiluties of home & childcare, and a woman's duty to get rid of an unwanted embryo  2 people conceived while strangers harass and shame her? Strange pedestal - i thought we were just trying to get a glimpse up her skirt.

    Part of the reason Amy Cooper went viral as a Karen so easily is we largely view women as ridiculous - those hysteric high pitched voices, clumsily trying to control her dog, most just driving around soccer kids with nothing real to do...



    He forgot to mention that the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland is Alba which is based on the Indo-European root for "white"? This is insane.

     

     

    "The trouble with Scotland, is that it's full of Scots" pic.twitter.com/bSL8plk4zy

    — Ezekiel (@Ezekiel_GG) June 28, 2020

     

     


    Thomas Chatterton Williams is humbly thrilled someone took him up on his two suggestions on books about race in America, others following suit in replies:


    on the whypipple tribe unified by their collective guilt:

    As a Jewish person I'm concerned that wildly popular people like Robin DiAngelo are ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING whites to view themselves as a unified collective without a moment's thought as to how reviving this scientifically asinine and historically disastrous idea could backfire.

    — Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) June 26, 2020

    I like this too:

     



    Diversity training is a big business:


    The Victim Olympics continue:


    Almost as if dragged down the aisle and thrown off the plane. Imaginations run wild. If it were Stevie Wonder Ir Ray Charles with a dog, wonder what he'd do. #BlindLivesMatterToo


    Somebody on Trump's staff is wise about the culture war potential:

    Trump offers some remarkably overheated rhetoric: "There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance ... this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution" pic.twitter.com/pZC66T6Mzq

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 4, 2020

    as Radio Free Tom notes, the speeches are always a mish-mosh so one can't really figure out who it is:

    This speech is what happens when there is no chief speechwriter to smooth over the stitches in between contributions from the team.

    — Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2020

    Edit to add that there was this warning ahead of time:

     



    Dumb Ppl get cancelled too but i was rather impressed with this Guardian piece showing people denouncing JK Rowling for her hateful anti-trans screed, without mentioning her actual point, which Is largely she's not trading off her experience and identity as a woman to people with dicks - as much as she supports what else they might do or think. Funny, seems ppl confuse fantasy with reality - how did that happen?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/03/harry-potter-fan-sites-distance-themselves-from-jk-rowling-over-transgender-rights

    But rape abduction's still a hit.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/04/netflix-stands-by-hit-film...


    I tried, unsuccessfully, obviously, to find this thread to post the James Lindsay on Joe Rogan's show video so I am commenting to more or less bookmark it for future use.  :)  In the meantime, is this on topic?

     

    Why isn’t this in Braille? https://t.co/LrNavkpEEZ

    — Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 3, 2020

     


    absolutely! I forgot about Ricky, thank you, he's definitely someone to pay attention to in this context.



    good thread on real world consequences of wokeness in education policy:

    https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1279329860003995648

     



    As the world burns, don’t forget about feminism

    As feminists, we must hold on to our victimhood at all costs. It is the source of our strength

    by Titiana McGrath, Woke World column @ TheCritic.co.uk, July/August issue

    With all this talk of coronavirus and Black Lives Matter, I’ve been a little concerned that the patriarchy is getting a free pass. Sometimes it feels as though my postgraduate degree in polyamorous gender constructions and the corrosive nature of cis-masculine futurity was a complete waste of time.

    And now some “scientists” have decided that Covid-19 kills more men than women. It’s so typical of males to twist the death statistics to make this all about them. As feminists, we must hold on to our victimhood at all costs. It is the source of our strength.

    We can’t even use the #MeToo or #BelieveWomen hashtags any more because we want Joe Biden to win. So what can we do to bring feminism back onto the agenda?

    I have a few ideas. Here in the UK, there are currently five protected characteristics that fall under hate crime legislation. These are race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability. I propose that we add the following: veganism, ecosexuality, wheat intolerance and intersectional feminism [....]

    Edit to add: is a parody/pseudonym:

     


    Lactose spawned the intolerance revolution - obviously a White conspiracy. They keep pouring it on.


     

    Kinda the gist of her book? pic.twitter.com/zwJNsL9Njg

    — P E T E O P P E L (@PeteO76) July 4, 2020

     


    If you read the comments there's a shared cross-cultural experience of nails driven through one's feet sans anaesthesia, a rather Jesus-like takeaway in times of extreme anguish. Perhaps this awful book and the searing torment of nails is the catechism on which we can found our new inclusive church. "They gazed upon me as a ravenous and roaring Lion..."



