Althouse: At the Thursday Night Cafe...

February 4, 2021

At the Thursday Night Cafe...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

141 comments:

etbass said...: I researched on Wikipedia, just what is Critical Race Theory, having seen no explanation anywhere else. It's just as well because this subject is way beyond my pay grade even with a masters in Engineering, I still am unable to make any sense of the intersectionality and other B.S. that envelopes and permeates Critical Race Theory. I can now understand why it could take a college career to fathom the depths of this completely non-sensical concept.; 2/4/21, 8:05 PM
Sprezzatura said...: New blasts are not refreshing from me, here. They are deleted.

Go figure.; 2/4/21, 8:09 PM
narciso said...: Carried over

https://mobile.twitter.com/rising_serpent/status/1357496284127645702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; 2/4/21, 8:12 PM
Whiskeybum said...: Good Grammar rule for Feb. 4:

Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and omit it where its not needed.; 2/4/21, 8:15 PM
rhhardin said...: Instant potatoes added to any old soup makes a considerable improvement. Heat, add and stir.; 2/4/21, 8:15 PM
Ken B said...: Etbass
On Twitter a couple good resources for that nonsense, which is sophisticated nonsense hence persuades some, is wokalDistance. Also James Lindsay.; 2/4/21, 8:15 PM
Ken B said...: Is Browndog right? Is America a clown country with no virtue?

I ask because Canada follows US trends most of the time, with a bit of a lag.; 2/4/21, 8:18 PM
rhhardin said...: Critical X theory is that truth is manufactured like everything else. This is not straightforward to claim, since it seems to be a truth, and that's a contradiction. So truth goes under erasure, meaning you use it but realize you can't exactly mean it, that is, you're manufacturing truth along with everybody else about everything.

The approach can lead to insights, or to propaganda.

The former happens if you like the system you're analyzing (Erving Goffman, Jacques Derrida) and the latter if you're a prog academic who hates any functioning thing he looks at.

The latter also tend to forget the under erasure part.; 2/4/21, 8:20 PM
rehajm said...: Quality of life survey sinks to all time low

...and they've only been in office a few days.; 2/4/21, 8:32 PM
Mark said...: Not that hard, Ernest T.

Like all things leftist, CRT is primarily about viewing everything through the lens of power.; 2/4/21, 8:33 PM
Scott Patton said...: Keep talking, just stay away from the thermostat!; 2/4/21, 8:35 PM
narciso said...: Derrick bell was one of the pioneers anf he was one of obamas mentors it paints a word so permeated by race its like a sungularity.; 2/4/21, 8:36 PM
rehajm said...: I ask because Canada follows US trends most of the time, with a bit of a lag.

Apropos of nothing 50% of Canadians Live South of The Red Line

Good thing Canada has a strong southern border to keep them all in; 2/4/21, 8:42 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @etbas

The major problem I have with CRT, as Rhhardin says in other words above @8:20pm, is that I fail to see how such a detailed system of justice can ever be derived from its philosophical antecedents. By its "philosophical antecedents", I mean the French post-modernists who supply its epistemological assumptions (e.g. the role of "discourses", anti-binary thought, the systemic suppression via language of "difference"). For me, CRT following on post-modernism is like a world in which Medieval Scholasticism was based on an Aristotle who was impossible to square with Christian revelation.

I see post-modernism as descriptive, not as proscriptive. As rhhardin said "The [prog academics] also tend to forget the under erasure part" is very true. I can't see post-modern philosophy as providing any sort of moral certainty, which is at best a difficult sell in any sort of moral philosophy. But, for CRT, their moral claims are just one more competing discourse to be de-centered, their social relations just one instance of the Will To Power. Why should anyone choose their discourses?

If it's all about discourses, then the reality of human suffering is also just one more discourse, one more play of force. Why should we be moved by it? More importantly, why should I importune myself & deprive myself of anything, including my white privilege, for something that the very adherents tell me is not truth, for there is no such thing, but just one more construct?; 2/4/21, 8:43 PM
Narr said...: Mi esposa and I made some chicken-potato soup yesterday. She was only going for potato with onion, carrot, celery but then we splurged with some cubed chicken breasts (Fresh Market; we have a Whole Foods too but I've never become a fan). Just what the doctor ordered for cold winter days . . . I wish it would snow.

CRT was all the rage on campus even when I left and it takes a while for rages to trickle down the academic food chain to us'n's.

Narr
Not to be critical, but wouldn't just plain Race Theory be simpler?; 2/4/21, 8:50 PM
Mark said...: Watching this new (for me) series -- The Fall. It's British.

It's OK. Would be better if the character of the lead detective in a serial murder investigation, Dana Scully in her original British accent having grown up in London (didn't know that at the time of X-Files) wasn't such a skanky slut with a rather flat, sociopathic affect.; 2/4/21, 8:51 PM
narciso said...: I think is adaotation of a swedish product

https://mobile.twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1357381897312104448; 2/4/21, 8:52 PM
narciso said...: Sorry that was another series.; 2/4/21, 8:54 PM
chuck said...: On Wednesday the Department of Homeland Security issued a nationwide terror alert lasting until April 30.

That sure makes me feel safe...; 2/4/21, 8:54 PM
Lawrence Person said...: In 2019, the Austin City Council repealed a ban on camping on public land over the strenuous objections of actual citizens. Now, a ballot initiative will give Austin voters a chance to repeal the ban on May 1.; 2/4/21, 8:56 PM
Mark said...: In CRT, the idea that racism is an individual act/attribute is itself a racist tool to maintain white power. And, of course, according to CRT, black people can never be racist because of the historic disparity in power, namely, that blacks have no power and hence cannot be racist.; 2/4/21, 8:57 PM
Narr said...: You know, like the History (coff coff) Channel and its UFO shows.

Narr
""""ATOR: Could it be, as some ancient astronaut theorists speculate . . .; 2/4/21, 8:59 PM
Mark said...: One problem is that more than a few of the leftists infesting the Christian Church have embraced more than a few attributes of CRT.

The problem being that Christianity necessarily views racism as a sin, and sin is an individual act. Hence, that view is systemic racism to maintain a white supremacy. Hence, Christianity itself is inherently systemically racist.

The other problem being that the central tenet of Christianity is forgiveness. And to forgive racism is to let the racist off the hook and leave him in his unequal position of power. Thus, Christianity is twice now systemically racist. Which makes Jesus Christ himself racist.

