>> Alētheiai >>>
Abandonment of Truth ..
Wednesday 28 April 2021
Abandonment of Truth
18-6-27 Jonathan Haidt | The Abandonment of Truth? - John Anderson > .Examining Irrationality - Alētheiai >> .
Antisocial-Media LIES
21st Paranoia Pornographer: Black Pigeon Speaks Spews LIES > .
24-3-31 Dark Nature of Online Trolls - Magee > .
22-12-17 Fake News, Echo Chambers & Polarization: Social Media - SH > .
22-5-5 Ukrainian Journalists Fighting Rascist 'Fake News’ > .
22-12-17 Fake News, Echo Chambers & Polarization: Social Media - SH > .
22-5-5 Ukrainian Journalists Fighting Rascist 'Fake News’ > .
23-2-8 [Propaganda - Effective Emotional Manipulation] - OBF > .
Paranoia Pornographers - Kraut >> .
Paranoia Pornographers - Kraut >> .
[edited introduction] Paranoia Pornographers is a series in which the Kraut channel watches alternative media for the viewer. They wish to have it explained to both themselves and to us, why so many online personalities on YouTube, twitter and elsewhere achieve prominence and a massive following of dedicated people malcontents, while peddling LIES and sometimes even dangerous myths. They wish to show to show us the methods of Propaganda, Deception and Marketing by which the personalities of the self-declared Alternative [Authoritarian A-hole] Media, in fact peddle the very Fake News that they accuse others of spreading. They wish to make us conscious of the methods employed by [Ultra-Wrong LIARS] so as to immunize us against the LIES and to provide us with the perception and knowledge to see through the methods and motivations of those who wish to seduce us into their alternative "reality" of alternative facts [aka anti-social propaganda], which in the end always always is a trap of delusions and LIES.
Tuesday 27 April 2021
Monday 26 April 2021
Coddling of American Fragility
Battle Over Free Speech: Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, No-Platforming - IntSq > .Coddling of the American Mind: First Principles Conversation - Haidt > .
Arts and Humanities ..
Coddling of American Fragility ..
CCP Amplifies Control-Freakery
22-10-27 Xina is "Pretty Much Screwed" - laowhy86 > .
22-10-18 XiXiPee Congress Day 2 - Update > .
22-10-17 XiXiPee Congress Day 1 - Update > .
XiNsanity - enDürer >> .
21-9-7 Chinese social media site Weibo suspends 22 K-pop accounts: A group of K-pop fans in China have become the latest victims of a crackdown on celebrity culture. Twenty-two fan accounts have been suspended by Chinese social media site Sina Weibo for what it called "irrational star-chasing behaviour".
21-9-2 China's media cracks down on 'effeminate' styles: China's broadcasting regulator has said it will ban "effeminate" aesthetics in entertainment shows and that "vulgar influencers" should be avoided. It's part of a tightening of rules over what it described as "unhealthy content" in programmes.
[Increased control-freakery typically indicates internal problems that frighten authoritarians. The cracks are showing, Xi. What's next? A financial recession? A WAR?]
Chinese President Xi Jinping has restated the commitment to "common prosperity" and in this pledge to redistribute wealth, high-earning tech tycoons and entertainment stars have been singled out recently. The television regulator also ordered broadcasters to rein in high salaries paid to stars and clamp down on tax evaders. Last week, Chinese actress Zheng Shuang was fined $46m (£33m) for tax evasion.
[Presumably in keeping with militaristic intentions] The authorities pledged to promote what it defined as more masculine images of men and criticised male celebrities who use lots of make up. However, it said programmes that promoted traditional, revolutionary or "advanced socialist" culture, or foster a patriotic atmosphere, were to be encouraged.
The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said political and moral conduct should be included as criteria in the selection of actors. Certain talent contest show formats have also been stopped. Mass voting for reality programmes will also no longer be allowed unless it is done by live audiences.
The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said political and moral conduct should be included as criteria in the selection of actors. Certain talent contest show formats have also been stopped. Mass voting for reality programmes will also no longer be allowed unless it is done by live audiences.
21-8-29 Chinese university appears to ask for lists of LGBTQ+ students for ‘investigation’: Survey by Shanghai University that asked colleges to research the political stance and ‘state of mind’ of members of LGBTQ+ communities has sparked alarm.