    This is so unfair. While the buildings are hard, erect, and uncommonly large there is no evidence any have ejaculated no matter how often touched by women, or men. And while women may be affected that's not necessarily negative. There still is a debate whether size matters.


    White male privilege still secretly rules with whole cities looking like sexist pigs, we need to knock them all down, build curvy Zaha-Hadid-kinda ones? Extra bonus points for her Iraqi heritage. Maybe she's a lesbian, that would help.


    I felt very emasculated looking at your link. If you intend to subject us to that again please preface it with a trigger warning.


    good, hopefully next you'll be confused about your actual gender


    "Scissoring in Architecture: a non-cisploitive cuktural analysis"

    It came to me when observing *downwards* thrusting buildings that our cityscape didnt have to be left to the erectile dysfunctional patriarch nor the crusty dustbowls & catacombs of the Karens, that trans PoC and cross-identity pioneers could and would finally transmogrify Urban "O zones" in a non-sexploitive post-fascial identity phase recognizing that not only labialized femme structures matter, but also what I call the "cryscraper" that unifies polyfunctional post-evolutionary superiority of the multi-personifying structures in search of needed Safe Spaces and non-exclusionary access past historically divisive city ordinances, strictures, and off-limits retro-sexual boundary making, that citywide domes and bowls with transitional erectile facilities were superior to static, non-evolving and unaccepting  city visions.


    Excellent! I can't think of anything to add, it's all ready to submit to Artforum. It already follows their style rules to a T!


    Isnt a T exploitive patriarchal like Arabic numbers?




    From my experience there is so much cross fertilization of different musical styles from such diverse ethnic sources that no modern music tradition of at least the last hundred years can not be accused of cultural appropriation. Perhaps it's similar with the visual arts too. Arta would have to address that as my knowledge in that area is limited.


    If one did not have "cultural appropriation" in fine art, the field of "art history" would not exist. Anyone who thinks different is confusing art appreciation or art criticism with art history.


    The most hilarious story on this topic was when a teen girl of the west was accused of cultural appropriation of a fashion design from the east that was created in part by the east appropriating the fashion designs of the west.


    yeah the one on cheongsam dress was a classic for all times laugh I believe it's on my the beginning of my first "cultural appropriation" thread, though I might have started with something about non-Mexicans drawing on supposed "Chicana" eyebrows, which were like the kind that every white actress in the 20's and 30's had....


    Black Brit writer:




    There's already blowback starting against those who signed the above letter in Harper's. Oh the drama, oh the humanity...


    "Bailiff, whack his peepee."





    Victim of wokee tide, apologizing for wanting to show acting ability (haven't checked if an counterreactionaries helping yet):

     


    So pretty related to above as I see it, if this Batwoman is a bisexual character? So it is appropriate and good that a black bisexual woman plays her?

    Javicia Leslie is the new #Batwoman: “I am extremely proud to be the first Black actress to play the iconic role of Batwoman on television, and as a bisexual woman, I am honored to join this groundbreaking show" https://t.co/3MglgRybNr pic.twitter.com/B3f8jeiaJX

    — Variety (@Variety) July 8, 2020

    No matter the color of skin, cis people are just so like privileged. Time to stop working and fade into the shadows on guaranteed minimum income?

    (Comes to mind--how do you know for sure if someone is bisexual? Is there a test? Transgender, no prob, can show medical certificates--oops maybe not that might be venturing into Rowling territory?)

     


    Sorry, did you miss the jixt of what Rowling was complaining about, that "women" who happen to have dicks with no intentions of losing those dicks or taking hormones or anything could still be legally "women"? And not be referred to as anything but, not even my scarequotes, or said comments would be "hate speech" with legal/financial liabilities)

     

    https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-rowling-right-that-hor...


    Yes. I was saying that an employer checking actual anatomy as proof of what you claim you are, that would be venturing into Rowling argument territory.

    And the irony is that one can't actually do that with someone who claims they are bi or gay.  That's about sexuality, not gender, there's no physical proof to argue about. Easier to just lie if that were your wont! Whereas with gender like with the role Halle Berry was looking at...