The response being, then, so many radical CRT-types embracing their own peculiar brand of Islam (which itself is racist through and through and even now justifies and practices slavery).; 2/4/21, 9:03 PM
mccullough said...: “We hold these truths to be self evident” is what it comes down to as far as epistemology and moral and aesthetic beliefs; 2/4/21, 9:11 PM
Ken B said...: Catechist
Islam is many things buts it’s not inherently racist. Any non Muslim captured in battle can be enslaved (other ways of being a slave are possible).
However, nice point about belief in sin being itself racist to the woke. They have truly divorced racism from how people are treated.; 2/4/21, 9:12 PM
Lucien said...: Thanks to MTG I now know what “Molon Labe” means.; 2/4/21, 9:13 PM
Ken B said...: Remember A&E? Arts and Entertainment. Hasn’t been any Arts for a decade or more, and not much entertainment. Storage wars. That’s what happened to the History channel too.; 2/4/21, 9:14 PM
rhhardin said...: Levinas (Totality and Infinity) takes ethics as fundamental and ontology as secondary and derived from it. Put it that the ethical social relation is what stabilizes truth.

Derrida, typically, deconstructs it in a way that makes you want to read Levinas.; 2/4/21, 9:17 PM
walter said...: Ken,
Is Justin about to put the smackdown on Joementia re Keystone?
Practicing in mirror first? (sipping from cardboard box water); 2/4/21, 9:22 PM
Ken B said...: Until I was about 30 I had almost no engagement with popular culture. I had read War & Peace twice, and Dante 3 times, and listened to thousands of pieces of classical music back 800 years, and watched old movies. But no Steven King, had only seen one Arnold movie, never heard of most rock groups or rappers.

I think it’s better to withdraw as much as possible from pop culture. Hard, because some forms of it are addictive. Shitty but addictive. But to paraphrase Browndog, American pop culture (which includes Canadian pop culture) is a clown culture with no virtue. Even just look at the bestseller section of bookstores. Half the books are X's something written by Y. Tom Clancy's Shit Show (written by Untal Entedhack.) Wet Ass Pussy *is* the culture.; 2/4/21, 9:24 PM
rhhardin said...: Levinas says the original, phenomenological drive for rights was about defending the rights of the other guy. Totalizers and theorizers reversed the direction and made it come from a contest of wills over ensuring your own rights, as the only thing that made sense in the system they imagined.; 2/4/21, 9:25 PM
Ken B said...: Walter
Justin couldn’t put the smack down on little Justin, if you know what I mean.

Although that’s maybe unfair. He did physically assault two members of parliament, one a woman whom he elbowed in the breath saying “get the fuck out of my way” so I guess he could pick on a senile dodderer if he has a drink to work up the courage.; 2/4/21, 9:27 PM
rhhardin said...: Levinas's trick was noticing that you become unique and irreplaceable only when you're called on to help somebody else. Until then you're not a you at all. Which is the phenomenology he uses. You will have noticed it or not.

You need a you to get anything at all going, hence everything comes from that ethical relation of defending the other.; 2/4/21, 9:28 PM
rhhardin said...: If blacks want dignity as a race, they have to take up a collection as blacks for poor whites.

They're doing the opposite; and they're feeling that dignity is still being withheld from them. They're withholding it from themselves.; 2/4/21, 9:30 PM
narciso said...: This is who should have been removed from committes

https://mobile.twitter.com/derekahunter/status/1357514154794496000; 2/4/21, 9:35 PM
Gospace said...: A two month long terror alert? Doesn’t meet any conventional definition of the word “alert”.

But then the state of emergency we’re in to justify mask wearing and shutting down the economy has long since exhausted any meaningful definition of “emergency “.; 2/4/21, 9:36 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: I'm not sure why suddenly all the headlines about the Bureau of Land Management & Cathode Ray Tubes. Seems like two pretty obscure subjects.; 2/4/21, 9:36 PM
narciso said...: Seriously

https://mobile.twitter.com/VICE/status/1356422103944335363; 2/4/21, 9:37 PM
Sebastian said...: Blogger YoungHegelian said...
@etbas

"I see post-modernism as descriptive, not as proscriptive."

Yes, but that does not prevent CRT adherents from using PM to tear down structures they dislike, and then to switch to a Social Justice prescriptive frame.

"But, for CRT, their moral claims are just one more competing discourse to be de-centered, their social relations just one instance of the Will To Power. Why should anyone choose their discourses?"

Strictly speaking, they can't say, but in practice they don't speak strictly. The Will to Power of the Other, the Underprivileged, the Subaltern is superior--as a matter of compensatory justice and payback, to start with.

"Why should we be moved by it? More importantly, why should I importune myself & deprive myself of anything, including my white privilege, for something that the very adherents tell me is not truth, for there is no such thing, but just one more construct?"

Again, logically this is true, but not emotionally or ideologically. Some constructs are more equal than others, and "we" need not be moved as long as we submit.; 2/4/21, 9:42 PM
walter said...: Poor Kamala.
She couldn't even wait to finish speaking before vacating her lectern/speaky thing at State Derpt address.
Blinken gave brief ass kissing.
Then Joementia went to lectern and searched for the exited Blinken.
Beautiful things...; 2/4/21, 9:52 PM
walter said...: "America is back!"; 2/4/21, 9:54 PM
Ken B said...: Scott Adams
@ScottAdamsSays

To be more blunt, perhaps the average Japanese teen cares if his grandparents live or die, and acts that way even when no one is looking. American teens really don't care if their actions kill millions of seniors. That's the cold truth.

=============

True also of our resident denialists. A partial list would include Yancey Ward, Achilles, Pants, Big Mike, Odious Mike, John Henry.; 2/4/21, 9:55 PM
walter said...: Diversity, equity, inclusion..; 2/4/21, 9:55 PM
walter said...: List-meister Ken.
We have certainly not submitted to enough covid-pression.
Just ask any older folk with co-morbidities.
OK, just some of them...; 2/4/21, 10:01 PM
effinayright said...: rehajm said...

Apropos of nothing 50% of Canadians Live South of The Red Line

Good thing Canada has a strong southern border to keep them all in
****************

I propose they split into two countries, with new names:

North of the Red Line: Muklukland

South of the Red Line: Zambonia; 2/4/21, 10:02 PM
walter said...: A covid hepcat like Ken can certainly tell us when CDC began pushback against teacher unions' fear of in school schooling.; 2/4/21, 10:05 PM
Ken B said...: Oh, Walter. I certainly don’t mean to imply my list includes all the moral failures in America. Or even on this blog. But if you want to proclaim “hey, I’m no more selfishly hypocritical than the Chicago Teachers' Union” have at it.; 2/4/21, 10:09 PM
Ken B said...: Few trolls tonight. Is there a meeting of the Trumper Sore Loser Club Thursdays?; 2/4/21, 10:12 PM
walter said...: Ha!
Regarding teacher's unions, Ken, WWReagan Do?; 2/4/21, 10:15 PM
walter said...: Face it. You are more Carter sweater talk.; 2/4/21, 10:18 PM
Roger This said...: Sorry, Ken B.

