I'll try to say this dispassionately: This is that time of year when many of my neighbors aim extremely loud high frequency devices at their leaves in an attempt to decrease entropy. The devices usually have a hypnotic effect on my neighbors, causing them to walk slowly and haphazardly, thus lengthening the duration of these cacophonous sessions.
I already voted for Biden.I have several friends who have voted for Trump. I know for a fact that they are not mean people, stupid or racist. I'm am sure that they held their nose to vote for Trump; I held my nose to vote for Biden. I will remain friends with my Republican friends. I refuse to hate anyone based on how they vote. This is the context for this little experiment run by Diane Fleishman, as reported by her husband Geoffrey Miller (they are both evolutionary psychologists).
I follow Wilfred Reilly on Twitter (among many other people). Today, he posted this 2016 video by Ami Horowitz. I understand that the video was created with a viewpoint in mind. We don't know Horowitz chose the people he features or what interviews might have been cut from the final product. That said, This video attacks a deep, unfortunate and insulting assumption that underlies many Woke positions: That Black people are all the same, that society should treat them as a group instead of as individuals and that Blacks are in many ways incompetent. This Woke assumption should be repeatedly yanked out into the daylight and ridiculed, as Shelby Steele has forcefully done throughout his 2020 documentary, "What Killed Michael Brown?"
For more commentary on the documentary I mentioned above, "What Killed Michael Brown," in invite you to listen to "The Glenn Show," featuring Glenn Loury and (every few episodes) John McWhorter. This is a 180 degree commentary compared to much of the prevailing racial zeitgeist:
I am saddened and angered, but not surprised, by this systematic censorship of Abigail Shrier's well-researched book. Many of the most dangerous things being done by our news media Nannies consist of things you cannot see: important issues they completely refuse to discuss. You can read my original post on this topic here.
I've pasted in evidence of Abigail Shrier's claim below. The people driving the censorship know that if this issue is carefully and dispassionately discussed (as Shrier has done in her book), the jig is up. Untold damage is being done to teenage girls. We need to stop and ask ourselves (as Shrier book does) "What the hell are we doing?"
See the Tweets below for some of the evidence:
At Quillette, Vincent Harinam and David Kopel explain availability cascades. These can be harmful "to the survival of a society because they choke off accurate information and thoughtful discussion." I find this topic compelling in light of my recent essay regarding the resignation of Glenn Greenwald from The Intercept, of which he was co-founder. Here are some excerpts from Harinam and Kopel's much longer article:
When all available information seems to indicate that everyone is falling in line with a certain belief, we may be under the influence of an “availability cascade.” . . . Two components make up an availability cascade: an informational cascade and a reputational cascade. An informational cascade creates genuine changes in people’s beliefs by providing plentiful but misleading information. A reputational cascade is a vicious cycle in which individuals feign expressions of conviction to retain social approval.. . .
Availability cascades can only occur when an influence network exhibits a “critical mass” of early adopters. For an availability cascade to occur, a minimum number of individuals must first adopt it. Once this threshold is reached, the cascade becomes self-sustaining with more and more adopting it. Persons A and B declare support for a particular position. Person C disagrees but is worried about retaliation if he dissents; so, he pretends to agree with the position. Person D sees that C is going along, so D goes along too. As social media drives information flows and connects swaths of people, critical mass can be achieved much faster. Social media is a cascade builder.
According to a Cato Institute poll, 62 percent of Americans say that the current political climate prevents them from expressing their views. Majorities of Democrats (52 percent), independents (59 percent) and Republicans (77 percent) now self-censor. The only group where the majority did not feel pressured into silence were leftist Democrats. Another study found that the higher the level of education, the greater the self-censorship.
Moderates may be the worst off. Whereas the right wing and left wing can retreat to zones where their views are reinforced rather than vilified, moderates cannot. The moderate who rejects the dominant views of the Left and the Right is shouted down by both sides. For moderates, there exists no safe haven from the culture wars.