    Will, no - they couldnt check anatomy because by the proposed (or existing) woke standard, anatomy is irrelevant to sex, whatever the employer might find, as would be DNA, hormone levels, anything. It's purely a concept, and even a polygraph as bullshit detector wont count - self-declaraton is all that matters. It's pristine! It's magic! JK should appreciate that much.


    The whole essay, every point but one was true. The only point I've never been able to verify is that increasing numbers of women want to detransition often after taking irrevocable steps to alter their bodies after deciding they are not trans but lesbians. I've never been able to find any reliable data on the % of trans men or trans women who have changed their minds and want to detransition


    So like, if you are a casting director who really wants to be woke. you make sure your casting call describes where on the spectrum of transition your character is. Cause someone who has transitioned like 90%  both physically and mentally is a way different from someone who is only 50% and not sure. And both of these identity categories need to be represented in acting jobs according to their percentage of the population at large! cheekycheeky


    As Freud said, every women just wants a penis. That the majority of trans women don't want to fully transition and lose their penis is proof they really are women.


    Well I can throw back: drag queens love breasts and they keep their penises. But each is an individual on a spectrum of envying and adoring female stereotypes to parodying them with a sort of disdain. Where do cis drag performers fit in here, transvesites, some get off on women's clothes, others look down on women. And those cis women in the past given to male clothing.

    I liked Andrew Sullivan's explanation of drag queens for the conservative alarmists about drag queen story hour for the kiddies at the library: will it help you to understand if I say they are like clowns?

    BUT BUT BUT a draq queen is a dishonest actor just like these others! Not woke! Filling the role of someone they aer not! Actual cis women need Ru Paul's job, not fair! devil


    There Is something of a debate/non-debate about lesbians not wanting other "lesbians" with a penis.


    Well yeah, and then they're transphobic because they don't want a woman with a penis. I'm a hetero man and I don't want a penis either. No matter what the brain tells the person their gender is. 


    Supreme Court loss for extreme L.G.B.T.Q wokees today:

    Job Bias Laws Do Not Protect Teachers in Catholic Schools, Supreme Court Rules

    The case was the court’s latest consideration of the relationship between the government and religion.

    by Adam Liptak @ NYTimes.com, July 8

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that federal employment discrimination laws do not apply to teachers at church-run schools whose duties include religious instruction.

    The 7-to-2 ruling could affect more that 100,000 teachers at Catholic elementary and secondary schools and many other employees of religious groups.

    Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom forbids judges from interfering in the internal workings of religious institutions.

    “When a school with a religious mission entrusts a teacher with the responsibility of educating and forming students in the faith,” he wrote, “judicial intervention into disputes between the school and the teacher threatens the school’s independence in a way that the First Amendment does not allow.”

    The court’s other more conservative members joined Justice Alito’s opinion, as did Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan.

    In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the majority’s “simplistic approach has no basis in law.”

    The decision was a setback for L.G.B.T.Q. workers, who just weeks ago gained protections under a federal employment-discrimination law.

    “While the Supreme Court has made it clear that it is against the law to fire someone for being L.G.B.T.Q.,” James Esseks, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement, “today they made it easier for religiously affiliated employers to discriminate — including against L.G.B.T.Q. people.”

    Dr. Grazie Christie, a policy adviser for The Catholic Association, welcomed the ruling.

    “Today’s Supreme Court decision confirms that government has no business second-guessing the selection of religion teachers at religious schools,” she said in a statement. “It is a clear win for the First Amendment and religious liberty when the highest court affirms the right of religious institutions to be free of government interference and meddling.” [....]


    I agree with the decision but we shouldn't be paying them to do it. 



    More on the acting gig thing:



    "intellectually impoverished" doesn't actually mean poor people are stupid but it can easily be misunderstood that way by the intellectually impoverished. Not a phrase we really should be using. Check your privilege!