Late Troll reporting for duty.

Sorry for the delay...

Too busy enjoying America.

Didn't realize you were bored up there in icey-land.; 2/4/21, 10:22 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "Watching this new (for me) series -- The Fall. It's British."

The first two seasons were outstanding. The villain is among the best written for any crime drama ever. The third season, however, was unnecessary to the story, and mostly disappointed me.; 2/4/21, 10:24 PM
stephen cooper said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/4/21, 10:25 PM
Ken B said...: Good to see you Roger. But you really need to up your game.

Is America more fun now that you have no constitution and the DoD is preparing drone strikes on Omaha?; 2/4/21, 10:26 PM
stephen cooper said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/4/21, 10:26 PM
J. Farmer said...: @etbass:

I researched on Wikipedia, just what is Critical Race Theory, having seen no explanation anywhere else. It's just as well because this subject is way beyond my pay grade even with a masters in Engineering, I still am unable to make any sense of the intersectionality and other B.S. that envelopes and permeates Critical Race Theory. I can now understand why it could take a college career to fathom the depths of this completely non-sensical concept.

Allow me to offer an alternative hypothesis. In the course of your research you encounter numerous terms, concepts, and areas of inquiry you were unfamiliar with. Realizing that it will take more than an hour on the Internet to understand critical race theory, you declare that critical race theory is non-sensical B.S.

Human societies are massively complex arrangements. Whatever you think of the profession, the questions the social sciences ask are not simple ones. How individual human behavior occurs is not known. There is no theory of psychology. There are a handful of different "approaches" with dozens of schools between them. We can't explain how one mind works, let alone how that mind interacts and coexists with billions of other minds.

If that wasn't a tall enough order, society also produces and is produced by "culture." Talk about an embarrassment of riches. You have tens of thousands of years worth of material stretching from archaeological discovers in the Upper Paleolithic to the emergence of writing systems in the Bronze Age to the contemporary corpus of world humanities.

In short, the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon.; 2/4/21, 10:27 PM
stephen cooper said...: God loves you all my friends.

Think hard, think as hard as you can, about the best thing you ever did.

I am serious.

Think about that, because some day some loser in life is gonna ask you, who are you, what did you ever do for anyone.

AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SAY .....

Well, this one time, I did this one nice thing that I did not have to do, and it did not do me any good.

TRUST ME YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT THAT WAS; 2/4/21, 10:30 PM
walter said...: Kyle Becker
@kylenabecker
·
17m
Democrat lies in need of a mainstream media ‘fact check’:

• Biden claims he was ‘shot at’ overseas
• AOC claims Cruz tried to have her ‘murdered’
• Trump ‘solely responsible’ for pre-planned Capitol attack; 2/4/21, 10:34 PM
stephen cooper said...: not for yourself, but for the person who trusts you to have done such a thing.

as for me ....

don't worry. don't worry about me. trust me, the person who needs you to tell them about the one time you did the right thing does not care even a little bit about whether I ever did the right thing or not.

Pleasanton 74 - in case they ask ----- BUT THEY WON'T ASK.

Anyone reading this and thinking you are having a bad night, a bad day, that God does not love you, that you were fated to be a failure ..... TRUST ME ---- GOD LOVES YOU, TODAY IS A GOOD DAY.

you are not a failure. GOD LOVES YOU.

if, some day years from now, you want to know about Pleasanton, and 1974 ---- well, just make up a story.

God loves you, whoever you are.

Anyone who tells you different ---- trust me, they are frightened of people like me.
And they are liars ---- God loves you, and anyone tells you different, they are liars.; 2/4/21, 10:35 PM
Ken B said...: Farmer
How many theories of finite vector spaces are there? How many theories of Electrodynamics?
Why?; 2/4/21, 10:36 PM
FullMoon said...: "78-year-old Joe Biden on Thursday revived his old, dubious claim he was “shot at” overseas during a foreign policy speech at the State Department.

Biden’s speech was painful to listen to because of his labored breathing and slurred speech.

Joe Biden told a group of diplomatic aides at the State Department that he was “shot at.”

“You have great personal courage. I’ve been with some of you when we’ve been shot at. I’ve been with some of you in places that you would not have any idea you’d want to be,” Biden said.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/joe-biden-revives-old-dubious-claim-shot-overseas-video/

Biden actually walked back this same claim in 2007 after veterans blasted him for embellishing his story of coming under fire.

Joe Biden claimed during a presidential debate in 2007 that he was shot at in Baghdad’s “Green Zone.”

Biden later walked back his claim and said, “I was near where a shot landed.”

Biden’s aides tried to come to his rescue and offered other examples of Biden coming under fire.

One aide claimed a building in Iraq’s Green Zone was rattled when a mortar was fired nearby while Biden was inside shaving.

In 2007, The Hill reported that Biden also claimed a bullet narrowly missed a helicopter he and his aides were flying in en route to the Baghdad airport.

“The nuance of being shot at or shot near means nothing in a war zone. The point Sen. Biden was making is that Iraq is a dangerous place — for our troops, for Iraqis, for everyone.”

Joe Biden constantly lies about his past to sound like a tough guy.

One of Biden’s favorite lies to tell people is that he marched in the Civil Rights movement"; 2/4/21, 10:36 PM
stephen cooper said...: Think hard about the best thing you ever did.

I could not have done that, probably.

And you did it.

Do it again, or do something like that again.

God loves you, and anyone tells you different, or anyone who says God does not exist ---I pity them, and so should you.; 2/4/21, 10:37 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Reporting for duty, too! Sorry, but I was out spreading COVID tonight with my maskless face. By the way, how is Canada doing with COVID, Ken? I read that they had beaten it back like New York state had done last Summer, and that Tradeau was thinking about writing a book about the amazing success of the effort.; 2/4/21, 10:38 PM
mockturtle said...: Hillary, Kamala, Elizabeth W. and Joe all make up stories about their past. It must be a Democrat disease.; 2/4/21, 10:40 PM
Yancey Ward said...: The only time Biden has been shot at was likely when some father caught him groping the 12 year old daughter.; 2/4/21, 10:41 PM
stephen cooper said...: Whatever the best thing you ever did was
I probably could not have done it

I have friends who are considered to be among the most wonderful people in the world

and whatever the best thing you ever did was

none of my friends could have done it

Only you could have done it.

