@Lana Do they really see it as a problem or do they see it as a believable scapegoat, something to blame for whatever bad stuff they're causing by pursuing their real agenda?
(Obviously I think it's the latter; what I really have a hard time with is how many people still not only don't see right through such a transparent appeal to stupidity, but embrace it as part of their identity.)
RE: https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/115923484830211624
I may boost this post every day. If you live in the USA, I would definitely follow @HeavenlyPossum as we need all the help we can get as the weather can and will get much darker.
Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95
In 1956, West began working as a mathematician at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. She was only the second African American woman hired at the base and one of just four African American employees at the time. What followed was a career that would quietly change the world.
I agree. The metaphor I often use is that we need to construct governance scaffolding, from below, to hold essential functions in place while we dismantle and rebuild the existing structure.
Time once again to offer this community a chance to step up. Introducing Mastodon for Minneapolis, a fundraiser to benefit the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund organized by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. Let’s see what we can do to support the people of metro Minneapolis as they grapple with a federal invasion. https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/doWhZ3Z/Mastodon-for-Minneapolis 1/
@riley That is the big question. ...and I have often found it to be very difficult to determine the difference. People who are seemingly of reasonable or high intelligence in most ways can apparently be very obtuse in certain areas.
hey! a friend of mine has a trans daughter in girl scouts who needs to sell 238 more boxes to reach her goal
let’s help her get there and show a trans kid a little love 🤗
we're seeing baloney levels at about 88%
(88%) ■■■■■■■■□□
I think what really makes me avoidant of engaging with this stuff is just how infuriatingly stupid his arguments are. It's a most unenjoyable feeling.
Like... they're couched in intellectual language which makes them sound plausible and informed... but if you just look at the logic, they're so obviously wrong -- and how does he not see that? Or does he see it, and he's just hoping I (and his audience) won't?
For a long time I think maybe I believed the latter, on some level, but I'm increasingly leaning towards the idea that the point is not to arrive at true conclusions, but to come up with surface-believable arguments to support what he and his audience want to believe.
(...much akin to @riley's description of TPUSA)
@riley I don't know if he has a book, but he certainly seems to be well-practiced at diversionary tactics.
@riley Practicing and exercising, yeah... that's my impression too. Truth-in-Advertising Self-Description: "We are an institution dedicated to researching how to get people to support our agenda by promoting false beliefs (with specialties in (a) coming up with false beliefs that support our agenda, and (b) working out how best to get people to believe those things."
Maybe this is a fight worth diving into? If I actually take the time to dismantle the arguments in his book, then either of the following could happen:
...and also I would add: "Yes, that's the mainstream position -- which means the burden of proof is on you to establish that there's reason to disbelieve it. You can't just proceed from the premise that it's wrong and then build additional arguments on top (unless those arguments are clearly framed as hypothetical)."
Taking them in reverse order, because I haven't replied to the first one yet. (Context: I used an LLM to do a fact-check of his post, and summarized the key issues before linking to the full analysis.)
AI usually gives the mainstream position on any issue.
I got this in answer to "what is systemic racism?":
- Systemic racism exists when rules and institutions are formally race-neutralbut their combined effects consistently disadvantage one racial group and advantage another
No one has to be overtly racist for this to happen.
No mention of the possibility of endogenous race differences.
My reply to that:
It is true that no individual has to be overtly racist for this to happen, but that is not evidence that systemic racism doesn't exist. (Nor is it evidence that there are no individuals who are racist.)
Also, unfair prejudice can exist whether or not a group is statistically inferior in some way, and statistical inferiority can exist whether this hypothetical inferiority is endogenous or circumstantial.
So, what is your larger point?
Thing I wish I had added: Being mainstream doesn't make it wrong. (...and I'm saying this as someone who has spent a lifetime having to fight against inaccurate and harmful mainstream ideas.)
(...and now he has replied to that with the argument that "endogenous differences" are a simpler explanation than systemic racism, and he wants me to read the book. I replied that the sun being pulled around the sky by white horses is a simpler explanation than orbital mechanics.)
Hi W: Didn't know you were interested in these issues. I think that systemic racism is simply a label for set of social disparities that have largely non-racial causes. I make the case at some length in a book that should be coming out this year. File attached.
Really? After a decade of lunchtime discussions, and all the times I've done in-depth analyses of his posts, he didn't know this?
(I guess I'm glad he's not in office.)
@davbram I'm thinking in the larger sense -- they've already been wrecking society and the environment for 4+ decades now. The situation with the state-sponsorerd terrorists in our cities is just the Jenga tower finally starting to collapse.
@davbram It's just, like... how are we even the same species. >.< ...or more relevantly: how can we protect ourselves from them when they come from among us?
@wdlindsy Seems like we're starting to trace the social rift(s) closer to their source(s)...
@BigShellEvent It depends, I think, on what you mean by "grow out of". I know I'm a lot less reactive to his BS than I used to be, for example.
@hellomiakoda It me, actually -- I feel like I've been anticipating this moment in history at least since Dubya, and aware of US society's on-again off-again love affair with brutality and authoritarianism since middle school... and I've never really had the option of completely hiding from it, so being prepared to fight it has pretty much always been the only option.