    The Woke Temple didn't make this one up, it's a real professional organization formed to "decolonize death studies"

    Follow

    RadicalDeathStudies

    @RadDeathStudies

    The Collective for Radical Death Studies is an organization formed to decolonize death studies and radicalize death practice. #RadDeathStudies  https://radicaldeathstudies.com/





    Really appreciated the cynical twist at the end of Douthat's column. 

    are white elites so drawn to antiracism and "the great awokening" because they too quietly want to tear down — or at least chill out somewhat — a system that has left them high-strung, precarious, miserable? cf @DouthatNYT https://t.co/3UmTcRX4cZ ht @arpitrage

    — Steve Randy Waldman (@interfluidity) July 18, 2020

     


    I saw somebody elite Gen X, maybe Yglesias, comment on that and say it's just doesn't sound exactly right, but I wanted to say: hmmmmm, over the last couple months, so many fellow boomers, so many, seem to be enjoying the whole lockdown thing more than they should, where they just don't have to compete in a rat race anymore and can just be themselves...even tho many of them don't know where the fucking money is going to come from, they sure like this no competition thing, could really get used to it....


    Emma might interest you, I just ran across this thread by a writer, Oliver Traldi, I don't know him but 9 people I follow follow him, they are talking about the Douhat column and how he basically wrote the same thing two weeks ago, haven't totally checked it out yet

     


    A bit too self-satisfied answer. Sure, colleges at grad school or professor level can be guild like. The world outside has gone to more trade qualifications than degree-based security. But also to spread change within a corporation - anti-sexism/inclusion for example - you need both someone whose job it Is plus buy-in from the top.

    I'm pretty sure in the Bush or Reagan years you could get similar charts of official woke positions. Though gay marriage was largely the furthest frontier. Global warning didnt have serious effects yet. Plus war & overpopulation & poverty/starvation were still the overwhelming worries. 20 years of "war" in the Mideast hid that there wasn't that much war there, and even less elsewhere. Hypersensitivity to "security" Is one inherited feature of this much less dangerous landscape - on left and right. While we didnt actually "cure" our social ills - many just subsided with increased trade And relative prosperity and freedom of movement (sans the more totalitarian states), we've been left with the confused notion that we solve the big problems rather than put in infrastructure to hold back the worst.


     


    thanks for continuing to contribute to the thread when you see something of interest!




    essay in Forward "A new intelligentsia is pushing back against wokeness" by Batya Ungar-Sargon  (new to me, her Twitter feed is here


    While over there, checkout "Black Lives Matter has exposed a generational divide for Soviet Jews" by Alex Zeldin. Just fascinating anthropology of America....


    Socialism in a primitive agro-/mining/factory economy with say $1-$2/day income Is very different than socialism in a pist-industrial semi-automated, 3rd internet generation country.

    From "Factfulness", Cairo today Is Sweden 1950. 70 years difference. Malaysia Is Sweden 1975. Zambia is Sweden 1921.  Said different, a 99-year old Swede was born in Zambia conditions and now lives in perhaps the most envious of countries. And in 25 years?

    A Swede who stayed in India in the early 1970's returns 25 years later, and the people will not believe his photographs are from their neighborhood, surely had to be somewhere else, being so backwards. 

    Up to WWI, avg lifespan was only 35. At the start of WWII still less than 40. Now it's 72-73, even with population 3 1/2 times.

    Much of the experiment we call Communism was carried out in two (barely) emerging feudalistic societies, quite primitive from today's standards, especially for the 70-80% outside of the cities. Survival in capitalist countries of the time was *also* largely a 12 hour a day grind, with sweatshops and horrid factory conditions. The lesson of America Is hardly just hard work - it's about efficiency in extracting value, productivity, innovation and automation over people power. Even slavery would have been done in a second if we'd invented a cotton gin-like improvement for field harvesting/picking. The Soviet Jewish immigrants have moved partly from Lesotho (Sweden 1898) to Sweden 1997, but in only 20-30 years, while their kids/grandkids are already anticipating year 2025.

    So what are these "handouts"? Everything Is luxury to an old Soviet. Depression-era soup lines are forgotten, while post-war GI Bill was "earned", while the Great Society programs ended in sound and Vietnam. We've got quirky moral lessons from all this. What can our economy bear for the average Citizen in 2025?


    Mostly I agree with your post but I would like to point out a common misconception. Most of the change in life expectancy is due to vaccines and other things that decreased infant mortality. The life expectancy for a person who survived childhood hasn't changed much for a few thousand years. Did a quick search and came up with this.

    https://www.livescience.com/10569-human-lifespans-constant-2-000-years.html


    Nice, thanks.