REMEMBER THAT; 2/4/21, 10:42 PM
Ken B said...: Farmer
You ever study topology? Probably not is my guess. But I bet I could give you, Feynman style, a decent explanation of what the subject is in an afternoon. There is a reason for that, and the reason is not that I’m a great teacher. It’s that real subjects have content that can be explained at different levels of specificity in a coherent fashion. And bullshit subjects cannot.

Here is the infallible rule for bullshit. With real subjects I can point you at any number of texts or lectures, and tell you to learn a *topic*. Learn linear algebra. The topic does not rely on any one idiosyncratic person or book. With bullshit I send you to specific persons or specific books. Read Derrida.; 2/4/21, 10:43 PM
stephen cooper said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/4/21, 10:44 PM
walter said...: Decades of lies under supposed political examination landed him at the helm, swinging his EO stamp at end of a frail, demented arm.; 2/4/21, 10:44 PM
Ken B said...: Oh Yancey, I quite agree Trudeau is shameful. See some of my earlier comments. But bad government is not the same thing as shrugging off the deaths of old folks because they don’t matter to you.; 2/4/21, 10:45 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Narr:

Not to be critical, but wouldn't just plain Race Theory be simpler?

Indeed. And cleverly rendered. The "race theory" is the description, and the "critical" is the prescription. That is, the notion that a theory is "critical" means it isn't just trying to explain social phenomena but also explain how they can be changed. That's an area it is often criticized for. Even if it got the "race theory" right, it wouldn't mean the "critical" component were accurate. As is sometimes said of Marxist thinking, "Right description, wrong prescription; 2/4/21, 10:49 PM
walter said...: We should all appreciate the plasti-cybertech involved in the update of john Kerry.
"Come on, man!"; 2/4/21, 10:53 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Critical Race Theory is a repudiation of Equal Protection clause in the 14th Amendment. It's also a repudiation of Brown v. Board of Education. Slap anyone who tries to shame you with CRT. The only useful CRT was invented in 1897 and called the "Braun tube", after its inventor, Ferdinand Braun. Accept no substitutes for Mr. Braun's invention. Ridicule every other invocation of CRT.; 2/4/21, 10:56 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: "We should all appreciate the plasti-cybertech involved in the update of john Kerry."

Mark Steyn referred to Kerry as an Easter Island statue today. I laughed.; 2/4/21, 10:57 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Ken, how do you know the deaths don't matter to me? Have I ever written the deaths don't matter? All I ever did was point out that 3 million Americans will die with or without COVID in a year's time, and that over a 2-3 year span, 95% of the people who did die of COVID would have died anyway of something else. I even wrote that the measures being taken would end up killing more people than the virus itself. Do those deaths matter to you? Based on what you write, and using the exact same argumentation you use with me, I could easily accuse of you killing the young.

I think your real problem with me and the other "deniers" is that we were right all along- that the measures being taken wouldn't do a damned thing to stop the virus regardless of how deadly it was, and would end up causing more problems than they could ever hope to solve. And we were right- this Fall and Winter proved it. All of those success stories about smart government interventions saving people turned out to be just shit in the end as almost the entire western world converges to the same outcomes. You side of the debate didn't get anything right- you overestimated the mortality, and you overestimated the efficacy of the NPIs. You would go a long way to redeeming yourself if you just admitted right now that you didn't get anything right about the pandemic. I could respect that because you wouldn't be alone in getting it all completely wrong, but you would be fairly unusual in admitting it. But you are just a coward who likes to blood libel people.; 2/4/21, 10:58 PM
Ken B said...: Walter: “ Decades of lies under supposed political examination landed him at the helm, swinging his EO stamp at end of a frail, demented arm.”

Stop. You’re making Inga wet.; 2/4/21, 10:59 PM
walter said...: I laughed too.
But the reality is he has managed to aesthetically reverse age himself.
To the unaware he doesn't come across as the synthetically refined being he has become.; 2/4/21, 11:02 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Biden has been shot at in Baghdad. AOC was nearly murdered at the Capitol. I've been to Auschwitz, so I'm basically a Holocaust survivor.; 2/4/21, 11:02 PM
walter said...: re Kerry; 2/4/21, 11:03 PM
Yancey Ward said...: And the worst thing about your predictions is that the data disproving them was known by last March at the latest. Yes, I vastly underestimated the mortality rate, but that didn't effect any of my recommendations for policy- literally none of them. I could have been times as wrong as I was and it wouldn't have made a difference to what policies I would have implemented. It isn't indifference to the dying, it is simple humility that I can't stop it with government policy. That you don't get the distinction, or choose to pretend that you don't, tells me a lot about you, and none of it is reflects well on you.; 2/4/21, 11:05 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Goodnight all, except for K(ar)en B who can go fuck himself like he usually does.; 2/4/21, 11:07 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Why do people ridicule poor John Kerry. He's trying to save the planet! He must fly his gas-guzzling private jet around the planet so he can lecture everyone about the coming doom of the climate crisis. The Climate Models tell him that the temperature is rising at an incredible rate and we'll all be dead in 12 years, or was it 8? Never mind that the climate models don't match the historical record, he'll tell you to ignore your eyes and just follow his lead. He'll be glad to sell you some carbon-credit indulgences!

He's never wrong! After all, he told us that Israel could never make peace with the Arab world unless the Palestinians made peace first, right? And that the Arab world would revolt if the if the U.S. moved our embassy to Jerusalem. And that killing the IRGC commander would start WWIII! Oh, right, Israel did make peace with some in the Arab world, there was no reaction to moving the embassy and WWIII didn't start. Well, Zero out of three ain't bad, right?; 2/4/21, 11:09 PM
walter said...: If they weren't "2 white dudes from FLA", send forth DeSantis and Gaetz.
(time to move?); 2/4/21, 11:09 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Ken B:

Here is the infallible rule for bullshit. With real subjects I can point you at any number of texts or lectures, and tell you to learn a *topic*

I'd be much less skeptical of your "great teacher" claims if you weren't such a poor student. Let me give you an analogy. If someone with only a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry declared that he wanted to understand carboxylic acids, so he grabbed an organic chem book, read chapter 27, didn't understand the terms and concepts discussed, and then concluded that carboxylic acids were non-sensical, how confident would you be in that conclusion?; 2/4/21, 11:15 PM
Ken B said...: Yancey Ward
You objected to *15 days* of limits, which you portrayed as an unjustifiable cost. That’s an outrageous slighting of the risk as it was then known. You analyzed and decided it was just oldsters who would have died of the flu anyway. And then, to bolster your case, you predicted 7500 deaths total from all waves of the epidemic combined. (Talk about wrong predictions! ) So I think it’s perfectly fair to tag you with a nearly complete disregard for the risk to others, especially oldsters. I gladly stipulate others were worse.

