tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post5467702829545110673..comments2024-03-18T11:10:18.708-07:00Comments on dangerous idea: Fake News!Victor Repperthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10962948073162156902noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-8581091136221290892018-06-15T01:20:44.378-07:002018-06-15T01:20:44.378-07:00If Bartlett is right and our innate confirmation b...If Bartlett is right and our innate confirmation bias is being amplified by social media maybe we should hold our political views less tenaciously. We should be more sceptical of our own objectivity. And maybe the more extreme our view is the more sceptical still should we be because the chances are that we haven't been looking at a broad sample of the facts.David Brightlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06757969974801621186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-80869084286550483352018-06-14T00:57:24.743-07:002018-06-14T00:57:24.743-07:00"That may be how the perception of constancy ..."That may be how the perception of constancy arises."<br /><br />YepWorld of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-635260758019629162018-06-14T00:53:00.745-07:002018-06-14T00:53:00.745-07:00By coincidence, an opinion piece in yesterday'...By coincidence, an opinion piece in yesterday's Daily Telegraph under the title <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/06/13/faustian-bargain-technology-companies-slowly-killing-democracy/" rel="nofollow">Our Faustian bargain with technology companies is slowly killing democracy</a>. Behind a paywall but limited access for free is available if you register. Apparently <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=jamie+bartlett" rel="nofollow">the writer</a> has just published a book titled ‘The People Vs Tech: How the Internet is Killing Democracy (and How to Save it)’. He says,<br /><br />Under this model, even mild confirmation bias can set off a wild cycle of self-perpetuation. Let’s say you’ve clicked on a link about Left-wing politics. An algorithm interprets this as you expressing an interest in Left-wing politics, and therefore shows you more of it. You’re more likely to click again, since that’s the choice in front of you – which is interpreted as another signal. No one is intentionally programming for sensationalism – it’s just a mathematical response to our general preference for edgy and outrageous videos or headlines. It’s both a mirror and a multiplier.<br /><br />That may be how the perception of constancy arises.David Brightlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06757969974801621186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-41954007366967016292018-06-13T10:56:23.324-07:002018-06-13T10:56:23.324-07:00David, that's a great summary, yes, but that&#...David, that's a great summary, yes, but that's exactly why I am insisting on the question 'what constitutes constant attack on whiteness?'<br /><br />For instance, you say "I don't think that Legion is talking about physical assaults or even incidents of animosity towards individuals" and I agree, that's the feeling I get too, but that is what could be considered attacks on whiteness. So it must be something else? <br /><br />But then, if it is indeed something else, like being asked to 'check your privilege' or reminders of past 'white hegemony' and some current events, we are talking about very mild things, isn't it? Nobody is truly being attacked, nobody is judged as a whole, and it is certainly not constant. And that point is actually more relevant. Maybe I should have made this clearer but that's actually the worst part of this claim, it's the word 'constant', as if Whites were constantly vilified, constantly on the defensive, constantly treated worse, constantly reminded that they suck or should change, something like that... it's just so far from the truth.<br /><br />I.e. it looks a lot more to me of a case of some Whites seeing it as a zero-sum game. Non-Whites have been doing better recently, hence, Whites must be losing something. And because there are indeed some examples of extremism against Whites, these anecdotes are portrayed as 'constant' attacks on White, especially White men, as if there were some oppression going on.World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-44619120567099832322018-06-13T01:59:12.040-07:002018-06-13T01:59:12.040-07:00I don't think that Legion is talking about phy...I don't think that Legion is talking about physical assaults or even incidents of animosity towards individuals. Rather, it's a sense that in some quarters, including some whites themselves, white culture and indeed white people are disparaged. There's the 'check your privilege' phenomenon, which has been reported on here in the UK, calls for reparations for historical harms caused to blacks by whites, and the academic notion of 'white hegemony' which has now entered the mainstream. <br /><br />How seriously should we take this? It's very hard to say, and this brings us back to the theme of this thread. We each of us have a