    Whatever the implication of it, I think what many people don't get is that groups like this are a strong part of NYC. Many basically still live in a ghetto and talk only to their kind. (A lot of these are Brighton Beach Brooklyn.) This is why we have Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg. Another group I find that has the  "handouts" mindset is Indian immigrants, they run a lot of bodegas (that used to be a Korean immigrant business back in the Rodney King days). They'll be quite friendly to anyone of any color skin buying lotto tickets but don't dare beg for food because you're hungry or god forbid try to shoplift something.


    Oh, I agree, and there's psychological value in making your own way, etc. I intend fór a Middle way, that you dont have to work 80 Hours a week to be someone, that you can feel valuable doing "lesser" non-white shoe jobs (or White collar/Office, depending on perspectives), that eking out that living isnt as critical, but productive activity of some sort likely Is.



    Is "micro-aggression" party a self-own?


    edited to fix second tweet, it didn't paste correctly

    Oregon public broadcasting has concluded Oregon's parks are racist because African Americans are two percent of the states population and one percent of park visitors https://t.co/CPzJWJ3GG5

    — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) July 20, 2020

    I mean is the idea people should arbitrarily develop their hobbies to fulfill racial quotas?

    — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) July 20, 2020

    Smokey the bear except he shows up at your house and forces you to go hiking until Parks and Rec hits its quota

    — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) July 20, 2020

     


    "Bears of Color", please - let's not resort to minstrelly bear stereotypes.


    But the b is not capitalized in the usage for bears.

    Speaking of minstrelly, I'm still waiting for all the promised cancellations for minstrel costume sins, odd that. I think "fear of cancellation" is more the program! You have to apologize, apologize, apologize and attest to your reformation.


    She said she was ignored by white people in these spaces. If she did interact with white people along the trails, she felt a sense of hypervisibility.

    I guess there's probably some racism but that's probably how the white people I pass on the trail think about me. I don't go hiking to chat with strangers on the trail and if some one decides to chat with me I'm not unfriendly but I'm definitely not friendly. I rarely see a black person hiking but when I do I ignore them as much as possible. Just like I ignore the white people. 


    Sounds like you're ignoreant more than intolerant.


    If a black traveler feels uncomfortable traveling alone, they can find groups that arrange travel with other black people.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/black-travelers-are-changing-the-narrative-its-time-for-brands-to-listen?ref=home

    Travel groups are available on social media to provide useful tips. Once you get your sea legs, you can continue to join the group for activities, our just venture out on your own.



    So, nothing happened that changed anything?


    Seriously?

    What indigenous tribe used the word chief to describe their main leader prior to learning to speak English?

    BTW, why isn't ESL deemed cultural appropriation by wokees?  Wrong thread for that question?

     


    Quid est punctus? 

    Thanks for the link to the zucchini recipe.

     



    A world of difference 

    Well, that’s certainly the polarization that has gone on in the United States. Traditionally, liberals and progressives are more tolerant of other opinions than conservatives are. They are more in favor of the freedom of the press. They’re more in favor of pluralistic societies. So, by definition, they are more open to other viewpoints. That’s always been the case. But even liberals have become less open over the last four years. Now, they’re now spending more time attacking other liberals for not being quite as perfect of liberals as they are. When the left – at least in a place like the United States – turns ugly, what they do is they write terrible, mean essays about other people on the left. When the right turns ugly, they kill black people, or gay people, or Jews, or immigrants. But when liberals become really scared, what they’re mostly good at is deciding that other liberals are not as good of liberals as they are!

     


    see whole thread:


    Dont know if intentional but i like the idea of referring to people like radio station call letters. Takes me back to my yoof. Coming to you live on the KMOC, I heard it on the X.

    And this -2PAC's cuz?



    By Samuel Kronen (chosen biography:  a chronically ill individual who reads and writes about culture and politics to get a better handle on reality.)



