IN THE COMMENTS: Someone calls this solecism "ebonics," and I say:
No, this is nothing like ebonics. It's the opposite of ebonics, if anything. Cornel West may be black, but his speech is not at all ebonics. It's pretentious straining at erudition, which is why it's so damned funny when he screws up.
I would not put up a post making fun of someone who lapses into an ebonics-type usage. I don't see the value in mocking that. I do see big value in puncturing a puffed-up academic — even though political correctness nags at me to refrain from making fun of the way a black person speaks.
I do have some sympathy for West here, though, because I think PC folk have failed — over a long period of time — to give him the feedback that would have kept him from developing this absurdly inflated style of speech, with its danger of missteps like this, and the self-serious demeanor that makes his mistakes especially funny.
Posts
189 comments:
Educated illiterates.
Idiots with expensive educations.
Posers and fools in charge of our lives.
We are so...fu fu fu fu...screwed.
N-word.
WV: dinkshe - yet another banned word.
It is incumbent upon POTUS to overcumb his adversaries!
Past tense of "succumb" in ebonics.
"to overcumb"
No such word. NIH
wv = cism
Is that a dirty word too?
That was a porno movie I once saw that starred Big Dick Black:
Sur came with Love.
It had a really catchy title song.
The definitions are metastacizing at the Urban Dictionary.
I refudiate the term "surcame" on account of its political origins?
S. Palin moment.
New word entrant?
(the other kev)
This needs to be thrown back at House every time he brings up refudiate.
O/T: GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee fires first shot at DOJ
EXCERPT: "Fernandes is one of the officials who explicitly said the voting rights laws were not going to be used to protect anyone but national racial minorities. The Holder DOJ was all 'about politically empowering minorities,' she said in my presence and the presence of dozens of others. Minority turnout was the aim of the DOJ, not equal enforcement of federal law.
"Laws that require dead voters be removed from the rolls? Those are undesirable laws 'that restrict turnout rather than increase it' Fernandes said in my presence, and the presence of dozens of other DOJ attorneys."
The first rocks are finally being turned over.
Now watch what comes squirming out.
Thank God I'm not paying fifty plus grand a year to send my kid to a school that hires this moron as a professor.
Wasn't "surcame" originally used in the movie "I'm Gonna Git You Succor"?
WV: suprim -- a subprime supreme -- or a deviant celebration of Purim
"Past tense of "succumb" in ebonics."
No, this is nothing like ebonics. It's the opposite of ebonics, if anything. Cornel West may be black, but his speech is not at all ebonics. It's pretentious straining at erudition, which is why it's so damned funny when he screws up.
I would not put up a post making fun of someone who lapses into an ebonics-type usage. I don't see the value in mocking that. I do see big value in puncturing a puffed-up academic — even though political correctness nags at me to refrain from making fun of the way a black person speaks.
I do have some sympathy for West here, though, because I think PC folk have failed — over a long period of time — to give him the feedback that would have kept him from developing this absurdly inflated style of speech, with its danger of missteps like this, and the self-serious demeanor that makes his mistakes especially funny.
Off topic here, but WTF is happening on the lake over by Maple Bluff? Ice boat regatta?
puncturing a puffed-up academic
My aliteration handbook says that should ready "puncturing a puffed-up professor", or alternately, "puncturing a puffed-up PhD".
@Kent
It's probably crawling with corruption, but at this point it's got all the gravitas of he-said/she-said.
@kent, what's the problem, bro? Dead people have been voting in Chicago for decades. You can't expect Democratically elected leaders from Chicago to kvetch over dead people voting, do you?
This is why certifications are beginning to be valued more than degrees in terms of qualifications in many professions.
PS The Zero "succumbed" to the big banks because they had paid his way through the Senate.
Yep! Lots of ice boats. Wow!
How about some In Living Color?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izpa9D7c77U
The deeper problem, which is obscured by Professor West's attempt to stretch his vocabulary in unfortunate directions, is his notion that if only the Democrats of the past four years had attempted to govern from even further to the left, then all would have been well and a grateful population would have thrust the Republicans, along with Big Business, Wall Street, bankers, doctors, and other such riff-raff into the trash can of history.
How employment is supposed to go up when businesses are forced into bankruptcy is beyond me, but please don't ask Professor West to explain because I'm sure he's got some foolish rationale or another.
I think what we're seeing is the old liberal notion that throwing enough money at a problem automatically solves it, pushed to its logical extreme.
Ann, did you originally read or listen to this transcript? Reading it, the word jumps out immediately. But hearing it, the word sounded so natural and contextually accurate I didn't even notice the ridiculousness of it on first pass.
What does Professor West teach if I might be so bold?
Pretentious straining at erudition can be ebonics - or did you never see SNL in the Eddie Murphy days?
Trooper: He's black and at an Ivy League university. $10 says he teaches African American studies. Or quantum field theory.
WV: gleat. The past-tense of gloat.
It is incumbent upon POTUS to overcumb his adversaries!
LOL. Actually it's "overcrumb"
You have sympathy. Does he say, "between you and I" like the President.
These are hyber-urbanizations. Efforts to appear urbane and educated. I suppose that being educated is now entriely different from haveing a distinguished degree.
I can't believe Sarah Palin would say such a stupid thing; however, I don't understand why they keep calling her Cornel West in this article!
How employment is supposed to go up when businesses are forced into bankruptcy is beyond me, but please don't ask Professor West to explain because I'm sure he's got some foolish rationale or another.?
U.S. corporations had their biggest profit quarter, ever, since they started keeping track over 60 yrs ago. So what's the excuse now? Someone said a mean word about them so they won't hire? Someone looked at them funny?
"Laws that require dead voters be removed from the rolls? Those are undesirable laws 'that restrict turnout rather than increase it' Fernandes said in my presence, and the presence of dozens of other DOJ attorneys."
The ZOMBIE voting block
What does he teach? This from PBS (haha):
Cornel West has been described as a man who plays two roles. First, he is a highly regarded scholar of religion, philosophy, and African-American studies.
