Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[hack]

The hard science is that inbreeding is bad. At some level it's criminally stupid and at others simply due to produce humans who look more like Woody Allen than Tiger Woods, but, no matter what, superior organisms come from a larger gene pool. But that's not the same argument. In the end, IMO, I think it's clear that having people cluster amongst themselves in non-diverse communities is hostile to meritocracy.

[iam416]

I'm not a proponent of AA, but I'm not at a loss in understanding where that pendulum swing came from. I don't find it surprising that the left continues to redefine/repackage the same fundamental idea. that doesn't mean I endorse it. Id agree with you on income-based affirmative action.

I am a proponent of merit based hiring/promotion/advancement because the absence of it breeds toxic leadership.

Well, first things first. It seems we agree on the fundamentals. As I was taking aim the moronic justifications for diversity, then there's not much to dispute.

I should also note -- the conversation is about obvious identity-based diversity that permeates every nook and cranny of our society. I get that GentryProgs aren't in a huge rush to defend this so we end up in all sorts of non-analogous nonsense intended to abstract the issue.

That being said, it is a joke to think this country isn't full of people in positions to make decisions where merit is synonymous with not lazy, not black, not Latino, not Hebrew, not female. That's where where the ideal has and continues to breakdown

Finally, we part ways, mostly, here. I agree that merit is often synonymous with not lazy. And it's possible that you and I have a different understand of "full of" -- but the rest of it we part ways on. I guess it's also possible that we differ on "leadership positions" -- perhaps you just mean jobs. I'd concede there a number of family run businesses owned by white folks that hire family members and, I suppose, technically meet your description.

Diversity of thought > diversity of skin color/gender

There are greater differences within groups than there are between groups.

Correct. IMO, equating diversity of thought with diversity of identity is awful. But, that's what some people do and no one really challenges their bullshit because DIVERSITY.

[iam416]

I didn't even realize this, but the US Olympic Committee actually has a director of diversity and inclusion charged with trying to find ways to make sure the American team looks like America. For the ultimate merit-based activity.

I guess they must be spending millions trying to convince AAs to take up skiing.

[iam416]

Hey, a relevant opinion piece: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ampus-now.html

[iam416]

The NYT fawns over Mass Murderer's Sister: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/11/w...-olympics.html

The money quote:

“I think it would have been really helpful to the conversation of denuclearization for the Pences to have appreciated the effort put into bringing team unified Korea into the stadium,” said Alexis Dudden, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut.

LMMFAO. I can't believe people actually believe that shit.

The only thing better than NYT's "hard news" coverage are the comments from the GentryProgs...well worth your time -- especially just the "NYT Picks!"

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hey, a relevant opinion piece: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ampus-now.html

Whether you claim to be a gentry liberal or a conservative, you should read this opinion piece.

Excellent on so many levels.

[iam416]

I thought so, Buchanan.

The goal of our culture now is not the emancipation of the individual from the group, but the permanent definition of the individual by the group. We used to call this bigotry. Now we call it being woke.

[millenwasmyfavorite]

Hard to defend.

[Ghengis Jon]

Hey, a relevant opinion piece: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ampus-now.html

Awesome article. I wish the author would have explored a little deeper how group think affects people's actions. How people that would reject a neighbor's vile and repulsive actions and views, will give a politician a pass on the very same transgressions. And how pointing out that hypocrisy causes hostile response rather than introspection.


I blame the internet and Al Gore for inventing it.

[Ghengis Jon]

Vincente Rodrigues-Ortiz, 22, was arrested on Jan. 24 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the assault and murder of Andre Hawkins, 17, the day before. But when Rodrigues-Ortiz appeared in court on Jan. 25 for arraignment, he questioned the judge about his "other murder case." WWMT TV reported that his query led prosecutors to interview and then swiftly charge him with the March 2017 homicide of Laurie Kay Lundeburg, and Rodrigues-Ortiz now awaits arraignment in that case as well. [WWMT TV, 1/25/2018]

[hack]

Well, like I said, the pendulum swings this way and then it swings that way. We have this shit now because we had other shit before, and it wasn't right. It would be great if humans weren't this way, but they are this way and so far nobody has any serious ideas to change that save for in sci-fi dystopia fantasies.