Of course you weren’t right, and covid is still a threat and will be until we get the most vulnerable vaccinated, and then reach herd immunity. Refusing to mask in current conditions is like refusing to signal in traffic.; 2/4/21, 11:17 PM
walter said...: If you have power but don't have personal financial issues threatened "existentially", best find a way to make it so.; 2/4/21, 11:18 PM
stephen cooper said...: Yancey be nice ...

God loves us all.

Don't insult dudes by telling them they are not dudes, don't insult women by telling them they are really dudes. THAT IS MADNESS, and you can't mean it.

and please make a good-hearted effort not to ever tell someone to F*** off again. People have told me that and I was in despair for them, knowing how cold their hearts must have been, not to know how wrong they were to say such a thing to me.

And yes I have known lots of foul-mouthed soldiers, lots of guys who thought they were tough guys. Trust me, there came a day when the foul-mouthed soldiers agreed with me that they should not have been what they were with respect to their love fro vicious vulgar words, there came a day when the tough guys who thought they were tougher than me were embarrassed to have ever thought such a foolish thing.

This is the internet, there are lots of folks who say things they should not say.
HAVE SOME COMPASSION ON THEM. stop fighting so hard. have some pity.
You think they woke up this morning, saying to themselves, I hope I piss off someone like Yancey?

NO THEY DID NOT.

There is nothing wrong with being stupid. Being proud about being stupid, that's another story, but it is above your pay grade, trust me. People like that are not gonna listen to you, ever.

that being said, why do i bother. i mean i know why ----- i just have to say, i also know that almost nobody else knows why.; 2/4/21, 11:20 PM
walter said...: Hey Ken,
Who is the Fauci or Redbern ..etc. of your country?
(Strange I should have to ask); 2/4/21, 11:22 PM
Ken B said...: Ah Farmer you are a wonder. First, I disclaimed being a great teacher. So you got that wrong. Then you completely botch the argument. If he can go to any one of a number of standard texts where the topic is discussed, then that passes my test. Carbon chemistry is areal subject.; 2/4/21, 11:22 PM
stephen cooper said...: I guarantee you nobody reading this tonight, or any time in the next hundred years, is gonna offer up a reasonable argument along the lines that "stephen cooper" did not know what he was talking about when he said that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING STUPID JUST DON'T BE PROUD ABOUT IT.; 2/4/21, 11:23 PM
walter said...: Strange you would'nt put forth...; 2/4/21, 11:24 PM
Hey Skipper said...: Yancey, you did indeed underestimate mortality, but not by nearly as much as the experts overestimated not only mortality, but our ability to do anything about it.

I’m not in the business of tongue baths, but you called it from the outset.

Ken B, Inga, et al: what is your empirical evidence that masks reduce infection risk from pre- and asymptomatic people?

What is your evidence that any mandate changed the impact of C-19?; 2/4/21, 11:31 PM
walter said...: skip,
Do your calculations consider incentivizing of classification?; 2/4/21, 11:34 PM
Titus said...: I just watched the inauguration. If anyone wonders. The gays are back in charge. Lady gaga, j lo and Katy perry. So gay. Eat it althouse rebulicans.; 2/4/21, 11:34 PM
stephen cooper said...: Titus don't use foul language it is beneath you.; 2/4/21, 11:38 PM
Ken B said...: Hey Skipper
As you know, I posted an article twice here in the past week that did just that. But contour bad faith demands by all means.; 2/4/21, 11:49 PM
walter said...: Guess what Ken!
Not all visitors track your every post ;); 2/4/21, 11:53 PM
effinayright said...: J Farmer said:

In short, the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon.
***********************

Neither are STEM courses. Or law. Or medicine.

What's yer point?; 2/4/21, 11:56 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: Anyone planning on reading Hunter's memoir? Don't scoff, it will be the most you will learn about his laptop from here on out, if he happens to mention it.; 2/4/21, 11:56 PM
walter said...: Poor Scott Adams, peering at CA skate punks without masks.
"Heavens..not literally..but..heavens"; 2/5/21, 12:00 AM
J. Farmer said...: wholelottasplainin':

Neither are STEM courses. Or law. Or medicine.

What's yer point?,

That just like for any number of subspecialties within those fields, it is not realistic to expect to understand it after an hour of reading. Failure to understand it in that timeframe isn't evidence that the material is non-sensical.; 2/5/21, 12:04 AM
effinayright said...: And Farmer: ANY body of thought premised on the self-serving notion that if you disagree with it, that MEANS you don't understand it, is bullshit.

And any body of thought that says that if you disagree with its premises (such as, "all white people are conscious or unconscious racists") your disagreement is PROOF that you are a racist) is bullshit to the nth power.

CRT isn't a "discipline", it's a self-serving SCAM.; 2/5/21, 12:07 AM
walter said...: walter said...

Ha!
Regarding teacher's unions, Ken, WWReagan Do?

2/4/21, 10:15 PM Delete; 2/5/21, 12:10 AM
effinayright said...: Farmer, as you well know, many people here are comfortable offering *opinions* about topics they have varying degrees of knowledge of.

CRT's adherents hold it out not just as a "theory" or opinion but an unassailable FACT.

Those adherents brook no disagreement, and as I just posted, any disagreement is offered as evidence that the "theory" IS correct, that "systemic racism", "white supremacy", and "white privilege" are all TRUE, and that those who offer supporting reasoning for their disagreement are just doubling-down racists.

Any "theory" that insists up-front that it can't be wrong, is bullshit.; 2/5/21, 12:22 AM
Mutaman said...: "American pop culture (which includes Canadian pop culture) is a clown culture with no virtue."

"I was allowed to believe things which weren't true"; 2/5/21, 12:35 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: The irony of the "systematic racism" claim is that it is exactly what Democrats have designed for decades. There are no laws that define white min wage is $10/hour and black min wage is $6/hour, and it's not that Universities require an SAT of 1200 for whites and 1400 for blacks.

It's that Democrats have made for certain that blacks will never be properly educated, and that social welfare programs are certainly designed to decimate the family structure of anyone that must rely on them. One more thing, if you apply the "disproportionate effect" standard to abortions, you cannot conclude anything short of genocide.; 2/5/21, 12:39 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Ken B:

Ah Farmer you are a wonder.