I don't know the other role. Does it matter?
Here's his Princeton faculty page. Recent courses taught: AAS/REL 369 - The Religious, Dimensions of Du Bois, Baldwin and Morrison, and REL 507 - Studies in Religion and Philosophy: Hegel and His Influence, it says here. Says he's "a progressive cultural icon." Well, now.
U.S. corporations had their biggest profit quarter, ever, since they started keeping track over 60 yrs ago. So what's the excuse now? Someone said a mean word about them so they won't hire? Someone looked at them funny?
I can tell you exactly what mine and all the other "small" businesses we deal with are doing and have been doing since late 2008. Hunkering down because nobody has a clue what's coming.
They had to fire people as revenues, orders, and business in general dropped. The remaining workforce had to accommodate those lost hands and, as a result, "did more with less".
The revenue, orders, and business slowly (very slowly) started coming back, but everyone I know has been extremely loath to hire any more people and those that are currently working all, to a person, feel lucky to have a job so nobody bitches or votes with their feet.
So...reduced workforce (overhead) and a return to expected revenue levels = what, Garage?
Cornel West has been described as a man who plays two roles. First, he is a highly regarded scholar of religion, philosophy, and African-American studies.
And the other role??
Clown.
Being all smug over this, esp. without somehow even acknowledging West's arguments doesn't make you look good, IMO. Like grownups arguing one thing in one room and the children laughing about something else in another other room.
Being all smug over this, esp. without somehow even acknowledging West's arguments doesn't make you look good, IMO. Like grownups arguing one thing in one room and the children laughing about something else in another other room.
You mean like Democrats and the MSM making a BFD about Palin's refudiate?? Or Bush's pronounciation of "nucular".
Something like that?
Ya betcha.
If we can't laugh at and poke pins in puffed up pretentious blowhards to deflate their overweening egos....what is the point of life?
:-D
It's Kingfish all over again.
@DB: I'm speaking only for myself, only about people making a big deal over West's use of a word or his manner or style of speaking - whatever those speaking faults.
I can tell you exactly what mine and all the other "small" businesses we deal with are doing and have been doing since late 2008. Hunkering down because nobody has a clue what's coming
Trickle down baby! Maybe they just need a big group hug.
I could see "succumb" to "succame", via the homonym confusion of "cumb" to "come".
But surRcame?
I can't even tell where that came from.
On the other hand, maybe it's just a pronunciation tic or the like, since this is, after all, an audio transcript and not something West typed out.
surcame....succumbed....shure....sugah......sss
Sugah-cane, mutha-f-ers...
(this would be nearly funny, 'cept it's from Rush @ PT Barnum Co)
Respond to the point of my statement, Garage. Profit is up because revenue is slowly coming back but payrolls are where they were when people started getting canned a couple years ago.
it's from Rush @ PT Barnum Co
which is to say, the ...Oppressor
Sir came.
Sir saw.
Sir conquered.
It sounds like he made surcome into a past tense form as surcame. Surcome means to yield to a superior force. What the heck, Shakespeare and Palin and now this Phd are into the creation of new words when it sounds good to them.
"A man's got to know his limitations." ~ Dirty Harry
If you can't tell a man's race by his writing, then ...
Cornel is a phony. I have known many great African American scholars and teachers and a few huge phonies. He is the latter. The cadence of his speech, the command of a few politically important buzz words and their frequent use are all give aways.
Gentlemen, I insist you sirs ease your ridicule.
The proper usage of surcome in Madison should be that the Badgers surcame in the Rose Bowl. Surcomed sounds like a male phallic activity done while on top of a woman.
@phx, it seems to me that I acknowledged Professor West's arguments. With the contempt they deserve, of course, but I did acknowledge them.
@garage, in order to hire a person a company needs some ability to contrast what that person costs them (salary, benefits, taxes) with how much additional gross revenue that person will generate. The result of subtracting what the person costs from the additional gross revenues generated from having that person around has a special name. It's called the "net." If the net is negative, or likely to be negative, then the business should not hire that person. Under Obamacare the net is extremely difficult to predict (many potentially costly rules will not even be promulgated until 2012 and thereafter, and moreover they will be promulgated by Kathleen Sebelius, whose hostility towards business is, if anything, even stronger than yours) but likely to be negative. This analysis leaves out the possibility of a "double dip" recession, which is less likely than a year ago but not yet totally improbable. So businesses are cautious about hiring.
Have I explained this in a fashion simple enough for you and phx to comprehend? Please advise.
And whats up with the old fashioned word "Milquetoast". That is an insult to post masculine expressive guys. And in Wisconsin everybody knows that it should always be spelled Milk-toast.
Cognitive dissonance.
What I completely fail to understand is that highly educated people like Professor West, of whatever color, continue to rail against "Wall Street" and "Big Business" as Republican allies and supporters. That was true from 1865 to 1930, but after 80 years of Democrat majorities in Congress, that situation has long since been reversed and then some. Big money and big business go where the political power is, and today it is rare to find a gazillionaire who is not a registered Democrat, or at least a reliable Democrat Party donor.
I am still quite taken aback by the praise lavished on President Obama in the media for selecting this marvellously wise and competent Wall Street wizard, William Daley, whose wide experience as a major league investor and businessman will enable him to inaugurate a new era of successful management at the White House as Mr. Obama's Chief of Staff.
Huh? Come again?
And he is Richard the 2nd of Chicago's kid brother!
"Respond to the point of my statement, Garage."
Hah. You'd have better luck getting Obama to release his academic transcripts.
But just for laffs, Scott, ask Garage "US corporations had their biggest profit quarter ever" Mahal to define the difference between 'profit' and a 'profit margin.' We could all use a laugh.
Oh, for the love of Mike. Haven't you ever heard a middle-aged person grope for a word and come up with the wrong combo before? Say, the entire Bush administration?
