Sit back and Enjoy this Burrito

No, you don't get to eat a burrito. You get to watch this dog finesse one down. And the dude next to the dog nails the supporting role.

Continue ReadingSit back and Enjoy this Burrito

How to Become an Award-Winning Woke Researcher Overnight, and Why this is a Terrible Thing for Civil Rights in America.

How to become an award-winning Woke all-star author instantly, and why the success of this pranking-seeming project is a terrible thing for civil rights in America. Special Honor to physicist Alan Sokal for pioneering this approach to pouring sunshine on nonsense. James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose did the hard work to make this happen.

Continue ReadingHow to Become an Award-Winning Woke Researcher Overnight, and Why this is a Terrible Thing for Civil Rights in America.

Matt Taibbi: “The Left is Now the Right”

Once again, Taibbi is spot on. He ends his blistering critique of the "anti-racist" left with this:  "Ambrose Bierce once wrote there were “two instruments worse than a clarinet — two clarinets.” What would he say about authoritarian movements?"

Taibbi now publishes in a variety of places, but his writing "day job" is now on his own website here. I highly recommend subscribing, in that his writing is never tethered by party politics and is always analytically sharp and permeated with his creative wit.

The following is an excerpt from Taibbi's article, "The Left is Now the Right," where he puts a laser beam on the Smithsonian Museum racism, among other things:

Take the Smithsonian story. The museum became the latest institution to attempt to combat racism by pledging itself to “antiracism,” a quack sub-theology that in a self-clowning trick straight out of Catch-22 seeks to raise awareness about ignorant race stereotypes by reviving and amplifying them.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture created a graphic on “Aspects and Assumptions of White Culture” that declared the following white values: “the scientific method,” “rational, linear thinking,” “the nuclear family,” “children should have their own rooms,” “hard work is the key to success,” “be polite,” “written tradition,” and “self-reliance.” White food is “steak and potatoes; bland is best,” and in white justice, “intent counts.”

The astute observer will notice this graphic could equally have been written by white supremacist Richard Spencer or History of White People parodist Martin Mull. It seems impossible that no one at one of the country’s leading educational institutions noticed this messaging is ludicrously racist, not just to white people but to everyone (what is any person of color supposed to think when he or she reads that self-reliance, politeness, and “linear thinking” are white values?).

The exhibit was inspired by white corporate consultants with Education degrees like Judith Katz and White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo, who themselves echo the work of more consultants with Ed degrees like Glenn Singleton of Courageous Conversations. Per the New York Times, Courageous Conversations even teaches that “written communication over other forms” and “mechanical time” (i.e. clock time) are tools by which “whiteness undercuts Black kids.”

The notion that such bugbears as as time, data, and the written word are racist has caught fire across the United States in the last few weeks, igniting calls for an end to virtually every form of quantitative evaluation in hiring and admissions, including many that were designed specifically to combat racism.

Continue ReadingMatt Taibbi: “The Left is Now the Right”

Brett Weinstein’s Podcast Hosts Roundtable of Black Writers and Intellectuals

Based on the protests raging on the streets, one might mistakenly think that there is only Black viewpoint and that it is represented by the purported political aims of Black Lives Matter.

Brett Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist who, on his DarkHorse Podcast, has made a habit of doing deep dives into thorny topics. On this episode, Weinstein hosts a roundtable with seven highly accomplished Black writers and intellectuals. If you like good-natured self-critical discussions where the facts matter and where the participants actively seek to learn from each other, you are going to find this two-hour discussion fascinating. I found myself taking notes throughout and having my faith in humanity restored as this lively discussion unfolded.

Continue ReadingBrett Weinstein’s Podcast Hosts Roundtable of Black Writers and Intellectuals