Your pissiness would be more tolerable if it weren't in the defense of a dumb strawman argument and your sloppy reading. Allow me to quote a couple of sentences from the comment you replied to:

"Realizing that it will take more than an hour on the Internet to understand..."

"In short, the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon."

Hmm...more than an hour? In an afternoon? As if it takes time to understand a complex subject matter. Luckily you were to drop this fucking genius-level insight on me: "subjects have content that can be explained at different levels of specificity in a coherent fashion."

Well no fucking shit, Captain Obvious. If I didn't think it could "be explained at different levels of specificity in a coherent fashion," I wouldn't emphasize the time it takes to learn it. There are introductory works on the subject available through the major textbook publishers.; 2/5/21, 12:46 AM
J. Farmer said...: @wholelottasplainin':

And Farmer: ANY body of thought premised on the self-serving notion that if you disagree with it, that MEANS you don't understand it, is bullshit.

Except it isn't premised on any such notion.

And any body of thought that says that if you disagree with its premises (such as, "all white people are conscious or unconscious racists") your disagreement is PROOF that you are a racist) is bullshit to the nth power.

It does not say that either.

CRT isn't a "discipline", it's a self-serving SCAM.

I am not a proponent of critical race theory. I think it has lots of problems and is a school of though that should be abandoned. Nonetheless, in order to be a critical of an argument, you first have to understand the argument.; 2/5/21, 12:56 AM
Gospace said...: Titus said...
I just watched the inauguration. If anyone wonders. The gays are back in charge. Lady gaga, j lo and Katy perry. So gay. Eat it althouse rebulicans.

I was passing through the snack aisle of Walmart and noticed- "Lady Gaga Oreos". My only thought- I don't even want to know what flavor they might pretend to be. A few days later went shopping with my wife- we rarely food shop together- I buy most of the food- and pointed them out to her. She picked up a package, looked at the color, and said- "They look gross." The pile looked as big as it had been a few days earlier. I wonder if anyone is actually buying them...

But Titus- a question. What exactly are are Lady Gaga, J Lo, and Katy Perry in charge of? Foreign policy? Immigration law? Men pretending to be women competing in women's sports? Military strategy? I'm curious.; 2/5/21, 1:17 AM
Readering said...: I now see the problem. AA commenters were allowed to believe things that aren't true.; 2/5/21, 1:39 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Rt41Rebel:

It's that Democrats have made for certain that blacks will never be properly educated, and that social welfare programs are certainly designed to decimate the family structure of anyone that must rely on them.

Well, that's the acid trip version of an argument that goes back at least to Charles Murray's Losing Ground.The argument was that AFDC providing financial assistance to single mothers created a set of incentives that were likely to increase the prevalence of single-motherhood. This increased prevalence of single-motherhood was then identified as the cause of the black-white gap in economics, education, and criminality.

I think it's a strong argument, and I'd been a proponent of it in the past. Subsequent data and events suggest it isn't so strong. It suggests that the welfare incentives did have an impact on increased single-motherhood but only explained a relatively small share of the increase. The advent of oral contraception, the decline in shotgun weddings, and the legalization of abortion all seem to have had an impact.

The increased prevalence of single-parenthood also does not explain the increase in crime through the 70s and 80s of subsequent decline since the 90s. Neither does the 90s welfare reform. The black-white gap persists even among married families.; 2/5/21, 1:47 AM
Gospace said...: J. Farmer said...
@Ken B:

Ah Farmer you are a wonder.

Your pissiness would be more tolerable if it weren't in the defense of a dumb strawman argument and your sloppy reading. Allow me to quote a couple of sentences from the comment you replied to:

"Realizing that it will take more than an hour on the Internet to understand..."

"In short, the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon."

You're right. Takes less than an hour. You just need the basics and the buzzwords, because it's pretty much all nonsense. It's like pre-employment exams for retail at major retailers. I've had to coach several very smart people on how to pass them. The coaching is rather simple- LIE! You have to put down the answers that the social science majors who populate human resources departments want, not the truth.

I needed a few upper level credits to complete a bachelors degree. SUNY Regents College (among others) gave the advanced credits f you scored high enough on the GRE subject matter exam. I've taken quite a few engineering and science course with such names as reactor physics and fluid dynamics. I took the practice exams for physics and few other "real" majors. And decided I couldn't pass them. So I took the practice exams for a few social science subjects. Took the GRE for Political Science. Scored in the 90th percentile. I've never taken a single college level course in political science. Got the credits I needed.

Just for grins and giggles I took several Dantes exams my last year on active duty. Recommended ACE credits 3 in Introductory Sociology, Contemporary Western Europe, and American Government. Total college level courses taken in those areas- zero.; 2/5/21, 1:56 AM
Rusty said...: Readering said...
"I now see the problem. AA commenters were allowed to believe things that aren't true."
Ok. Sure, why not?
Suppose you set us straight, hot shot. C'mon. make with the insights.; 2/5/21, 5:25 AM
Humperdink said...: Critical Race Theory got you down? Confused on race? Not sure what POC means? Or "one drop of black blood"? Not to worry, Biden's Reality Czar will clear this up for you. Toss in a sprinkle of Snopes and you will be home free.; 2/5/21, 5:31 AM
Largo said...: Ken B:

I think it reasonable to say that when one has grokked the nature and significance of compactness, one has become a mathematician.; 2/5/21, 5:44 AM
MadTownGuy said...: I'm seeing more stuff like this, and I think it's a result of local and state governments' discovery of authority to restrict travel:

‘This is going to be for a long period of time’: Dane County officials issue warning ahead of ten day cold stretch

"We cannot control weather, but we can control how we behave and deal with the situation,” [Dane County Emergency Management Director Charles] Tubbs said. “If you don’t need to travel, we’re recommending not traveling."

How long before 'recommending' becomes 'ordering?' It's already here in PA. From a couple days back:

Travel restrictions remain in effect Tuesday on several Pa. highways, including turnpike

"Travel restrictions are still being enforced late Tuesday morning on northeastern Pennsylvania highways while crews work to clear the remnants of marathon snowstorms, PennDOT officials warned."