My mother was white, middle class, and hardly trying to speak la-di-da style, and she came up with mistakes like this all the time in her forties. A few years past menopause, and her tongue was back to normal. I've heard people of all races, all classes, and both sexes make errors like this, often. But you commenters apparently never listen to anyone, and are thus amazedly contemptuous of a perfectly common human phenomenon.
You could go over to Language Log and talk about the mechanisms of misspeaking. Or you can do what you chose to do, which is rip on the guy for his race and class, as if that were the reason.
May you all be afflicted with embarrassingly memorable Spoonerisms at the worst possible moments, you self-made cretins.
I suppose it's fair to call out an educated man like Cornel West for making a mistake like this, but you should tread carefully. I've noticed in many black people a habit of using five dollar words where five cent ones would do, and often misusing those words in the process.
IMO, it's an artifact of racism. Many black people, to a degree not so common among whites, feel the need to show that they are educated thinking they'd otherwise be assumed stupid.
I'm perfectly comfortable being me and expecting most people to recognize my intelligence through natural interaction, while dismissing those who who don't recognize it as themselves stupid or unobservant.
Many black people fear they cannot assume that benefit of the doubt that I, as a white guy, take for granted.
A search of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (410 million words, 1990-2010) and of the Corpus of Historical American English (400 million words, 1810s-2000s) turns up exactly ZERO uses of "surcame."
"Pretentious" shows up 1,629 times.
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
http://corpus.byu.edu/coha/
Rush Limbaugh vs Prof Cornel West. Oh boy!
Loud, conservative radio personality masquerading as a political analyst versus pretentious socialist black studies professor.
Why did they cancel Celebrity Deathmatch!!
Mr West gives legitimate black scholars a bad name--but this is what passes for scholarship these days--its an insult first and foremost to black, and then to everyone else. He's a fucking idiot.
as trooper would say, at least he isnt a lawyer and we all know the only thing worse than a lawyer is journalist (or vice versa)
"Suburbanbanshee said...
Oh, for the love of Mike. Haven't you ever heard a middle-aged person grope for a word and come up with the wrong combo before? Say, the entire Bush administration?"
Missed this admonition when liberals were mocking Bush and insisting his misspeaking was proof he lacked intelligence.
Michael said...
Cornel is a phony. I have known many great African American scholars and teachers and a few huge phonies. He is the latter. The cadence of his speech, the command of a few politically important buzz words and their frequent use are all give aways.
Excellent point. Consider Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell.
Suburbanbanshee said...
Oh, for the love of Mike. Haven't you ever heard a middle-aged person grope for a word and come up with the wrong combo before? Say, the entire Bush administration?
That's a malapropism. West seems to be in search of street cred.
He'd be better off in search of Leonard Nimoy.
(old gag, I know...)
Credentialed, not educated.
Think Ezra Klein.
The only time I have previously heard of William Daley was in 2000, and it was then assumed that the Clinton camp picked him to spearhead their Florida vote-checking campaign as a deliberate provocation to the Republican establishment to make them lose their heads and do things even stupider than normal, since to any red-blooded Republican, the name Daley is synonymous
with election fraud.
But now his selection as Chief of Staff is supposed to be symbolic of outreach to the Republicans and a wllingness to compromise?
Can you people even hear yourselves?
Wv: depoo - self-explanatory.
Cornel West is the poster child for affirmative action ca 1970s--a buffoon who because of his skin color rose thru the ranks of diversity fearful lilly livered academic committees--
Would anyone in this commentariate what that ignorant mutha fucka teaching your kids? Really?
@ Christopher: And how much of the record profit came from international divisions?
overcumb - a euphemism for really good sex.
surcame is a perfectly cromulent word, you should try to embiggen your vocabulary with it.
Would anyone in this commentariate what that ignorant mutha fucka teaching your kids? Really?
Shut yo mowff.
Do you imagine he's at all embarrassed today?
Missed this admonition when liberals were mocking Bush and insisting his misspeaking was proof he lacked intelligence.
when you put it that way---Prof. West or Obama are mutha-f-ing Demosthenes compared to Bush II, the drunken frat boy, or most repubs from the dirty south. McDonnell generally sounds like he's making speeches to the Louisville Rotary club . As does Limbaughzo, most of the time (tho RL probably paid for some pricey Toastmasters course back in the 90s once his Hillary the feminazi schtick took off). And ...Miss Palin's oratory...well, SarahSpeak wouldn't quite make it in a Reno truck stop ...
@J
Off-topic, but are you for the card check law or a'gin it (that's my dirty southern creeping in)?
I'm sure you can come up with a link to a similar post making fun of Jesse Jackson who is famous for his unorthodox speech.
J: what kind of shit you talkin boy? you aint making no cents
J,
Thanks for reminding us what tolerance really means to a liberal.
McDonnell generally sounds like he's making speeches to the Louisville Rotary club .
J, if you're going to mock at least get the names right.
@ Big Mike: that's all I'd expect from anyone.
DADvocate said...
overcumb - a euphemism for really good sex.
Actually, that word appears to be a false cognate of cumberbun, a traditional sash once worn by men prior to the consummation of nuptial bliss.
Hey J: tell you what bozo--publish your CV so we can see what you have published. Otherwise I just might think you are a lying idiot. (actually I will think that even if you had a CV worth publishing)
c3: Maybe J meant McDonald talking to Rotarians? 'Cause Ronald can be a little hard to understand sometimes.
. I do see big value in puncturing a puffed-up academic
Well, at least you understand me, then.
McDonnell...er McDonalds. Yass
Sort of like America's official yokel insurance salesman.
Actually, poor speaking skills probably have a greater appeal to Vox Populi than does eloquence. A few conservatives--very few-- might still admire the WF Buckley-rhetoric--but most prefer like SarahSpeak, if not the Noog. Now, refudiate that mutha-f-er
Hey Roger-repub, better-- let's discuss like Prof. West's discussions of Hegelian dialectic, perhaps? Voonderbar! Hegel hated crackers too--and was no PC liberal.