    Hey, stay off the Greeks' lawn. I've been extremely polite so far, but even I have my limits (as proven in Archimedes' 4th postulate). Reprinted here for (n-)completeness

    L5 – Limits
    MHF4U
    Jensen
    The Greek mathematician Archimedes developed a proof of the formula for the 
    area of a circle, A = pi.r^2. His method, known as the “method of exhaustion,” 
    involved calculating the area of regular polygons inscribed in the circle. The area of  the polygon provides an estimate of the area of the circle. As Archimedes increased the number of sides of the polygon, its shape come closer and closer to 
    the shape of a circle. An octagon provides a much better estimate of the area of a  circle than a square does. What about a myriagon, a polygon with 10 000 sides? 
    What happens to the estimate as the number of sides approaches infinity?
    Archimedes’ method of finding the area of a circle is based on the concept of a  LIMIT. The circle is the limiting shape of the polygon. As the number of sides gets  larger, the area of the polygon approaches its limit, the shape of a circle, without 
    ever becoming an actual circle. You used a similar strategy to estimate the  instantaneous rate of change of a function. Your estimate became increasingly accurate as the interval between two points was made smaller. Using limits, the  interval can be made infinitely small, approaching zero. As this happens, the slope of the secant approaches its limiting value, the slope of the tangent. 



    In Canada:



    This anecdotal confirms something I started to notice from my own anecdotals soon after I started paying attention to the blogosphere in 2003. That the young bloggers with the more elite educations had been indoctrinated with anti-Americanism via using textbooks like Zinn's. It's not that the war with Iraq turned them that way, they were already there. (And it should be noted that the neo-con foreign policy intellectuals who influenced Bush's policy in reaction to 9/11, they were specifically reacting against that type of though already dominant in elite circles)


    Nicholas Lemann, not really a counter-reactionary, but asking a question that should interest both them and wokees:


    Moms have changed from how I knew them, apparently.


    Are our MILFs now MXILFs? So hard to keep up and stay properly pervy.


    here's more detail for ya:


    Yeah it was so much more noble before it was co-opted by the whites. I thought the steal a tv for George Floyd movement sent a much more powerful message. They really should have stuck with smashing store windows and looting.


    too bad this got published in the NYPost, as few who could benefit from reading it will see it there. I think Sikhs might be allowed contention as in the running for prize for most misunderstood and smallest minority, sometimes persecuted for things that don't even have anything to do with them:

    https://t.co/9tU8JkKRas

    — Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) July 27, 2020

     



    on the new New York Times:

     




    Bookmark that one (and the other checklists) - that's a keeper. BTW, whats a "purity ball", not that i really want to know?


    Originally it's the conservative Christian thing where the father has a debut type party for his teen daughter where she makes a promise to be a virgin until marriage. I don't know though if they are using it the same way here, though. More just about the madonna/whore thing, you will only marry virgins and fuck the others?


    Noticed Chatterton Williams and Kendi are interacting directly with one another on Twitter:


    more Williams vs. Kendi:


    meanwhile I see that on black girl twitter they do not always follow the rules. Trending right now everyone is either happy for or jealous of Lisa Bonet's serial partnership progression and how it is working out:

     


    Didnt we kinda settle this stuff back when George Harrison stole Eric Clapton's wife and they remained good mates? Good thing too, or we'd never make it through all the ex-partners in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard brouhaha.


    Clapton "stole" Harrison's wife. With this song.

     

     


    this white old lady actually thinks Lenny looks waaaaaay hotter there. And Jason is like from an old Hans-and-Frans-Pump-You-Up skit on SNL But what do I know, I'm a boomer, and as we've learned, white privilege and all... cheeky


    Very good, especially the "In Sum" part:


    Largely applies to modern conservatives, religious leaders, whoever else - the tools of liberal dialogue and debate are too dangerous for losing in what are goal-oriented movements, not exercises in knowledge and seeking for truth. Winning or the appearance of winning is crucial. (para... Can't find that word)


    Very good description of thread it is on:




    Yglesias, not a bonafide counter-reactionary fighter but far from a wokee:


    Maybe not a wokee but he has been at the progressive vanguard criticizing White Americans for well over a decade. He used to get particularly annoyed when some people, usually Appalachians, identified themselves in Democratic polls as unhyphenated Americans.

    Immediately after Obama's re-election, both he and Alyssa Rosenberg began writing a series of anti-white posts for ThinkProgress. It was confusing at first because, well, they are both white. Yes, I double-checked ;). Then I realized who they really meant. Once again, unhyphenated Americans who tend to be both socially and fiscally conservative. (I think there is more to it for Yglesias but that's a discussion for another time.) 

    I still wondered why ThinkProgress would want to promote racial animosity when we had almost reached best chance to stop race being used as a politically divisive issue. I guess keeping race alive as a politically divisive issue benefits Democrats as much as it does Republicans. 