perspective on events. In the old days before the rise of social media we read a particular paper or watched a particular TV news. The perspective we received was a kind of average of the perspectives of that paper's or channel's writers, perhaps guided more or less by editorial influence. These averages changed relatively slowly. Today, if we get our current affairs from social media, we tend to get a view that reinforces our <i>individual</i> perspective. I don't do Facebook, Twitter, and others but I do look at videos on YouTube (Daniel Bonevac's philosophy lectures are great for doing the ironing) and follow some of the links that the 'Google' app on my phone sends me. You soon realise that these services note what you see and give you more of the same. You tend to see a unique sample of the totality of what's being offered that reflects your own personal prejudices. It's not even an average of other people's prejudices any longer. This produces a positive feedback effect that rapidly departs from the norm. It shouldn't be surprising in these circumstances that we acquire rather divergent perceptions of what is going on and how important it is.David Brightlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06757969974801621186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-48864593356428525932018-06-12T19:23:17.236-07:002018-06-12T19:23:17.236-07:00Hugo, you were right. It was the Evergreen college...Hugo, you were right. It was the Evergreen college I was thinking of.<br /><br />David Duffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01222419875209542723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-91382436480465701892018-06-12T05:44:53.538-07:002018-06-12T05:44:53.538-07:00Let's keep things in perspective here. I am a ...Let's keep things in perspective here. I am a 66 year old white person, who has <i>never once</i> in my entire life been attacked for being white. Not once. And I live in Maryland, which is probably one of the 2 or 3 "most leftist" of all the states. I live in a very diverse community. I am definitely a minority customer at my local grocery store.<br /><br />So where is all this constant attack on whiteness? I'm not denying there may be some isolated incidents "somewhere", but if such a thing were so pervasive, why haven't I ever experienced it?Starhopperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18350334327301656588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-3436045326280308512018-06-11T21:32:58.031-07:002018-06-11T21:32:58.031-07:00A good reminder from Bret Weinstein, during his te...A good reminder from Bret Weinstein, during his testimony on the Evergeeen case:<br />https://youtu.be/uRIKJCKWla4<br />Power and control issues.<br />Polarization and tribalism are dangerous.<br />And how it isn't from "the" Left, it's from "elements of" the Left.World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-45009424697941817872018-06-11T20:33:50.796-07:002018-06-11T20:33:50.796-07:00""What is happening, to whom, from whom?..."<i>"What is happening, to whom, from whom?"<br /><br />To people from leftists.</i>"<br /><br />But I am asking you specifically about what these 'constant attack on whiteness' are; yet you went even broader. The question I am trying to get you to answer is 'why do you think Whites are being attacked?' How can you interpret all of these years of "years' worth of material" to conclude that Whiteness is under attack? Perhaps that's not quite what you think, but then what does 'attack on whiteness' means? <br /><br />Is it only about discussing ideas of how, over several decades, whites were in power and have created certain structures of power that made non-whites suffer? Given that you asked to Google 'whiteness', there are 15 things that could be discussed: here's one. <a href="https://thehayride.com/2018/06/at-some-point-were-going-to-have-to-address-the-rot-in-our-universities/" rel="nofollow"> Hobart and William Smith Colleges is offering a course next year to teach students how “objectivity” and “meritocracy” function as “white mythologies.”</a><br /><br />Ok, that's silly. One of the worst example we can find. But is that an attack on whiteness? I don't see it... why, why not?<br /><br />And for every single example of these 'years of material' I would say the same, but you wouldn't. So I am asking you to explain why you see these examples as an attack, from the Left, on Whites. Or, what else is that grand narrative from the Left to the "people"? <br /><br />To contrast, I don't see the Left nor the Right as perpetrating attacks on Whiteness nor POC nor LBGTQ, etc... there are disagreements on positions and policies. That's all. Focusing on each side's extremes, which do literally want to kill others sometimes (see jihadists/skinheads,) and generalizing that there are 'attacks' on entire groups of people happening, is exaggerated and misleading, perhaps even dishonest if purposely done.World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-45695069467941314252018-06-11T18:22:23.047-07:002018-06-11T18:22:23.047-07:00Fake News? Try Fake Science!