A well-known Chinese university appears to have asked its colleges to make lists of their LGBTQ+ students and report on their “state of mind”, according to a purported internal directive published online on both Chinese and foreign social media platforms.Shanghai University has not confirmed the request or responded to queries about its intention, but it has sparked alarm among young Chinese people, coming after a crackdown on campus groups and organisations supporting LGBTQ+ and feminist communities.
The “Campus Survey”, citing “relevant requirements”, asked colleges to “investigate [and] research” students identified as LGBTQ+. It also requested information on the students’ state of mind and psychological condition, including political stance, social contacts, and mental health status. The questionnaire did not explain what “relevant requirements” it was referring to.
CCP Amplifies Control-Freakery ..
Despite Wrong-Wing Propaganda ...
20-7-27 Anti-fascists linked to zero [one] murders in the US in 25 years: As t-RUMP rails against ‘far-left’ fascism, new database shows leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing wrong-wing extremists.
Over the same time period, American white supremacists and other rightwing wrong-wing extremists have carried out attacks that left at least 329 victims dead, according to the database.
More broadly, the database lists 21 victims killed in leftwing attacks since 2010 , and 117 victims of rightwing attacks in that same period – nearly six times as much. Attacks inspired by the Islamic State and similar jihadist groups, in contrast, killed 95 people since 2010, slightly fewer thanrightwing wrong-wing extremists, according to the data set. More than half of these victims died in a a single attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.
White supremacists behind majority of US domestic terror attacks in 2020:
The report found only a single deadly “far-left” attack in 2020, the shooting of Aaron Danielson, arightwing wrong-wing activist, by a self-described “anti-fascist” during a protest in Portland this August. Experts on extremism said this was the first killing linked to an anti-fascist in the United States in 25 years.
Violentrightwing wrong-wing actors were responsible for 41 politically motivated attacks and plots this year, while “far-left” actors were responsible for 12, according to analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), who have assembled a database of domestic terror attacks going back to 1994.
More broadly, the database lists 21 victims killed in leftwing attacks since 2010 , and 117 victims of rightwing attacks in that same period – nearly six times as much. Attacks inspired by the Islamic State and similar jihadist groups, in contrast, killed 95 people since 2010, slightly fewer than
20-10-22 Editor’s note: Since this piece was published in July 2020, the data has changed: domestic terrorism experts now link one homicide in the US to a self-described anti-fascist, the first such killing in 25 years.
White "supremacists" and other rightwing wrong-wing extremists have been responsible for 67% of domestic terror attacks and plots so far this year, with at least half of that violence targeting protesters, according to a new analysis from a centrist thinktank.
The report found only a single deadly “far-left” attack in 2020, the shooting of Aaron Danielson, a
Violent
Sunday 25 April 2021
Deceptive Headlines
.Residential Schools - Historica Canada > .
Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Although the first residential facilities were established in New France, the term usually refers to the custodial schools established after 1880. Originally conceived by Christian churches and the Canadian government as an attempt to both educate and convert Indigenous youth and to integrate them into Canadian society, residential schools disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term problems among Indigenous peoples. Since the last residential school closed in 1996, former students have pressed for recognition and restitution, resulting in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007 and a formal public apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008. In total, an estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential schools.
--
"The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia was the largest in the residential system. Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the 1950s. [It] closed in 1978 [88 years of operation]."
"A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children has been found ... at the former residential school."
A lamentable period in Canadian history. However, the numbers should not be taken out of context (though they undoubtedly will be):
"From about 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in [residential] schools."
"The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia was the largest in the residential system. Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the 1950s. [It] closed in 1978 [88 years of operation]."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57291530 .
Statistical reality = 215/88 = an average of 2.4 deaths per annum.
Prior to vaccination for children, the numbers of children succumbing to infection each year were probably higher across the entire population. So, sad though the death of any child is, this was not genocide.