This event was not a marathon snowstorm. 14" at most, over two days. Since we're new to the Commonwealth, I don't know if this has been PennDOT's practice for a long time, but shutting down the interstates seems a bit over the top. Even in WI where there are gates to prevent access to interstate highways, in our 25+ years there I don't recall that they were ever used, except for that time when people were stand on southbound I-90 and they closed the gates after the fact.; 2/5/21, 5:44 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Last I heard, Kerry said we only have 9 more years. Seems to me we've been "only having" for the last 50 years. First... the ice age declaration in 1978 and since then varietal warming. From 1978 there was also the aquifers leaching fertilizers into our national water supplies. Perhaps George Carlin's "Al Sleet" need to be brought back to our conscious level.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.; 2/5/21, 5:45 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Senile one appointing a 'Reality Czar'. Discuss.; 2/5/21, 5:47 AM
Humperdink said...: Race discussion always amuses me. Come to our small inner-city church on Sunday. Look around. You would think you were at the UN.; 2/5/21, 6:00 AM
Breezy said...: So bizarre to have a reality czar! We’re all reality czars. Do they actually think they can force their reality on anyone? Haha! This is juvenile.; 2/5/21, 6:03 AM
Humperdink said...: First there were newspaper writers, then editors, then fact checkers (my favorite), now on to reality czars.; 2/5/21, 6:14 AM
Fernandinande said...: In short, the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon.

Most of it is misleading bullshit with no predictive power, Critical Race Theory being an excellent example.

CRT might seem complicated because they're trying to explain observations based on a major false premise, namely that the races are equivalent, if not exactly the same, in every aspect that's important to functioning in a modern society. CRT's avoidance of the obvious reality makes it convoluted, not complicated or subtle.; 2/5/21, 7:20 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Unusual candor from the NYT. It's from an email newsletter, so no link, but here's the info:

Good morning. Why aren’t progressive leaders doing a better job at mass vaccination?

The left’s vaccine problem

Early in the pandemic, countries with populist, right-wing governments were suffering some of the worst outbreaks. These countries had big differences from one another — the list included Brazil, Britain, Russia and the U.S. — but their problems all stemmed partly from leaders who rejected scientific expertise.

More progressive and technocratic countries — with both center-left and center-right leaders, like Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — were doing a better job containing the pandemic. The pattern seemed to make sense: Politicians who believed in the ability of bureaucracies to accomplish complex jobs were succeeding at precisely that.

But over the last few weeks, as vaccination has become a top priority, the pattern has changed. Progressive leaders in much of the world are now struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines quickly and efficiently:

Europe’s vaccination rollout “has descended into chaos,” as Sylvie Kauffmann of Le Monde, the French newspaper, has written. One of the worst performers is the Netherlands, which has given a shot to less than 2 percent of residents.

Canada (at less than 3 percent) is far behind the U.S. (about 8.4 percent).
Within the U.S., many Democratic states — like California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and tiny Rhode Island — are below the national average. “The parts of the country that pride themselves on taking Covid seriously and believing in government are not covering themselves in glory,” The Times’s Ezra Klein has written.

The success stories
At the same time, there are clear success stories in places that few people would describe as progressive.

Alaska and West Virginia and have the two highest vaccination rates among U.S. states, with Oklahoma and the Dakotas also above average. Globally, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have the highest rates. Britain — run by Boris Johnson, a populist Conservative — has vaccinated more than 15 percent of residents.

International patterns are rarely perfect, and this one has plenty of exceptions (like Iowa and Idaho, two red-state laggards, or New Mexico, a blue state that’s above average). So far, though, it’s hard to find many progressive governments that are vaccination role models.; 2/5/21, 7:28 AM
MadTownGuy said...: ...continued...

Why? A common problem seems to be a focus on process rather than on getting shots into arms. Some progressive leaders are effectively sacrificing efficiency for what they consider to be equity.

The European Union has taken a ponderous, risk-averse approach that tries to avoid upsetting its member countries, Kauffmann points out. Similarly, many U.S. states have delegated decisions to local health officials and have suffered from “confusion and competition among localities,” William Galston of the Brookings Institution has written. State leaders in Alaska and West Virginia have taken a more top-down approach, Elaine Povich of Stateline has reported.

Some blue states have also created intricate rules about who qualifies for a vaccine and then made a big effort to keep anybody else from getting a shot. These complicated rules have slowed vaccination in both California and New York.

“Across New York State,” my colleague Dana Rubinstein has written, medical providers have had “to throw out precious vaccine doses because of difficulties finding patients who matched precisely with the state’s strict vaccination guidelines — and the steep penalties they would face had they made a mistake.”

What will Biden do?

The world has one new, and very high-profile, progressive government with a chance to show it can do better: the Biden administration.

The Trump administration fell far short of its own goal for vaccination speed, but by its final days it did get the country close to President Biden’s stated goal of 1 million shots per day. Biden has since suggested his new goal is 1.5 million per day.

To make this happen, the administration is pushing Moderna and Pfizer to accelerate production, as well as helping states open mass-vaccination clinics and expand drugstore programs, according to The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg. If the government gives Johnson & Johnson permission to begin distributing its vaccine this month, as appears likely, that will help, too.

The trade-offs between equity and efficiency are real: Rapid vaccination programs will first reach many relatively privileged people. But the trade-offs may be smaller than that sentence suggests. Covid has exacted a terribly unequal toll partly because people in vulnerable groups have suffered more severe versions of the disease, as a result of underlying health conditions.

The most effective way to save lives is probably to vaccinate people as quickly as possible."; 2/5/21, 7:29 AM
Rusty said...: Readering must be on a break. He'll get back to us when he's done.; 2/5/21, 7:36 AM
mockturtle said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/5/21, 8:16 AM
CWJ said...: "Biden has been shot at in Baghdad. AOC was nearly murdered at the Capitol. I've been to Auschwitz, so I'm basically a Holocaust survivor."

JaimeRoberto,
I wish I had seen that last night, so this would be more timely. I think you're more correct than you imagine. I really wonder what percentage of Auschwitz tourists go there to rub shoulders with victimhood and bask in their own moral superiority.

My Polish exchange son, who lives in Krakow and whose grandfather was an Auschwitz inmate, when asked, said "Why would I want to go there?"; 2/5/21, 8:27 AM
Hey Skipper said...: “Ken B: As you know, I posted an article twice here in the past week that did just that. But contour bad faith demands by all means.”

No, I don’t know. I don’t read every comment on every thread. Is re-posting the link that hard?

Here is all the proof you need that Yancey was right: mandates and masks are futile against an upper respiratory virus.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases-50-states

Note that there is no correlation with mandates, only regional and seasonal. No government action between early Dec and mid Jan caused the precipitous nationwide drop in infections. That has been down to one thing: the virus running out of susceptible people to infect.

Then look at the infection timeline by state, which includes when each mandate occurred, and what it was. Note the complete lack of correlation between mandates and rates.

It’s all been completely futile, which was obvious months ago.