I do share the horror at the phrase ``your own truth''. We should not have those. Facts are facts. Yet, in part because some people saw revenue potential and others saw a new opportunity to control the behavior of others, we now are flirting with a post-fact political discourse. We may destroy that word in this country and in this context, because we've invited people to people to invent their own realities or adopt the inventions of others.

I think the biggest mistake is to blame the kids themselves. They exist very often in an environment set by institutions that behave more like brands. Of course they're going to be fucked up. I think it's key to follow the money. Adam Curtis presents a narrow at-the-poles view of individual and society, but makes the excellent point that in the very profitable process of turning people into individualists with individual tastes they can express through their buying habits, there has been some social cohesion lost. If you tell people constantly to pamper themselves or that they deserve a break today or that they should splurge on this or that they deserve that, you are at an absolute minimum crowding out the space they have for messages about what it means to be a responsible and productive citizen.

[iam416]

Awesome article. I wish the author would have explored a little deeper how group think affects people's actions. How people that would reject a neighbor's vile and repulsive actions and views, will give a politician a pass on the very same transgressions. And how pointing out that hypocrisy causes hostile response rather than introspection.

I imagine Sullivan has addressed that issue in the past. He's virulently anti-Trump so I reckon he's taken political tribalism to task. More broadly on PDJT, he wrote this a few months ago:

But it’s the impossible reactionary agenda that is the core problem. And the reason we have a president increasingly isolated, ever more deranged, legislatively impotent, diplomatically catastrophic, and constitutionally dangerous, is not just because he is a fucking moron requiring an adult day-care center to avoid catastrophe daily. It’s because he’s a reactionary fantasist, whose policies stir the emotions but are stalled in the headwinds of reality. He can’t abolish Obamacare because huge majorities prefer it to any Republican alternative, so he is sabotaging it. He hasn’t built a huge wall across the entire southern border because it’s a ludicrous project that cannot solve the problem it was designed for. Ditto ripping NAFTA to shreds, which would cause immense disruption to three countries’ economies and ricochet around the world. Or attempting to ally with Russia against the E.U., as if Merkel was worse a threat than Putin. Or removing NBC’s license, which it doesn’t actually have, for political reasons. Or deporting 11 million people. Or pretending that climate change is not happening. Or a massive tax cut on the wealthy, and arguing, as Trump did Wednesday night, that it would create surpluses as Reagan’s did, which, of course, Reagan’s didn’t.

That would seem to at least get in the same ballpark as your hate for PDJT, Jon. Heh.

[hack]

I'm not sure Sullivan's the guy for that. He's no idiot. He's always worth reading, and he's not a garden-variety member of the conservative ``tribe". But he's still fairly tribal.

[Kapture1]

Kim Yo-Jong is the Ivanka Trump of North Korea


smh



A liberal press that is so out to get Trump that they not only side with North Korea, but are advancing the murderous regime's state propaganda to the west.

[iam416]

Adam Curtis presents a narrow at-the-poles view of individual and society,

I may not understand Curtis, but I don't think that his view and what was in Sullivan's opinion piece are mutually exclusive. It's one thing to voluntarily join a group based on commitment to ideas and to do things that you believe will help others. That is core individual choice. It's quite another thing to be be grouped based on identity. Or so it would seem to me.

They exist very often in an environment set by institutions that behave more like brands. Of course they're going to be fucked up. I think it's key to follow the money.

You were obviously making another point with this lead-in, but it's worth noting, IMO, that diversity is also a very much "follow the money" institution at this point. There is a lot of money to be made preaching this particular dogma.

Comedy Central has a new series on called Corporate. I don't find it guffawing funny, but I find myself watching it with a smirk for almost the entire episode. One of their episodes was about how the evil corporation co-opts the protest market (against them!) and sells a huge line anti-corporation merchandise and shit to protesters and makes gads of money off of it. I was actually thinking of the $$$$$$$$ made off of diversity training while I was watching it and wondering which nameless, evil corporation was raking in gads of cash off of that one-time "protest" idea.