    ThinkProgress' website is gone now so I cannot link to any posts. Its sponsor, Center for American Progress, has disappeared as well. Not sure what happened as I stopped following both soon after they began their anti-white promotion.

     


    fun to know about, Emma. Though I had heard of him as a very young left blogger with a good rep, I only started to read him when Josh Marshall gave him a very short-lived column at TPM around 2005/6 it must have been. Found out he was witty and smart, probably already turning neo-liberal. Could never get very interested in Think Progess, always seemed like onerous college term papers. Think what really changed him was chosing to do analyis on business and micro economics for the last place he worked (for a long time, forget where it was) before Vox. I remember people being surprised by that choice, thought he would stay on the politics beat.


    last year:



    How do you study history without encountering anything offensive - ? https://t.co/WTZKOPyUif

    — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 7, 2020

     



    The kids called - just realized if they cancel classes *and* homework, like whoa!


    hah. Ironically, this professional comic is taking it seriously:

    Do you see it yet? https://t.co/Pz7X91G5H2

    — Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) August 7, 2020

    At this point Antifa could set fire to the White House while screaming "from each according to his ability" and half of Twitter would still be like "They don't really mean it, they just care about social justice, racism is bad".

    Wake up. The revolution is being televised.

    — Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) August 8, 2020

     


    Fuck da kidz - i'm looking out for Senior Vogue so when I get there... Eat or be eaten.

    Bonus while looking up Kandist Mallett, the weird flaming Black marxism-curez-it-all chick:

    https://www.unz.com/isteve/congratulations-to-dr-angela-davis-on-the-50t...



    Arts & Letters Daily recommended this one: The Roots Of Wokeness: It's time we looked more closely at the philosophy behind the movement. by Andrew Sullivan, Jul 31 @ his substack site. It starts like this

    In the mid-2010s, a curious new vocabulary began to unspool itself in our media. A data site, storywrangling.org, which measures the frequency of words in news stories, revealed some remarkable shifts. Terms that had previously been almost entirely obscure suddenly became ubiquitous...


    found another one:

    A New Radical Centrism

    @a_centrism

    Data often tell us a story that a lot of us don't want to hear. I'm against PC culture, blank slate, and dogma. I'm for free speech and cognitive decoupling

    https://twitter.com/a_centrism



    What Would It Look Like to Decolonize Cartography? A Volunteer Group Has Ideas

    Founded by Jordan Engel in 2014, Decolonial Atlas is working to undo settler colonialism, one map at a time.

    @ Hyperallergic.com, Aug. 11


    Shoot me. Don't miss.


    I end up looking at a lot more of this stuff than you do cause I am looking at arts news all the time.  If it doesn't go out as fast and furious as it took over all of the humanities and starting to infiltrate the sciences, I go first! Don't know how much more I can take, they're like the Borg, Virtually no one seems to be doing anything else in scholarship, no one, or they don't get a job. It's THE selling point on any resume, whether you've done anything de-colonialist or anti-racist. If not, goodbye. That's the whyfore of "the letter" actually. I just try to keep my analytic hat on, and maybe I can figure some way to make it good for me. But like it? No. That's why I want to keep a thread of the brave few who challenge this shit.


    p.s. I see a few tenured here and there who continue with research with other memes than those two, but since the deal now is also catering to what students want to learn, they are fewer and farther between. 

    ( I mourn the good old days of taxpayer funding of low in-state tuition, when you could see a professor expert on Nazi culture tell an SDS radical to shut up and sit down young man, after letting him say his simplistic agitprop piece...)


    Human Sacrifice is awful unless It's part of your Native culture. Whites came way too late to the game to count it as a natural obsession. Except the Celts - we're not giving the Irish, Scots, Galicians or Central Europeans a pass on that or all hell'd break loose.


    yeah the history narratives where European colonialists and crusaders were evil throughout history destroying much greater and more virtuous civilizations drives me nuts, as if both sides didn't do "it". They all did do it. They were all good and bad human beings. Africans, Native Americans and Asians practiced things like war, rape, human sacrifice slavery, plunder, forceful conversion and attempts at genocide before the Christians and Europeans got there wherever there might have happened to be.