Cultural genocide? Without doubt the experience of being torn from one's parents would be traumatic -- ask any British child sent off to a public boarding school -- and conditions were undoubtedly worse than at British public boarding schools. The prevalence of mental health issues on native reservations supports claims of emotional trauma within the residential school system, and highlights the necessity of providing social supports. Culturally, though, the fact that today's First Nations adults continue to practice their native traditions suggests that indigenous children learnt to be bilingual and bicultural, rather than losing all connection to their indigenous heritage.
Disintegrating Realities
ώ Kathleen Stock: I won't be silenced - UnHerd > .
Kathleen Stock was forced to resign from Sussex University professor after an aggressive campaign of targeted harassment over her gender critical views.
The campaign to push Prof Stock out of Sussex began when she self-published a number blog posts critical of extreme transgender ideology. She was concerned that the majority of academics, including philosophers such as herself, were reluctant to criticise campaigns to introduce self-identification for transgender people.
Although Kathleen is understandably upset by the conduct of the small number of abusive students, she is adamant that many of them are taking a cue from the influential adults around them. “I don’t think they’ve actually read what I think. There’s a lot of enabling, or inciting, of individuals in this story,” she says.
00:55 - 02:31 - Kathleen Stock tells her story
02:31 - 03:39 - The anti-Stock Sussex protests
03:39 - 07:24 - Where did Katheen’s trans ideology journey begin?
07:24 - 13:34 - Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock name names
13:34 - 17:47 - Is trans ideology rooted in misogyny?
17:47 - 20:10 - Julie Bindel: This debate is being stifled
20:10 - 23:52 - How does this affect young lesbians?
23:52 - 24:58 - Katheen Stock’s book, Material Girls
24:58 - 26:39 - Stonewall has taken over our national institutions
26:39 - 33:48 - Kathleen’s battle with her Sussex University union
33:48 - 37:52 - Maria Miller MP began the self-identification process
37:52 - 40:45 - Julie Bindel on prostitution and the end result of self-ID
40:45 - 47:19 - The human cost of trans protests
47:19 - 49:13 - What’s the future for women’s rights, Stonewall, LGBTQI+, in the UK?
49:13 - 49:30 - Julie's conclusion
The campaign to push Prof Stock out of Sussex began when she self-published a number blog posts critical of extreme transgender ideology. She was concerned that the majority of academics, including philosophers such as herself, were reluctant to criticise campaigns to introduce self-identification for transgender people.
Although Kathleen is understandably upset by the conduct of the small number of abusive students, she is adamant that many of them are taking a cue from the influential adults around them. “I don’t think they’ve actually read what I think. There’s a lot of enabling, or inciting, of individuals in this story,” she says.
00:55 - 02:31 - Kathleen Stock tells her story
02:31 - 03:39 - The anti-Stock Sussex protests
03:39 - 07:24 - Where did Katheen’s trans ideology journey begin?
07:24 - 13:34 - Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock name names
13:34 - 17:47 - Is trans ideology rooted in misogyny?
17:47 - 20:10 - Julie Bindel: This debate is being stifled
20:10 - 23:52 - How does this affect young lesbians?
23:52 - 24:58 - Katheen Stock’s book, Material Girls
24:58 - 26:39 - Stonewall has taken over our national institutions
26:39 - 33:48 - Kathleen’s battle with her Sussex University union
33:48 - 37:52 - Maria Miller MP began the self-identification process
37:52 - 40:45 - Julie Bindel on prostitution and the end result of self-ID
40:45 - 47:19 - The human cost of trans protests
47:19 - 49:13 - What’s the future for women’s rights, Stonewall, LGBTQI+, in the UK?
49:13 - 49:30 - Julie's conclusion
Friday 23 April 2021
Fatal FreeDUMB
I find it impossible to be polite about obdurate sheep who follow equally ignorant, arrogant sheep ...
Foreign Influence Campaigns
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Overcoming Foreign Influence in Social Media with Amy Zegart | Policy Ed > .Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence, here: https://www.hoover.org/research/spies....
“Why Cyber Is Different,” https://www.policyed.org/intellection....
“How Cyber Attacks Threaten Our Security” https://www.policyed.org/intellection.... “Crowdsourcing and the Mobs,” https://www.hoover.org/research/crowd....
“Threats Never Sleep,” https://www.hoover.org/research/threa... .