By Tom Feilden 22...Fake News? Try Fake Science!<br /><br /><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39054778" rel="nofollow"><br />By Tom Feilden 22 February 2017<br />Science is facing a "reproducibility crisis" where more than two-thirds of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, research suggests.</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-replicated-100-psychology-studies-and-fewer-half-got-same-results-180956426" rel="nofollow"><br />By Brian Handwerk smithsonian.com August 27, 2015<br />According to work presented today in Science, fewer than half of 100 studies published in 2008 in three top psychology journals could be replicated successfully. The international effort included 270 scientists who re-ran other people’s studies as part of The Reproducibility Project: Psychology, led by Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia.</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/27/study-delivers-bleak-verdict-on-validity-of-psychology-experiment-results" rel="nofollow"><br />Ian Sample Science editor Thu 27 Aug 2015 14.00 EDT<br />Of 100 studies published in top-ranking journals in 2008, 75% of social psychology experiments and half of cognitive studies failed the replication test</a><br /><br />All colleges and universities are Leftist. Most Scientists are Leftist.<br /><br />Most Scientific studies can't be replicated! Ohhhh....Noooooo.....<br /><br />Fake News, Fake Science---created by Leftists----because they don't live in reality.<br />W.LindsayWheelerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06236577164127792348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-69152683247272955952018-06-11T16:19:53.701-07:002018-06-11T16:19:53.701-07:00"Google search for what?"
Google "..."Google search for what?"<br /><br />Google "whiteness" for starters. And if you honestly can't find anything objectionable even in a generalized search like that, then your values are too alien for me to comprehend or analyze.<br /><br />"You've been following what?"<br /><br />Huh? What I've been talking about.<br /><br /><br />"What is happening, to whom, from whom?"<br /><br />To people from leftists. Seriously how am I supposed to answer such a question with years' worth of material?<br /><br /><br />"It must mean that it refers to something we label differently..."<br /><br />Very possible.<br /><br /><br />"Was the example I just discussed, at UC Berkeley, one of these 'attacks'?"<br /><br />Let's talk about that. In the scheme of things, no one of them is of great consequence, just like some idiot calling a "person of color" an epithet is not of great consequence in of itself. But what I notice is that these instances occur, and there is dead silence from the left. I've heard many prominent conservatives condemn racist statements from other conservatives. Where are the leftists condemning racist behavior toward whites in general? THAT is my primary objection - not the frequent anti-"whiteness" attacks themselves, but the seeming lack of distaste of such behavior from the left. That's a problem. Unless I missed their reactions?<br /><br /><br />"I get the feeling you'll just call me ignorant because it's so obvious to you, it feels so right that you don't even need to rationally explain it."<br /><br />I don't find such behavior profitable in any way. I do know these things occur frequently, I do know that it's wrong and harmful every time it does, and I do know that I have yet to see anyone prominent on the left speak out against it. The latter could simply be due to my having missed it, but the first two things are facts. If you don't wish to be aware of them, that's fine. If you wish to downplay their importance (since there are people negatively impacted by them), then I'll simply point out that I'm the only one of us who actually objects to racist behavior, because I don't differentiate. Racism is racism, and it's either forgivable or it isnt.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593005679430527458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-48070247575711028512018-06-11T14:13:59.532-07:002018-06-11T14:13:59.532-07:00Here is another great quote from Ron Unz, who is J...Here is another great quote from Ron Unz, who is Jewish, :<br /><br /><i>The combined influence of the pro-British Eastern Establishment together with powerful Jewish groups was deployed to clear the media of opposing figures, and after the Germans broke the Hitler-Stalin Pact by attacking the USSR in June 1941, Communists and other leftists also joined this effort. Polls seem to have shown that as much as 80% of the American public was opposed to such military involvement, <b>so any prominent political or media figure giving voice to that popular super-majority needed to be silenced</b>.</i> <br /><br />Silenced indeed! <a href="http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-our-great-purge-of-the-1940s" rel="nofollow">The Great Purge of the 1940s</a><br /><br />The Deep State exists to Further the NWO. Anybody who disagrees---Will be Run over. <br /><br />What did the Borg say? "Stop Resisting. We are the Borg---You will be assimilated". W.LindsayWheelerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06236577164127792348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-39033347992310128742018-06-11T14:10:54.044-07:002018-06-11T14:10:54.044-07:00Google search for what?