Roger J. said...
Cornel West is the poster child for affirmative action ca 1970s--a buffoon who because of his skin color rose thru the ranks of diversity fearful lilly livered academic committees--
Would anyone in this commentariate want that ignorant mutha fucka teaching your kids? Really?
Or leading their country????
J said...
Missed this admonition when liberals were mocking Bush and insisting his misspeaking was proof he lacked intelligence.
when you put it that way---Prof. West or Obama are mutha-f-ing Demosthenes compared to Bush II, the drunken frat boy, or most repubs from the dirty south.
J has obviously never heard POTUS without TOTUS.
I heard a woman read an abominably long poem at, I think, Clinton's inauguration. I pegged her as someone trying to sound educated and was surprised to learn that it was Maya Angelou, a respected poet. The other day, I heard her again, talking about her recently published cookbook. She still talked that way but I liked her much more. Could be that she has more genuine feeling for food than for Clinton.
A few conservatives--very few-- might still admire the WF Buckley-rhetoric--but most prefer like SarahSpeak, if not the Noog. Now, refudiate that mutha-f-er
Simple. Cite your data proving what you just bloviated.
Ah the estimable Professor West.
I remember fondly the time he was accused of some pecuniary misdeeds. He said:
“I deny these allegations and demand to meet the alligators.”
J: and what part of Hegel would you like to discuss? The Philosophy of Right is, I think, Hegel's masterwork, but I am reminded of Marx's critique of the "german philosophy." Mr West adds nothing to any sentient persons's understanding of Hegel.
BTW J: you may want to go back and reread Hegel--his argument, as I rcall is that the state is the personification of the zietgeist--the will of the people-- most of whom would be those you refer to as "crackers." (actually Hegel, if my professors were correct, was asserting a case for a German State separate from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the basis of which would have the essence of the volk. But if you want to discuss this, I would be glad to.
wrong once again, edutcher. The point was qualitative, not ...yr usual AA.com frat boy chitchat
Some communication expert or professor could compare some recorded speeches of West or Obama...or John Kerry for that matter to Bush II (or Palin, McConnell, McCaint, many other GOPers) and easily demonstrate the superiority of Obama's speaking abilities (in terms of diction, delivery, content, argumentation, etc) to the good ol boys, regardless if one agrees with the Demos or not. WF Buckley's are no mo'.
McDonnell generally sounds like he's making speeches to the Louisville Rotary club.
Yet, that dumbass "McDonnell" (sic), who in your alternate reality can barely mimic human language in a convincing manner, managed to outsmart the brightest bulbs of the Democratic Party, kept his caucus in line and thwarted some of the worst proposed legislation this Republic has seen in its nearly 235 years.
That's what we in Kentucky call "country dumb." But please, do keep underestimating us until you consign yourself into a fevered, bitter political oblivion, sucker.
Does this post qualify as an example of "eating an intellectually inert brat"? That reminds me, we need another Sarah Palin post. The GOP candidates are restless entering the starting gate, and both sides are running split the others votes in the 3 early primaries. The 3 serious candidates seem to be Palin, Romney and Bush.
So, Ann Althouse teaches Constitutional Law and we have an unprecedented case where the Constitution has been violated on the first day of the new Congress by the House Republican majority.
Two members were not sworn in as they were busy at a fundraiser and one (Pete Sessions) nonetheless voted and presided over the rules committee despite the US Constitution saying this:
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution.”
Now those rules have been passed under an unConstitutional process. We are in uncharted waters.
If a Democrat had done this, Althouse would have a dozen posts up and would be regurgitating Limbaughisms until the cows come home.
But when Republicans violate the Constitution, she looks the other way.
Just as well. She'd just make excuses for them anyway.
Yet, that dumbass "McDonnell" (sic), who in your alternate reality can barely mimic human language in a convincing manner, managed to outsmart the brightest bulbs of the Democratic Party
Really? You mean MINORITY leader McConnell? Wasn't he supposed to be in the majority?
Wasn't Harry Reid supposed to go down?
But please, do keep underestimating us until you consign yourself into a fevered, bitter political oblivion, sucker.
Let me revise and extend: An even deeper, more fevered, more bitter political oblivion than the one you just managed to jump into this past November.
so Alpha is an Oather? Loose Vows
OMG.
I do believe that the sock puppet Jeremy is back in the incarnation of J.
Same lack of any content of value in his postings, refusal to discuss the issues at hand, distractions galore, full of insults and attempts to get you to lower yourself to its level.
DBQ...naw, wrong tone and each post doesn't end with "duh" or "dumbass".
I'm still waiting, though, J. Support or oppose card check?
Really? You mean MINORITY leader McConnell? Wasn't he supposed to be in the majority?
Wasn't Harry Reid supposed to go down?
Really? You're going with that?
Weren't the combined brilliance, legislative, and administrative prowess of Obama, Pelosi and Reid supposed to have banished Republicans to the wilderness for the next century?
You really do have trouble reconciling yourselves to reality, don't you?
as I rcall is that the state is the personification of the zietgeist--the will of the people-- most of whom would be those you refer to as "crackers
Zeitgeist, that izz. Re-read the Philosophy of History, and other Hegelian klassix. The young Hegel, not a friend of the british, may have been somewhat sympathetic to the American revolution as he was to the French --but by the 1800's he was not supportive once he was informed of the treatment of the natives, and the ...slavery issue. The Torys' errors were shifted to the States, for the most part. Hegel was an abolition ...for the most part and supported something like a pan-african congress
That's what we in Kentucky call "country dumb."
Yeah that's McKonnell. Trash, iow.
Hegel was an abolition
That's right. He surcame to an abolition. I remember that now.
DBQ...naw, wrong tone and each post doesn't end with "duh" or "dumbass".
True> But just remember, the tone, punctuation, capitalitzation and even sense of humor all depended on who was manning the Jeremy sock puppet at the time. I think they had shifts.