I’m too lazy to find it, but in November I predicted that C-19 was going to be on the wane by mid March. Turns out I underestimated the infection to case ratio. I guessed three, it is likely four to five.

Oh, here’s another prediction: the vaccine will make no detectable difference in infection rates. It is three months too late, and at least ⅔ of shots are going into arms that don’t need them.; 2/5/21, 8:40 AM
Iman said...: Someone should ask Scott Adams about the time he, Monte and I met with our VP Edrington to discuss status of our consortium fiber project and VP began talking about his daughter Victoria and a storybook character named Bunny Fru-fru.; 2/5/21, 8:47 AM
J. Farmer said...: @gospace:

You're right. Takes less than an hour. You just need the basics and the buzzwords...I took the practice exams for physics and few other "real" majors. And decided I couldn't pass them. So I took the practice exams for a few social science subjects. Took the GRE for Political Science. Scored in the 90th percentile. I've never taken a single college level course in political science...I took several Dantes exams my last year on active duty. Recommended ACE credits 3 in Introductory Sociology, Contemporary Western Europe, and American Government. Total college level courses taken in those areas- zero.

Congratulations. Just for grins and giggles, let's examine some really basic faults in your argument.

I said it takes "more than an hour on the Internet to understand critical race theory," and you scoffed that it takes "less than an hour" to game some test. Being able to game some test on a subject matter to earn a passing grade is a very different objective than understanding the subject matter.

I said that "the social sciences and the humanities are not disciplines you pick up in an afternoon" and you regaled me with your ability to clep several freshman-level survey courses in those disciplines. Generally, students are able to pass introductory sociology or American government or modern European History survey courses without having previously taken "college level courses in those areas." The prerequisites for those courses are what you were doing in high school.

That said, I completely agree with your point that being credentialed is not the same thing as being knowledgeable.; 2/5/21, 8:47 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Fernandinande:

Most of it is misleading bullshit with no predictive power, Critical Race Theory being an excellent example.

There is no "predictive power" in the social sciences or humanities. We have no theory of mind and we have no theory of culture. That does not stop us from continuing to explore the subjects and having opinions on matters of individual psychology and social interaction.; 2/5/21, 9:06 AM
wildswan said...: In Wisconsin vaccines are being distributed. The system is a stated commitment to equity. In the media description vaccines are distributed in phases based on need. But a shadow system is distributing to the privileged as well. Is this bad? Nothing is wasted and things move right along. And one might hope that the privileged would work to lift economy-crippling regulations once they felt safe. But maybe not. The talk is that the vaccinated will get a RFID fob enabling travel and admission to stores while the regulations stay in place. This is the social credit system of China being introduced as a public health measure. Yay Harrisbiden. But why not a chip under the skin? - chip fobs can get lost.; 2/5/21, 9:13 AM
Rusty said...: Somebody go check on readering. Maybe something happened to him.; 2/5/21, 9:20 AM
Ken B said...: Largo
Re compactness. That is a good observation. Though since we are discussing Farmer the notion of density is more apt.; 2/5/21, 9:26 AM
Ken B said...: Hey Skipper
It’s on quillette, with something about covid deniers in the title.; 2/5/21, 9:27 AM
Ken B said...: Farmer
If CRT has no predictive power its predictions should not be used to guide policy. None of us cares what you think of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins unless you use them to justify firing people.

You have admitted that CRT is not fit for purpose. You are just posing now, like some character in a Woody Allen film. Been confronted by Marshall McLuhan in a movie line recently?; 2/5/21, 9:34 AM
Hey Skipper said...: “Farmer: I said it takes "more than an hour on the Internet to understand critical race theory,"“

You are right, it takes more than an hour.

But not a lot more.

Read “Cynical Theories” by Pluckrose and Lindsay. They take the reader through a detailed explanation of post-modernism, Critical Theory, and its various subsets (Race, Gender, etc.)

Despite good writing, it is tough going at times, because of vast amount of turgid nonsense they have to explain. So five hours to comprehend it.

While remembering that these two also punked SJW journals with what should have been transparent bollocks.

It takes a long time to understand Marxism. Much less time to comprehend it is murderous nonsense.

Same with CRT.; 2/5/21, 9:54 AM
Fernandinande said...: There is no "predictive power" in the social sciences ...

That's not completely true, but when it is true it's not science.

That does not stop us from continuing to explore the subjects and having opinions on matters of individual psychology and social interaction.

Opinions are like ... well, I claim to forget what opinions are like.

Reference: https://timecube.2enp.com/ , the CRT of physics.; 2/5/21, 10:23 AM
Hey Skipper said...: Ken B: It’s on quillette, with something about covid deniers in the title.

I had already read that — it isn't really on point.

However, I couldn't help notice this: "Of course lockdowns don’t make the epidemic disappear and of course there are less restrictive policies that can reduce the caseload, but the claim that they don’t work at all is, to put it charitably, disingenuous."

Then shows the infection rate for Ireland, and how it plummeted after the lockdown. Okay, it is plausible there is a cause-effect relationship there.

However, if you refer to, say, Idaho's infection curve from the link I provided above, at almost the same time, Idaho's rate plummeted to the same degree as Ireland's: this week 25% of what they were two months ago.

Without any kind of lockdown, no businesses shut down, and indoor dining.

How could that be?

Of course it is easy to poke at those who deny the existence of Winnie Xi Flu. However, had we followed the deniers recommendations, we would have done nothing, and ended up exactly where we are.

This is strikingly similar to GlobalWarmingClimateChangeDisruptionEmergency.

"Deniers" insist changes in CO2 will have no appreciable effect on climate. They are derided by the same people that are all in on Mao Tse Lung mandates, and hyperventilate at model predictions.

Climate Change has Begun. from 1988.

Models show. Experts predict.

Reality has so far sided with deniers.; 2/5/21, 11:28 AM
effinayright said...: J. Farmer:

I am not a proponent of critical race theory. I think it has lots of problems and is a school of though that should be abandoned. Nonetheless, in order to be a critical of an argument, you first have to understand the argument.
*************

Lesseee...no predictive power, but we should try to understand the argument anyway.

But as I have said, even if you understand the argument of CRT, you MUST AGREE with it. If you don't your disagreement---no matter how finely structured--- is "proof" that CRT's argument is valid.

Most sensible people will spend their time more productively that engaging someone playing that kind of game.

So CRT shouldn't be abandoned. It should be DERIDED as racist and anti-intellectual. There is no "there" there.; 2/5/21, 11:37 AM
Rusty said...: I'm sure he'll be along any minute.; 2/5/21, 1:05 PM