Wednesday 21 April 2021
Human Behavioral Response to COVID
What scientists have learnt about human behavior from the pandemic:
"Several governments worried that their pandemic restrictions would quickly lead to “behavioural fatigue” so that people would stop adhering to restrictions. In the UK, the prime minister’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings recently admitted that this was the reason for not locking down the country sooner."[So Cummings says. I wonder whether the government was actually much more concerned about economic impacts and future votes than "obedience fatigue". Either way, the optimal way to control an epidemic is to impose lockdown earlier, rather than later. Duh!]
"Meanwhile, former health secretary Matt Hancock revealed that the government’s failure to provide financial and other forms of support for people to self-isolate was down to their fear that the system “might be gamed”. He warned that people who tested positive may then falsely claim that they had been in contact with all their friends, so they could all get a payment."
[Then why not test the contacts before imposing subsidized isolation? Duh again.]
"These examples show just how deeply some governments distrust their citizens. As if the virus was not enough, the public was portrayed as an additional part of the problem. But is this an accurate view of human behaviour?"
"These examples show just how deeply some governments distrust their citizens. As if the virus was not enough, the public was portrayed as an additional part of the problem. But is this an accurate view of human behaviour?"
[As raves, maskless anti-lockdown protests, and vaccination "hesitancy" demonstrate, never underestimate the stupidity of a lamentably large subset of the population.]
This view is attractive to those in power. By emphasising the inability of people to govern themselves, it justifies the need for a government to look after them. Many governments subscribe to this view, having established so-called nudge units – behavioural science teams tasked with subtly manipulating people to make the “right” decisions, without them realising why, from eating less sugar to filing their taxes on time. But it is becoming increasingly clear that this approach is limited. As the pandemic has shown, it is particularly flawed when it comes to behaviour in a crisis.
In recent years, research has shown that the notion of people panicking in a crisis is something of a myth. People generally respond to crises in a measured and orderly way – they look after each other.
The key factor behind this behaviour is the emergence of a sense of shared identity. This extension of the self to include others helps us care for those around us and expect support from them. Resilience cannot be reduced to the qualities of individual people. It tends to be something that emerges in groups."
[False-dichotomy alert! Actually, resilience is ALSO a characteristic of individuals.]
If you reduce people to just psychology, it makes their actions entirely a consequence of individual choice. If we get infected, it is because we chose to act in ways that led to infection: we decided to go out and socialise, we ignored advice on physical distancing."
[Yup, as noted above, some (including Matt Hancock) did exactly that. Why? Blame the longer-term impact of every-opinion-counts and anti-establishment individualistic rebellion promoted by sections of anti-social media. If governments were truly unaware that context and information matter, then they would not spend money to hire the above-mentioned "nudge units", would they?]
Tuesday 20 April 2021
Friday 16 April 2021
Men Behave Badly
.When Men Behave Badly: Hidden Roots of Sexual Dysfunction - Skeptic > .
Preying upon Females ..
Sexual conflict permeates ancient religions, from injunctions about thy neighbor’s wife to the permissible rape of infidels. It is etched in written laws that dictate who can and cannot have sex with whom. Its manifestations shape our sexual morality, evoking approving accolades or contemptuous condemnation. It produces sexual double standards that flourish even in the most sexually egalitarian cultures on earth. And although every person alive struggles with sexual conflict, most of us see only the tip of the iceberg: dating deception, a politician’s unsavory sexual grab, the slow crumbling of a once-happy marriage, a romantic breakup that turns nasty. When Men Behave Badly shows that this “battle of the sexes” is deeper and far more pervasive than anyone has recognized, revealing the hidden roots of sexual conflict — roots that originated over deep evolutionary time — which define the sexual psychology we currently carry around in our 3.5-pound brains. Providing novel insights into our minds and behaviors, When Men Behave Badly presents a unifying new theory of sexual conflict, and offers practical advice for men and women seeking to avoid it.
Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault (David Buss)
Thursday 15 April 2021
Neo-Racism in US Education
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22-2-16 Not only Xina - Education or indoctrination fight dividing US schools - Guard > .24-2-15 Real DEI (PRA) Program [Divisive Extremist Ideology] - New Discources > .