J: what are you talking about--I was talking about Hegel's basic argument in the philosophy of right where he uses his concept of the dialectic to provide a basis for the german state.
Step back from the Wiki man, and lets talk about hegel's argument--all you did was through a bunch of irrelevant bullshit into a discussion of Hegel's political philosophy
you are clearly grasping--and not well
@DBQ
After Gabriel Hanna gave ol' Jer the roundhouse in a health care thread, I've only smelled him 'round these parts a couple of times since.
For your edification, J.:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Country%20Dumb
Clearly, edification is something you are in need of in many, many areas.
Uh oh, pointing out Hegel's abolitionist streak touched a nerve with Anne's crypto-klan frat house
You need some edification, AA epsilon. Or at least the cliffsnotes to the Great Books. West made a faux-pas. Hardly comparable to, say BushCo's regular verbal gaffes or Palin's malapropisms. Rush is just doing this to grind his axe--.
IN THE COMMENTS: Someone calls this solecism "ebonics," and I say:...
How cumb "Someone" didn't get a tag?
Really? You mean MINORITY leader McConnell? Wasn't he supposed to be in the majority?
Wasn't Harry Reid supposed to go down?
Good point. Sen Reid, while not perfect, did manage to barely defeat Sharrie Angle, another GOP visionary in the Palin-teabagger tradition. Alas, no Pterodactyls and Moses theme parks for the near future.
j: you really have no idea nor have read the philosophy of right and are incapable of commenting in your own words on it. You, sir, a poseur--and you deign to lecture the commentariat on the shortcomings of others--sorry charlie--you are a loser.
Mildly apropos is the news that Denis Dutton died last week. He was the professor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Dutton) who started the bad writing contest skewering academic phony-baloney poseurs in the liberal arts. Primarily those who trafficked in the utterly fraudulent criticism realm. The stuff that won is truly, terrifyingly appalling. Judith Butler is one of the great bleating phonies who was featured regularly. I took the time to follow a lot of links. And I was amazed that every single request from a reasonable person asking for an explanation of these supposed geniuses' writing was ignored. No one could step up and even defend this crap. Frankly I'm surprised Ann has never discussed this area of academics given what a delightful stickler she is for solid, understandable, yet enjoyable writing. It irks me especially that these people are still employed and so highly regarded. Last bit: Noam Chomsky had a great insight into this issue with this quote:
There are lots of things I don't understand -- say, the latest debates over whether neutrinos have mass or the way that Fermat's last theorem was (apparently) proven recently. But from 50 years in this game, I have learned two things: (1) I can ask friends who work in these areas to explain it to me at a level that I can understand, and they can do so, without particular difficulty; (2) if I'm interested, I can proceed to learn more so that I will come to understand it. Now Derrida, Lacan, Lyotard, Kristeva, etc. --- even Foucault, whom I knew and liked, and who was somewhat different from the rest --- write things that I also don't understand, but (1) and (2) don't hold: no one who says they do understand can explain it to me and I haven't a clue as to how to proceed to overcome my failures. That leaves one of two possibilities: (a) some new advance in intellectual life has been made, perhaps some sudden genetic mutation, which has created a form of "theory" that is beyond quantum theory, topology, etc., in depth and profundity; or (b) ... I won't spell it out.
Awesome stuff. Dead on. So, finally, what do people like Cornell West and Judith Butler really KNOW? Do they know anything of actual value? Or is it such an academic ghetto that, for those outside, i.e. the real world, there is no value at all?
Uh oh, pointing out Hegel's abolitionist streak touched a nerve with Anne's crypto-klan frat house
You know who else had an abolitionist streak? Lincoln. You might not know this, but he was a Republican. Also, a Kentuckian. Also, country dumb.
Stick around for awhile! You'll learn many more such interesting things here. Much more than you will by scatteredly hopping between your Wikipedia/Hegel and Althouse browser tabs for five minutes.
J said...
wrong once again, edutcher. The point was qualitative, not ...yr usual AA.com frat boy chitchat
Some communication expert or professor could compare some recorded speeches of West or Obama...or John Kerry for that matter to Bush II (or Palin, McConnell, McCaint, many other GOPers) and easily demonstrate the superiority of Obama's speaking abilities (in terms of diction, delivery, content, argumentation, etc) to the good ol boys, regardless if one agrees with the Demos or not. WF Buckley's are no mo'.
That can be taught. Any phony can learn diction - the use of Lurch is illustrative. Many a Southerner has excellent speech - Haley Barbour, even Strom Thurmond.
All J shows is a racist mouth and a closed (more like glued shut) mind. Anyone impressed with cadence and diction alone would, of course, prefer a certain Bavarian corporal.
BTW J: abolitionism was hardly something unique--many churches were founded based on the conept, and for your rather stultified world view, you could have even seen the netflix of "amazing grace" about the methodists in England under Wilberforce passing the abolition of slave trade--but in your narrow and uninformed world, only "crackers" are to blame--
sad to say son-you lack considerable historical lnowledge and more sadly, the ability to think on your own--and you lack basic understanding of the great works of political philosophy and are totally unable to comment on them without references to wiki's and the like--
when you are ready, I will be happy to dialogue with you on Hegel; but you got a long way to go son.
nyet, Roger J. I'm quite aware of Hegel's point on the State as the embodiment of...Welt-Geist--he meant the German State, for the most part (or..... European). The point was merely that Hegel did not approve of the yankee freebooters or slavers. He's not quite the proto-nazi some read him as (or, shall we say his german nationalism did not equal...white power. Hegel actually says some positive things about ...Islam. a few anyway. He disliked the british probably mo' than he did the turks)
Hey Roger boy
step in a ring, puta
Ill demonstrate historical process to ya ,sunday school. Applied
What do think Hegel's take on card check would have been, J, and how does it fare with yours?
easily demonstrate the superiority of Obama's speaking abilities (in terms of diction, delivery, content, argumentation, etc)
Damn!! That's just what Harry Reid said
(“America is ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one")
not to mention Joe Biden
" the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy"
Its good to see that all of the Democrats are of like opinion regarding our estimable President.