You've been following ...Google search for what?<br />You've been following what?<br />What is happening, to whom, from whom?<br /><br />I honestly have still no idea what you were talking about when you referred to 'constant attack on whiteness'. It must mean that it refers to something we label differently...<br /><br />Was the example I just discussed, at UC Berkeley, one of these 'attacks'? But then, as I said, it wasn't much of an attack so does it count?<br /><br />I get the feeling you'll just call me ignorant because it's so obvious to you, it feels so right that you don't even need to rationally explain it.<br />World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-47099302489403574362018-06-11T14:07:55.969-07:002018-06-11T14:07:55.969-07:00Ron Unz over at his site the Unz Review has an art...Ron Unz over at his site the Unz Review has an article on how FDR wrote letters to many newspaper editors to quash John T Flynn, quite the newspaper reporter---who outed FDR's son and Eleonor making, in today's money, millions from business connections. Flynn reported on the total and complete failure of the New Deal. Ron Unz records that the Mainstream media in the 1940s---censored people they didn't like, just like today:<br /><br /><i>But unlike their Stalinist analogs from a couple of years earlier, the American victims who disappeared around 1940 were neither shot nor Gulaged, but merely excluded from the mainstream media that defines our reality, thereby being blotted out from our memory so that future generations gradually forgot that they had ever lived.</i><br /><br />He has an exstensive and very long article on this history worth reading: <a href="http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-our-great-purge-of-the-1940s" rel="nofollow">The Great Purge of the 1940s</a><br />...W.LindsayWheelerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06236577164127792348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-74599425962279247932018-06-11T12:59:34.293-07:002018-06-11T12:59:34.293-07:00Also, a daily occurrence meets my criteria of &quo...Also, a daily occurrence meets my criteria of "constant". I get the feeling unless it's mainstream, it won't meet yours.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593005679430527458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-43520970174360417992018-06-11T12:58:34.131-07:002018-06-11T12:58:34.131-07:00I'm assuming you've never seen any of this...I'm assuming you've never seen any of this stuff, Google search included? I've been following it for years, so to demonstrate what I've seen happening for years to someone who isn't even aware it exists seems somewhat daunting, particularly since you appear opposed to the idea despite knowing nothing about it. Can you offer me something that makes the effort seem possible to be worthwhile?Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593005679430527458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-13700134994683279502018-06-11T12:37:50.058-07:002018-06-11T12:37:50.058-07:00Well I am definitely missing something because I s...Well I am definitely missing something because I still have no clue what 'constant attacks' you are referring to. What are these daily reports about? Who is attacking who for what?<br /><br />In other words, even the examples here are not symptoms of such constant attacks in my opinion. Take the UC Berkeley case; was it some attack on whiteness? Hardly. It was a bunch of kids trying to make a point, badly. They were not even attacking Whites per se, they were just trying to raise awareness and show how it might feel like to be treated differently just because of the color of one's skin. They were dumb to go about it that way, but it was not much of an attack...<br /><br />So again, what does it even mean to talk about constant attacks on whiteness?World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-86712657477868382722018-06-11T11:30:01.687-07:002018-06-11T11:30:01.687-07:00"This is why I repeatedly asked Legion why he..."This is why I repeatedly asked Legion why he said there was 'constant attack on whiteness' here in the USA, as if it were as bad as the examples of racism and xenophobia that poc in general are subjected to."<br /><br />Because new examples are reported on a daily basis. Of course these are sites and groups that seek this behavior out and highlight it, but they don't lack for material. I don't necessarily think these people are representative, but I also don't see much in progressive thought that lends itself to opposing such ideas (extends to other things like sexism as well). Perhaps I've missed something.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593005679430527458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-69274081817346497752018-06-11T10:49:14.698-07:002018-06-11T10:49:14.698-07:00Ya I think that's a good example that Legion p...Ya I think that's a good example that Legion posted.<br /><br />Regarding UC Berkeley, it is really the one I am talking about.<br />https://reason.com/blog/2016/10/26/video-uc-berkeley-protesters-built-a-hum<br />Some kids blocked the access to campus, but only for White students.