Carmel, Indiana is an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis known for its idyllic neighbourhoods, low crime rates and some of the country’s best public schools. But in early 2021, the school board brought in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives - known as simply DEI - a program that seeks to combat structural racism in the education system. Since then, a battle has erupted between those that welcome the changes and others who see it as leftist indoctrination of their children.
Carmel, Indiana is an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis known for its idyllic neighbourhoods, low crime rates and some of the country’s best public schools. But in early 2021, the school board brought in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives - known as simply DEI - a program that seeks to combat structural racism in the education system. Since then, a battle has erupted between those that welcome the changes and others who see it as leftist indoctrination of their children.
New Optimism?
2021 Steven Pinker and the Failure of New Optimism ft. We're in Hell - Unlearning > .
2018 Libertarianism = marginal idea, not universal value | Steven Pinker | Big Think > .
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is a 2018 book written by Canadian-American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. It argues that the Enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism have brought progress; shows our progress with data that health, prosperity, safety, peace, and happiness have tended to rise worldwide; and explains the cognitive science of why this progress should be appreciated. It is a follow-up to Pinker's 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Tuesday 13 April 2021
Males Allowed to Sexually Abuse Female Prisoners
Disgusting!
The claimant in the case, FDJ, had said she was sexually assaulted in prison in 2017 by a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate (GRC). The "woman" had convictions for serious sexual offences. Her lawyers argued that placing transgender "women" in the female prisons exposed others to higher risk, citing a claim that transgender inmates were five times more likely than non-transgender prisoners to commit a sexual assault on a non-transgender biologically female prisoner.
The judge ruled barring all trans "women" from female prisons would ignore their right to live as their chosen gender. [Eff "rights". Legal rights are conferred, not inherent. By all means allow them to cross-dress, wear makeup, whatever pleases them, and protect them from trans-hating biological males, but keep all female-"identifying" biological males with a history of sexual offences separate from vulnerable women. Regardless of the convenience of "self-identification", sexually-offending biological males remain sexually-offending biological males, and thus constitute a threat to females.]
Women's prisons can house inmates who were born male but identify as female, regardless of whether they have gone through any physical transformation or have obtained a gender recognition certificate. [In other words, still biologically and physically male regardless of the gender they conveniently claim to identify as.]
The MoJ argued the policy pursued a legitimate aim, including "facilitating the rights of transgender people to live in and as their acquired gender (and) protecting transgender people's mental and physical health".
The MoJ argued the policy pursued a legitimate aim, including "facilitating the rights of transgender people to live in and as their acquired gender (and) protecting transgender people's mental and physical health".
[What about the mental and physical health of biological women? Is that to be subordinated once again to the whims of biological males? Identifying as one's non-biological gender should not eliminate the right of women to be protected from male aggression. If a person has not yet undergone complete physical transformation and is taking female hormones, then they are not trans ex-males. Until that time, they remain biological males and constitute a risk to biological females.]
Predicting USA's Cognitive Decline
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25 years Ago Carl Sagan Predicted The Mess [2015] 2021 Would Be > .24-2-15 Real DEI (PRA) Program [Divisive Extremist Ideology] - New Discources > .
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
Reviving Higher Education ..
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Predicting USA's Cognitive Decline ..
Sunday 11 April 2021
Racist Sore Losers
Pie rants eloquently about the disgusting behaviour of ignorant football yobs ...Support for Marcus Rashford after racist abuse and mural defaced - BBC > .
22-10-17 The Myth of Racial Political Development - Kraut > .
‘Unforgivable’: Gareth Southgate on racist abuse of England players:
Figures from across the world of football have shown their support for England’s black stars after they were subjected to another night of racist abuse on social media following defeat in the European Championship final.
Provisional data analysis conducted by the Guardian, in collaboration with Hope Not Hate, found more than 120 instances of England players receiving direct racial abuse on Twitter in the hours following the game. The majority of messages contained the n-word while others compared players to monkeys or used emojis associated with racist slurs. This compares to 44 racist messages during England’s first three matches of the tournament. Streams of abuse were also posted on Instagram.
Figures from across the world of football have shown their support for England’s black stars after they were subjected to another night of racist abuse on social media following defeat in the European Championship final.