You're right. He's a victim PC not, as many may think, its beneficiary.
If he were white he would have been laughed off the academic stage years ago.
You boys are young, dumb, and full of surcum.
Hegel actually says some positive things about ...Islam.
Hey, wow! Another thing he had in common with Hitler!
J: quite an articulate response chico--I am not a puta (spanish for bitch)--and you continue to demonstrate your total lack of intellectual ability by challenging me to some sort of fisticuffs? really? are you that fucking shallow? Aqpparently so
so when challenged to demonstrate your understanding you resort to some sort of silly "calling out?"
You are an absolute fool J-- I actually thought you might have had some class--
BTW J: you arent really a chico--you are a marecon (I love ad homs)
for the unitiated "puta" is spanish for bitch, and "marecon" is (at least cuban) spanish for fag
Hey Roger I want you to know that I bought this cool Puerto Rican Hat in Old San Juan and with my guayabera shirt and sandals I looked like the fat guy in Scarface,
I kept going around saying "Say hello to my little freind."
For some reason everybody rushed away.
Troop: how they hanging dude--
guyabaras are cool--My dad was cuban--I grew up with ropa vieja, frioles negros, vaca frita and the other great cuban dishes--if any one is interest: Memories of a Cuban Kitchen is the single best resource for cuban cooking out there.
TML,
That's an awesome quote from the Chomsker. Any idea where it's from? I'd love to cite it, but it would sure help to be able so say something better than "some guy said it on the internet". :-)
and if anyone is interested I will be glad to share Senora Albanes' recipe for black beans--the best you will ever have.
Tu esta el maricon, Rogerrita
And IM sure yr spanish is as pathetic as yr philosophy.
ANd the challenge was offered, frat boy. Mano a mano. Ellay. 405 and roscoe to be precise, maricon.
Ill give you 15 minutes or so to accept, or decline, and pay tribute
I would love the black bean reicipe Roger. I often cook Brazilian and Argentinian and Cubano and love to serve a side of rice and beans.
Just last week I make big feast of a yucca fries and chorizo appetizer with hearts of palm salad and some beautiful skirt steaks in Chimichurri sauce with some black beans and rice on the side.
With a shitpot full of capirina's of course.
We hit this great deli/bakery in San Juan called Espana which had some great sandwiches and lots of great pastry and cakes and tons of great donuts.
I overcrumbed. So to speak.
I kept going around saying "Say hello to my little freind."
For some reason everybody rushed away.
Perhaps if you weren't dropping your pants at the same time, they might have stuck around.
J: really--really? I always understood the spelling to be marecon--
Mano a mano eh--quite the hombre no?
are you really this fucking stupid, that you cant justify your dumb ass remarks about hegel, whom you have never read, and then think that "calling me out" is the solution to your problem?
What a pathetic dumb mutha fucka
DBQ said
Perhaps if you weren't dropping your pants at the same time, they might have stuck around."
You really are a party pooper Dust Bunny Queen.
Hey did you see Jersey Shore last night for the season 3 preimere episode.
The new girl Deena managed to get buck ass naked and flashed her chuckie to the Situation.
Classic television.
I bet Hegel would have loved it.
OK Troop: prepare to copy.
Take two cups of black beans and soak then overnite in water to cover--the next day take two cloves of garlic crushed a bay leaf and a half onion and green pepper sliced--put it on the stove and cook slowly. after about 3 hours, take the remaining half onion and green pepper and an additional garlic clove--dice finely and sautee in olive oil until soft--add a table spoon or so of ground cumin. (this is the sofrito)--when that is done, dump it in the black beans and simmer until everything is soft--KEY POINT--at the end taste--you may want to add a table spoon or so of vinegar--stir back in and finish cooking--serve over white rice.
Its a great black bean recipe--Senora Albanes came over from Cuba where her husband had been jailed on the Isle of Pines by castro==a fine and elegant cuban lady--please think of her, now gone, when you do these beans--
First of all, you're right, this is "pretentious straining at erudition", and I also think the observation that "PC folk have failed — over a long period of time — to give him the feedback that would have kept him from developing this absurdly inflated style of speech" is probably spot-on. Unfortunately, the rest of your post is maddening, because you're saying you'll laugh at a black person - gladly - but only under specific PC conditions. Why?
While someone speaking ebonics isn't funny in and of itself (I'm of the school that we're Americans, and this country has lots of language variations that we should be proud of, ebonics being one of them because, like Rap, it's influence is so powerful) mocking an idiot - no matter how they reveal it - should be fair game. Why just pick on the "puffed-up academic"? Are you also part of the "eat the rich" crowd?
While we were talking yesterday, on the Mark Twain post, about how liberalism can hurt black people, someone mentioned that keeping blacks as "the other" was what's behind this n-word nonsense - an idea I agree with. It also got me to thinking of all the new ways liberal racism behaves, so subtly, without ever saying it's name. Some may not mock ebonics but will use it to marginalize blacks, something I used to notice, all the time, on the old Donahue show. On the other hand, there are those whites who will indulge the stupidest ideas if it's spoken in slang, or merely by blacks - like the whole "don't snitch" campaign when criminal gangs were taking over.
I can think of other examples, too, but my point is - whatever aspect we're discussing - when political correctness nags at you, it doesn't do you - or, *most importantly*, the blacks who are screwing up - any good. Because, as you said about West, they don't know when they've made fools of themselves. It also doesn't foster equality - why shouldn't blacks, of any class, be mocked like everyone else?
Finally, I want to explain that *most importantly*:
If you care about blacks, looking at our role in America from a historical perspective, then you have to consider we're being "brought up" from the limitations imposed on us by slavery, etc. I, as a black person, may be a full-blown American in my heart, but I (we) still need your help to understand (and even accept) certain things - including, at this late date, the concept of freedom - to the level and degree the average white American does. To baby us does no one any good. Mock us if we deserve it - you're free, too, right? There's a lesson, for us, in that, too.