    Setting the world straight, one renaming at a time. (They fixed the "Eskimo Constellation" last week, now to be known as "the arrangement of stars and planets named after a branch of Inuit we dont quite rightly remember well enough to say properly". (or as previously, "NGC 2392"). Humanity will be so much better off.

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/13/skateboard-trick-to...


    Apples and oranges, mho. The skateboard thing--I kind of like. It is individualistic, as it names an actual inventor rather than having the inventor represent a tribe. The tribal name they were using is now considered offensive and the woke would have it changed to a new woke-approved name for the tribe. Way better to just give it to the individual innovator by individual name! (And no, every innovation does not take a village.)


    Oh, i'm just poking fun. "Mute" Is obviously preferable to "dumb". Mislabeling someone's affliction in complimentung them can be irritating. Yes, creative driven individuals often rock our world, just as group/team activities often rock our world. That's actually an interesting area for a data breakdown - which activities And achievements more conducive for individuals or groups if which size. (Gladwell has a piece on 150 being some kind of maximum for efficient orgs)

    The post on a Sikh moving to Canada to quickly get rich made me think about ethnic groups - Sikhs, Jews, who else? - that seem to do well as movable self-supportive villages? Obviously a gradation - i imagine Vietnamese along the Texas coasts helped each other out the way the help each other out in the convenience store market in Europe. With Scot/British background, no one's going to say, "hey, compadre - come sleep on my couch, i'll introduce you to my family, and btw we've got an order of the Tarn commemoration this weekend, bring your bagpipes..."  which groups create an increased Chance of success through membership in which settings? What codes or ideals do they share that enhance that belonging? Where Is the group vs individualism an advantage vs a drawback? (obviously skin color and gender and good looks also have villaging effects, but there are so many more)


    Irony galore:


    But they did - Victimology 101 Is one of the required courses.


    Believe it or not as regards the zany expressive gifs of black actors and celebs that lots of people use on Twitter for replies: 'Yasss, queen!', 'Hell, no!': Here's how Black-caricature GIFs can reinforce racism, as 'digital blackface'

    @ Yahoo.com, August 13, 2020, 6:22 PM EDT


    Yeah, exaggerated faces and mannerisms is racist and the work of the devil - Little Richard and Chuck Berry couldve told them that. And Gangsta appropriation bothers me - how can White pipple or even Asians steal a deeply personal culture of drug dealing, shooting people up & fucking da bitchez? Every time you throw a fake Gangsta sign, an angel loses Its crack pipe, yo! And Its Nicki Minaj's right to look ridiculous - how can they turn her into an emoji when she's a self-built emoji?

    And why dont people respect Black vernacular the way they respect White vernacular like Cockney and deep South speak. Perhaps blacks need their own Audrey Hepburn to bring the lingo to the masses.




    Apparently the "racism of digital gentrification" is a thing plaguing the sex worker community, along with banning from "the digital space" but they are fighting back with an exhibition:

     


    I'd be careful here - if they're not using the over-the-top woke language, they do need ways of income if we accept prostitution as that living, and the virus has certainly disrupted a lot of those lives. And the internet has very tilted rules on which kind of naked skin is allowed or blocked.


    Sure, just wish they were using more like your lingo--the terminology is over the top.

    Edit to add repost of tweet above on topic which I just landed on by happenstance of the page loading:

    People will increasingly need user manuals for their own identities: https://t.co/PDtrFW0PcQ

    — Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) August 15, 2020

    A brief look I didn't find the prostitutes being all wokespeak, but the internet is vast - more interested if it's dominated by these few with a bullhorn or left to be a real interest/advocacy group that actually helps out their clan 


    Twitter’s purge of the anti-woke satirists

    Titania McGrath and other accounts which make fun of wokeness have been censored.

    @ Spiked-Online, Aug. 18


    Great piece:


    "ultra-Calvinism" comparison:


    Lynching and Liberalism

    The ‘Harper’s’ ‘Letter on Justice and Open Debate’ extends a long American history of the defense of rational thought and free expression against the ideological coercions of the left

    BY PAUL BERMAN @ Tabletmag.com,AUGUST 16, 2020

    with a Goya etching as a terrific illustration, "Los chinchillas" from Los Caprichos, which I remind is from 1797-98 (not much new under the sun)

     


    Kind of amazing, World Socialist Website publishes opinion against woke segregationism @ NYU, don't know what to make of that yet:

     


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