Provisional data analysis conducted by the Guardian, in collaboration with Hope Not Hate, found more than 120 instances of England players receiving direct racial abuse on Twitter in the hours following the game. The majority of messages contained the n-word while others compared players to monkeys or used emojis associated with racist slurs. This compares to 44 racist messages during England’s first three matches of the tournament. Streams of abuse were also posted on Instagram.
The England manager, Gareth Southgate, said the abuse players had received was “unforgivable”. England lost against Italy on penalties and the three players who missed their kicks – Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho – were subject to much of the abuse, alongside Raheem Sterling who is a constant target.
The Metropolitan police say they will investigate the “offensive and racist” posts directed at players. Greater Manchester police are also conducting an inquiry into “racially aggravated damage” after a mural in south Manchester celebrating local hero Marcus Rashford was defaced.
By early evening several people had added notes and decorated England flags at the site, professing solidarity with Rashford as well as his teammates Sancho and Saka. A crowdfunder Withington Walls, who maintain the mural and others locally, has raised more than £18,000. In a statement posted on Monday evening, Rashford said the response in Withington had him “on the verge of tears”.
The Metropolitan police say they will investigate the “offensive and racist” posts directed at players. Greater Manchester police are also conducting an inquiry into “racially aggravated damage” after a mural in south Manchester celebrating local hero Marcus Rashford was defaced.
By early evening several people had added notes and decorated England flags at the site, professing solidarity with Rashford as well as his teammates Sancho and Saka. A crowdfunder Withington Walls, who maintain the mural and others locally, has raised more than £18,000. In a statement posted on Monday evening, Rashford said the response in Withington had him “on the verge of tears”.
Regressive Authoritarian Left
Psychology at the extremes seldom differs ...
2017 Roger Scruton: How Fake Subjects like Women Studies Invaded Academia > .
24-2-15 Real DEI (PRA) Program [Divisive Extremist Ideology] - New Discources > .
The Psychology of Progressive Hostility: Outbursts of emotional hostility from progressive activists – now described as Social Justice Warriors or SJWs – have come to be known as getting ‘triggered.’ This term originally applied to sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but activists have adopted it to describe the anxiety and discomfort they experience when they are exposed to views with which they disagree. “Fuck free speech!” one group of social justice advocates recently told Vice Media, as if this justified the growing belief among university students that conservatives should be prevented from speaking on college campuses. It’s no secret that, with the rise of the triggered progressive, university professors are increasingly intimidated by their own students.
...
In 2014, one of the world’s leading scholars in the field of moral psychology was publicly accused of homophobia for showing his class a video about the phenomenon of ‘Moral Dumbfounding.’ A transcript of the video Jonathan Haidt showed his class can be read here, and a transcript of the apology he offered his class the next day can be found here. A subsequent investigation by the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity found no evidence of wrongdoing. But, rather than being put off by this brush with reputational disaster, Haidt became fascinated by the problem of hypersensitivity at university. “It’s a crazy time, but it’s also a fascinating time to be a social scientist,” he has since remarked, “It’s the dawn of a new religion, and I study moral psychology as though religion, politics, even sports, they’re all manifestations of a tribalism.”Saturday 10 April 2021
Friday 9 April 2021
Testosterone = performance-enhancing drug
[I rarely agree with conservatives, but a female would be accused of cheating if she took performance-enhancing testosterone. Even though a trans-female now needs estrogen to offset biological maleness, "she" had years of testosterone effect whilst still male. Trans-females deserve fair treatment, but so do the majority who were born female. Bullying of a majority for the sake of a tiny minority is not equitable.]
Caitlyn Jenner opposes trans girls in women's sports as unfair: Caitlyn Jenner, candidate for California governor and former Olympic gold medallist, says she opposes trans girls participating in women's sports. Ms Jenner, who came out as a trans woman in 2015, told a reporter: "It just isn't fair. And we have to protect girls' sports in our schools."
[In addition, although genuinely gender dysphoric individuals ought to be treated fairly, a) athletically-ambitions under-performing male children and youths should not be given an incentive for a life-transforming transforming transition that they might ultimately regret. b) given that the vast majority of sexual harassment and assault is perpetrated by males against mostly females, females should be protected from any heterosexual males who choose to "identify" as "female" in order to gain access to naked females.