The way you can tell that is a great reicipe is the dash of vinegar at the end. That is the little touch that tells you it is home made.
I will try it out and let you know how it comes out.
Not quite as stupid as you Rogerita el maricon-- who seems to consider Hegel a neo-con like yr hero Cantor.
So I assume you declined, eh byatch? Typical, gop frat boy spineles...maricon. y ...su madre esta un puta tambien
trooper--I know you to be a great american :) you are right about the vinegar--but when you make this recipe, please think about senora albanes--came to Miami alone in 1960--moved next to my dad in Miami who befriended then--she had two children whom my dad pretty much adopted--wilfredo and maria--wilfredo become a rocket scientest (really)--phd in astrophysics and works at Huntsville--and Maria, who became a pederiation-- both successful--Dr Albanes--imprisoned by castro did get out in late the 1970s but died shortly thereafter--a great story, IMO, of the brave Cubans who came to Miami and did themselves proud.
Suburbanbanshee,
You could go over to Language Log and talk about the mechanisms of misspeaking. Or you can do what you chose to do, which is rip on the guy for his race and class, as if that were the reason.
You know it's funny, lots of people here have criticized me for a lot of things, but never for misspeaking, making up words, or being a black asshat clown. Somehow Cornel West gets it regularly.
I think it's because he deserves it.
for Christ sake J: you are about the stupidest MF I have ever seen--really--you call my mother a bitch? YOu gotta be a liberal because thats something that only liberals do--
lets try again mother--talk about Hegel--you are shitting all over youself
what a fucking idiot--but keep it up idiot
tim maguire,
Many black people, to a degree not so common among whites, feel the need to show that they are educated thinking they'd otherwise be assumed stupid.
I'm perfectly comfortable being me and expecting most people to recognize my intelligence through natural interaction, while dismissing those who who don't recognize it as themselves stupid or unobservant.
Many black people fear they cannot assume that benefit of the doubt that I, as a white guy, take for granted.
True, true. A fine observation. Care to tell us how you overcome that when faced with it?
And J: its easy to be a stud on the internet--you have no intellectual cred, and you have no courage one on one. but if you are really interested, contact me one on one--click on my profile name. It will put you in touch with me
prarie wind,
I heard a woman read an abominably long poem at, I think, Clinton's inauguration. I pegged her as someone trying to sound educated and was surprised to learn that it was Maya Angelou, a respected poet.
Formally known as my babysitter. I shit you not.
With a shitpot full of capirina's of course.
@Trooper, I don't know what capirinas, but if they come in a shitpot then I think I'll pass.
Mike--dont pass-brazlian rum drinks--yummm
Clearly, in addition to the tabs for Althouse and Wikipedia, J has opened up one for Altavista Babelfish.
Good grief, I'm on the verge of actually feeling sorry for him. It's apparent the only things he knows about Hegel and the Spanish language he learned in the last hour from the internet.
I hope he has tabs open for eating and all the involuntary muscle functions, too, because I suspect he might starve, go into cardiac arrest or die of asphyxia if he doesn't.
Kirk Parker, here are a few links that reference it
http://www.mrbauld.com/chomsky1.html
http://wolftrappe.blogspot.com/2006/11/noam-chomsky-on-deconstruction-and.html
http://bit.ly/h4NTCI
I haven't been able to find the original source for the quote--a speech or a presentation. I originally encountered it on Prawfsblog in a discussion of this kind of douche(gas)baggery in academic writing here:
http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2008/06/why-i-am-an-ant.html
scroll down a ways or search for Stuart Buck.
Todd...
What 'surcame' proves is that Cornel West can't spell. Likely, he heard 'succumb' as 'surcome'. It is logical, therefore, that when he is reaching for the past tense of 'surcome' he would arrive at 'surcame'. No ebonics, just grammatical consistency in underwritten by atrocious spelling.
"Says he's "a progressive cultural icon." Well, now"
What happens if you double-click on him?
As always an interresting thread--I got a chance to erk "J" around whose only response was to "call me out and call my mother a bitch--but he's a liberal so thats what those dumb mother fuckers do.
we also discovered that Mr J didnt know squat about hegel but I never think that liberals know anything to start with so it wasnt a dissapointment.
I await the opportunity to meet J's challenge for a mano a mano encounter--althouth given his inability to spell spanish words, I rather doubt he has the skills or balls to carry either out.
But My Friend J: I remain your obedient servant--
J remains the absolute eptiome of a modern liberal--bereft of knowledge about anything and only capable responding with slurs about one's mother--modern liberals such as J are clearly pieces of shit. Nothing more.
I'm betting that Dr. West believes "milquetoast" is a way of saying that Obama is acting like "white" toast.
West was starting to say "surrendered", but realized he was talking about Obama and had a petit mort.
Hey, I actually bought Cornel West's rap album. (Still available on Amazon.) It is beyond parody - the album was apparently one of the reasons why Larry Summers at Harvard called West on the carpet for West's lack of actual academic work. West departed for Princeton in a snit.
I remember an interview with Prof. West in the Boston Globe. It was filled with inanities, but one stood out (and of course wasn't challenged by the interviewer) where he claimed that white people were afraid of black sexuality.
Hillarious!
On my way over here from Instapundit, I misread his lead in thus
to give him the feedback that would have kept him from developing this absurdly infantile style of speech,
I like my version better.
Baron Z, holy shit was that funny. Wait, that's not true is it?
Succumb is an SAT word. When you get your positions based on affirmative action, you don't study for the SAT.
This buffoon makes Larry Summers look like a genius for getting rid of him at Harvard. What is wrong with Princeton?
Princeton hired Cornel West to teach verbal material. It also hired Paul Krugman and Ben Bernanke to teach economics.
I don't know what it is but I always seem to get this dude mixed up with the guy from Soul Train.