<br />Interestingly enough, I was in class that night (doing a part-time MBA at Haas) and did not see any of this at all. I learned about it months later actually...<br /><br />Another good example is the one you hinted at Dave, where students at Evergreen college wanted to ban White students for a day; a flip on the 'Day of Absence' where students of color wouldn't show up. Bret Weinstein tried to oppose the movement and got vilified and asked to resign by the students for it. Something so absurd given that he's been a left-wing activist all his life!<br />https://nypost.com/2017/05/31/college-melts-down-over-plan-for-white-people-free-day-on-campus/<br />His brother, Eric, has been even more outspoken on the issue. He had a good interviews with Dave Rubin and Sam Harris for instance.<br /><br />That being said, I feel it would not be doing justice to the topic to not point out that these examples of extreme viewpoints from the Left, even though there are many, are still nothing compared to the extreme of the Right, in my opinion. David Pakman did a great segment on that almost a year ago now:<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Coc4NScW4Y<br /><br />This is why I repeatedly asked Legion why he said there was 'constant attack on whiteness' here in the USA, as if it were as bad as the examples of racism and xenophobia that poc in general are subjected to. I truly don't know what these 'constant' attacks are nor who experience them. Being white in one of these most SJW-ish area of the country, I have absolutely zero concern because I am white, and as I just said, I even go to college in one of these bastions. But, somehow, people far from these bubbles, in deep red territory, are the ones who complain that Whites are being attacked, because of examples like those above.World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-2001219605793498842018-06-11T06:44:24.539-07:002018-06-11T06:44:24.539-07:00Here's some left-wing extremism, Dave.
https:...Here's some left-wing extremism, Dave.<br /><br />https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Twitter-CEO-Dorsey-Gets-Backlash-For-Eating-at-Chick-fil-A-485094521.htmlKevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593005679430527458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-44720220278517949482018-06-11T00:28:15.382-07:002018-06-11T00:28:15.382-07:00Dialogue with "skepie" [I am skpetcal] o...Dialogue with "skepie" [I am skpetcal] om Metacrock's blog<br /><br /><a href="http://metacrock.blogspot.com/2018/06/dialogue-on-material-and-immaterial.html" rel="nofollow"><b>Material and immateiral existence</b></a>Joseph Hinman (Metacrock)https://www.blogger.com/profile/06957529748541493998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-1457749148211073482018-06-10T22:50:53.320-07:002018-06-10T22:50:53.320-07:00Thanks Hugo, I wanted to know what you thought was...Thanks Hugo, I wanted to know what you thought was extreme. That was the reason for my question. Although, as you mentioned Stan's blog (whoever that guy is) with a link I was hoping you would do the same for the left: a link or two. <br /><br />I think it was a different university that wanted to ban white students for the day. My son goes to a UC, which are about the best universities in my state. He describes the politics there as pretty lame. The're just kids and the worker bees (professors) are just government employees. Mundane at best.<br /><br />Anyway, send me some links to the craziness on the left, I'm interested in actual news and not fake news.David Duffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01222419875209542723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-36980935899028083912018-06-10T22:16:11.551-07:002018-06-10T22:16:11.551-07:00Well, forget Stan if you want, but the blog can st...Well, forget Stan if you want, but the blog can stand on its own for some examples of craziness from the Left. Of the top of my head, I can think of rad fem wanting to label any man-woman sexual encounter as rape, or peotesters at UC Berkeley not letting white students on campus one afternoon, things like that... not sure whether you're skeptical that 3xamples exist or just want to know what I would label as extreme. Can you explain why you're asking? i.e. isn't it obvious that there are extremists within pretty much any large groups?World of Factshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066732051794158264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-1549902926648675282018-06-10T22:14:54.454-07:002018-06-10T22:14:54.454-07:00Just for the hell of it:
https://www.nytimes.com/...Just for the hell of it:<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/opinion/sunday/bills-belated-metoo-moment.htmlDavid Duffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01222419875209542723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10584495.post-36725913042786845132018-06-10T21:36:35.152-07:002018-06-10T21:36:35.152-07:00Hugo, I'm not interested in Stan. I asked that...Hugo, I'm not interested in Stan. I asked that you show me what you think is craziness from the Left. David Duffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01222419875209542723noreply@blogger.com