In other words, most "trans-phobia" is directed at males transitioning to female because maleness is associated with actual danger to the hard-won rights of females — hence justified complaints by feminists. Actual physical danger to trans-males comes from a subset of males, not from females — witness the murder of trans-women by males, not by females. Those who transition from female to male without having had the advantage of somatic in utero and post-natal testosterone are more at risk from males than from females. Why? Too many heterosexual males devalue femaleness in comparison to machismo.
Mobs of Social JustUs Whiners screaming from the bully-pulpit should not be given the power to destroy the careers and livelihood of those who value fairness rather than blind, unthinking acceptance of unethical virtue-signaling.
Tuesday 6 April 2021
What the F*ck & IDW
Sources differ on the nature of the IDW, with some describing it as left, and others as ideologically diverse, but nonetheless united against primary adversaries hailing predominantly from progressives, including postmodernism, post-structuralism, Marxism, and political correctness. Psychology Today characterized it as "generally concerned about political tribalism and free speech", or as a rejection of "mainstream assumptions about what is true". Salon dubbed it a politically conservative movement united more over a rejection of American liberalism than over any mutually shared beliefs. Alternatively, the National Review posited that, despite comprising "all political persuasions", the IDW was united in a particular conservative-leaning conceptualization of injustice and inequality specifically.
In his book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right, author and political commentator Michael Brooks lists a "devotion to affirming capitalism", a "shared obsession with campus and social media controversies" and an "intense interest in IQ and other innate justifications for systemic inequalities" as defining features of the group.
In his book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right, author and political commentator Michael Brooks lists a "devotion to affirming capitalism", a "shared obsession with campus and social media controversies" and an "intense interest in IQ and other innate justifications for systemic inequalities" as defining features of the group.
The term "intellectual dark web" was coined by the American venture capitalist, Eric Weinstein. His term, which metaphorically compared opposition to mainstream opinion to what is illicitly found on the dark web, was not intended to be wholly serious. It was then popularized in a 2018 New York Times editorial by American opinion writer Bari Weiss. Weiss and others applied the term to a broad range of figures from various parts of the political spectrum, including conservatives such as Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray, liberals such as Maajid Nawaz and Sam Harris, and feminists like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It has also been linked to online publications such as the libertarian-leaning Quillette.
These thinkers and publications expressed concern at what they regarded as increasingly authoritarian tendencies within progressive movements in Western countries, namely attempts to censure, fire, or intimidate those expressing views contrary to orthodox progressive views on identity politics, especially within universities and the news media. They often linked these to the growing influence of critical theory and the critical social justice movement—themselves influenced by Marxism and postmodernism—on mainstream progressive thought. These IDW figures regarded such tendencies as a threat to freedom of speech and believed that their growth promoted divisive social tribalism. While sharing common concerns, those labelled part of the IDW diverge on other issues, lacking any leadership or central organization. Given this diversity of thought, the validity of the term has been critiqued by some of those who have been labelled as its members.
Criticism of ideas associated with the IDW has come primarily from progressive and left-wing commentators. These critics have argued that the IDW seeks to intellectually legitimize social inequalities and overstates the harm caused by phenomena such as cancel culture and progressive identity politics. Some progressive critics have also alleged links between the IDW and far-right movements like the alt-right, even though various IDW figures have spoken out against
Bari Weiss' New York Times article (titled "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web") sparked a number of critiques. Jonah Goldberg, writing in the National Review, said the "label is a bit overwrought", writing that it struck him "as a marketing label — and not necessarily a good one: ...it seems to me this IDW thing isn't actually an intellectual movement. It’s just a coalition of thinkers and journalists who happen to share a disdain for the keepers of the liberal orthodoxy." Henry Farrell, writing in Vox, expressed disbelief that conservative commentator Ben Shapiro or neuroscientist Sam Harris, both claimed to be among the intellectual dark web by Weiss, could credibly be described as either purged or silenced. Weiss' fellow New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted the irony of claiming popular intellectual oppression by the mainstream, while publishing in the Times, among the most prominent newspapers in the nation. David A. French contended many of the critics were missing the point, and were instead inadvertently confirming "the need for a movement of intellectual free-thinkers."
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