I mean he's a doctor right?
If Mort was awake he would say this is racist.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the old Damon Wayans skits as Oswald Bates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNga_ycqS7o
I don't know the other role.
He was the guy on the council who wanted a ship to be sent out to find The One, even though the city was about to be attacked by killer robots, in The Matrix Reloaded.
His character was called "Councilor West".
The last of his three lines was, "Comprehension is not a requisite of cooperation."
Surcame clearly has nothing to do with succumb, but is a combination of surmount and overcame.
The hilarious thing about this is that Cornell West invented a new word and then immediately proceeded to misuse it to mean its exact opposite.
At least Sarah Palin knows how to use a word that she coined.
Late to the party but... "pretentious straining at erudition" IS a form of ebonics. The stereotype (of Word-a-Day straining for status) is as old as Amos 'n' Andy but isn't particularly a black thing. What is a black thing is being condescended to by white liberals who give malapropisms and mispronunciations a pass. They don't want to refudiate what they think is ebonics by misunderestimating the speaker.
Which is hilarious because lefty journalists and academics mistake verbal acuity with intelligence. They think their own (inflated) skill-set is the most important metric of human achievement, ignorant asses that they are.
As for me, I mispronounce words that I've only learned by reading and I get called on it with embarrassing regularity.
U.S. corporations had their biggest profit quarter, ever, since they started keeping track over 60 yrs ago. So what's the excuse now? Someone said a mean word about them so they won't hire? Someone looked at them funny?
Ah, Garage comes out with his usual brilliant analysis. You really do think this, don't you? You really think that a business makes profit and ergo it must hire more people or else it's some dark conspiracy against the working class. Amazing.
I'll tell you right now, no CEO in the country, much less small business, thinks in the manner of "We made lots of money this quarter--start hiring people, anybody!" Hiring has to have a business purpose. No employer hires people simply because he's sitting on cash--he hires because he needs more people to do the required work.
What the other guy said was right: businesses aren't hiring because of uncertainty. Many businesses are enjoying profitability, but many only so because they've cut the fat and streamlined.
Mr. West is beyond parody. A fraud and a minstrel show performer for the 21st century.
I am a reasonably literate person, and several times over the years I have attempted to read "Professor" West's articles and books. It was impossible because he writes incredibe jibberish.
I don't understand how he can continue to stand naked babbling nonsense and not being recognized for what he is - a clown.
Time for a new spoken word rap record. Can we dub in Robert Byrd doing background vocals: "Preach! Tell it! Ye-ess!"?
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., during the reading of the Constitution, protested that the text had been "didacted." Yep.
Loggerhead - thanks for the link - that was funny.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense!"
Wasn't Harry Reid supposed to go down?
Harry has gone down so often he had to get his throat coated with Teflon™ to ease the friction.
wv pecties - a bondage appliance
BTW one of the funniest comment threads here in a LONG time.
BTW one of the funniest comment threads here in a LONG time.
OK. I couldn't pass up this wv:
fooks
West reminds me of the character Oswald Bates, the erudite prison philosopher from "In Living Color".
TML,
Thanks for the links. Much obliged!
A new past tense of succumb... I like it.
It's a common problem - well-known left-wing intellectuals often say the stupidest things possible - but the liberal audience still thinks they are the smartest people around, much smarter that Bush, Limbaugh or Palin.
And speaking of smartness - Obama promised liberals that Obamacare would cut premiums by 3000%, and the audience applauded him. Now, can anyone of the left-wing apologists find anything that Bush said that would be even remotely as stupid as that? And if it does not fit, you must acquit.
This isn't really a malapropism, which is the substitution of a similar-sounding (but genuine) word for the more appropriate one (q.v. malapropos and the Sheridan connotations.) It's more accurately a form of linguistic hypercorrection. Both are hallmarks of a partially literate vocabulary and indicative of a mind stretched beyond its natural boundaries. West is just one of a multitude in the academy who substitute orotund phrasing for depth of thought.
For my part, West's appearance in the cod-philosophical nonsense that was The Matrix Reloaded was a salient milestone on his descent into vaudeville.
from Denis Dutton:
Finally, a tour de force from a 1996 book published by the State University of New York Press. It was located by M.J. Devaney, an editor at the University of Nebraska Press. The author is D.G. Leahy, writing in Foundation: Matter the Body Itself.
Total presence breaks on the univocal predication of the exterior absolute the absolute existent (of that of which it is not possible to univocally predicate an outside, while the equivocal predication of the outside of the absolute exterior is possible of that of which the reality so predicated is not the reality, viz., of the dark/of the self, the identity of which is not outside the absolute identity of the outside, which is to say that the equivocal predication of identity is possible of the self-identity which is not identity, while identity is univocally predicated of the limit to the darkness, of the limit of the reality of the self). This is the real exteriority of the absolute outside: the reality of the absolutely unconditioned absolute outside univocally predicated of the dark: the light univocally predicated of the darkness: the shining of the light univocally predicated of the limit of the darkness: actuality univocally predicated of the other of self-identity: existence univocally predicated of the absolutely unconditioned other of the self. The precision of the shining of the light breaking the dark is the other-identity of the light. The precision of the absolutely minimum transcendence of the dark is the light itself/the absolutely unconditioned exteriority of existence for the first time/the absolutely facial identity of existence/the proportion of the new creation sans depth/the light itself ex nihilo: the dark itself univocally identified, i.e., not self-identity identity itself equivocally, not the dark itself equivocally, in “self-alienation,” not “self-identity, itself in self-alienation” “released” in and by “otherness,” and “actual other,” “itself,” not the abysmal inversion of the light, the reality of the darkness equivocally, absolute identity equivocally predicated of the self/selfhood equivocally predicated of the dark (the reality of this darkness the other-self-covering of identity which is the identification person-self).
I'm not convinced that this doesn't represent the norm in academia these days. It's 100% bullshit meaningless crap. It says absolutely nothing.
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