Helen Andrews: Overcoming the Feminization of Culture

I'm not completely onboard...I'm skeptical that an increase in the number of women in important institutions has been the biggest driver of the Woke plague of lunacy... But women do definitely lean left...and the left is a largely feminine ideology... I expect there's some kind of feedback loop at work...and, undoubtedly, some other things...but I'm not that sure she'd actually disagree:

Sabine Hossenfelder: New Climate Report (Justifiably) Sparks Outrage

So the climate hysteriac left's newest scheme: make up some bullshit models that pretend to show how much worse certain natural disasters are...BECAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE REEEEEEEEEEEE...and then pretend to calculate how much particular industries or companies have contributed to it...and then sue them for $$$.

In brief, the plan is:

Bullshit

More bullshit

Profit!

(Fund leftist causes)

   Look, I neither have nor deserve a fixed opinion on climate change. The people I find most credible generally think that (i) there's some warming; (ii) we did some of it; (iii) we should be concerned and move to stop doing it...

   Anyway, I do try to take it seriously.

   I also realize that a climate catastrophe isn't impossible--and, so, given the horrific nature of such a thing...well, we have to keep that possibility on the table...even if it ought to be over on the edge and not in the center...

   But these people just don't make it easy.

   The left is its own worst enemy.

   Even when lefties have a point, they surround it with so much insane bullshit that they become more dangerous than whatever it is they're crying wolf about...

   Oh and: the NAS is in the thick of this scheme/scam.

  Oh and: as for "extreme event attribution:" the IPCC itself says we have no appreciable evidence that climate change is affecting any adverse weather events...with the possible exception of heat waves...

   Anyway, over to you, Sabine:

James Freeman: NYT Goes with Argumentum ad Hitlerum in Defense of "Ilhan Omar"

...which seems not to be her name...but I suppose the jury is still more-or-less out on that...

Freeman is absolutely right: as is so often the case, the NYT lets its leftist commitments trump reason.

It's already clear that there's substantial reason to suspect that "Omar" is involved in all kinds of financial and immigration-related shenanigans. It absolutely needs to be investigated. It should have been investigated more thoroughly long ago. Nobody's talking about stripping her of her citizenship because she is an opponent of the administration, you dolts. That's on the table because there's a good chance that she committed immigration fraud. In which case she should be stripped of her citizenship--and, consequently, of her status as Congressman.

   She's presumed innocent by the legal system--but we're not obligated to make any such presumption in our ordinary judgments. I mean...I did start out presuming that...but at this point, it's lookin' kinda 50/50 for her at best.

Winston Marshall Interviews Larry Sanger on the Ideological Capture of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a cesspool of leftist bullshit...but, honestly, I think it's gotten less bad over the last couple of years. The entries on race and "gender" used to be pretty pure propaganda...both have improved.
   I've mentioned here before that I think there ought to be a site that comments on Wikipedia entries...and Sanger had the same idea...but instead of just taking about it, he's actually putting it up!

Slotkin is the Latest Lefty to Admit That They're Coming After Us

link

I don't think she should be investigated...

...because we already know they're all soft totalitarians...

But I don't see what could be illegal about making their plans knowns to us.

No-Gi Sasae --> Harai Goshi

Despite Democrat Denials, Anifa Exists Afterall

link

When it comes to the left, we're repeatedly forced to ask ourselves: are they lying or are they delusional? Often it's a bizarro combination of the two.

And, like Trump, they often assert things that generally cohere with the way they want things to be, without regard for how they actually are.

Ramaswamy's Loathsome Ad

I was interested in VR for awhile. Read part of his book but lost interest. Didn't really know enough to form much of an opinion. His drug-company shenanigans sounded sort of slimy to me...but I don't know enough to say for sure.

   I saw something about that ad the other day, though and...Jesus Christ... I mean, a lot depends on the actual facts of the case...but even a little bit of poking around seems to indicate that Acton's mom is shit...which makes the ad utterly beyond the pale. Though there's absolutely no reason for any legitimate political campaign to go there anyway. If Acton is/were such a liar, it would show up elsewhere.

   Bad as it might be for Ohio...part of me kinda hopes VR gets stomped because of this.

Colin Wright, Andrew Hartz: The Inmates Run the Asylum at the American Psychological Association

I could literally not agree with this more.

The Psychology APA--like the Philosophy APA--has gone batshit crazy.

I especially agree with this bit:

   The APA’s antisemitism problem might have captured the attention of the federal government for being a glaring example of ideological capture. But the purpose of accreditation is to guarantee more than the mere absence of one specific—albeit serious—form of discrimination. It is supposed to be an earnest commitment to professional competence, intellectual seriousness and standards worthy of public trust.
   The Education Department should therefore ask whether a professional association so thoroughly committed to political activism should continue enjoying the government’s imprimatur as a guardian of psychological training. No amount of denying objectivity can shield it from those consequences.

So very right.

   Antisemitism sucks...but it seems a bit crazy to me that a professional organization can go completely. fucking. insane, and be so thoroughly ideologically captured by a cultish, extremist political/cultural/intellectual faction...and that's just fine...and overtly bash men and Caucasians all the time...hell, turn it into an area of specialization...all dandy... But, hey, discriminate against a minority group...TOO FAR, MOFO...

   I'm also worried that we're making the left stronger by agreeing to play their game at some level. We let them get away with becoming an arm of the left, and saying and doing utterly insane things...and only go after them over a kind of racial/ethnic discrimination. It's as if we're kind of agreeing with them that it's the worst thing--and the only thing--that's off limits...

Trump Fatigue, Episode MCXVIII

I'm sick to death of that guy.

Matthew Hennessey: France's Riots Are More Than Student Protests [Me: The Core Is Still Orwellianism]

This bit:

   France’s days of rage look to these naked eyes like an immigrant revolt—some strange alliance of Muslim youth and communist grad students. The main thing they have in common is that they’re all unemployed.
   France is officially a colorblind, secular republic. It collects no data on the racial or ethnic makeup of French society. Good estimates, however, put the foreign-born population of France at around 13%. Another roughly 12% are second-generation children of immigrants. That’s a full quarter of French society with a potentially deep ambivalence about living in a colorblind, secular republic.
   These populations were overrepresented in the recent rioting. Yet decades of stultifying political correctness have robbed us of the ability to speak about the obvious. We censor our own thoughts. We stop ourselves from noticing things we can plainly see.

The last part, obviously, in particular.

   Here are two related components of the madness of the left: the Orwellian insistence on not seeing what is before your nose...and the strictly-enforced norm on the left against speaking politically incorrect truths. This is a blueprint for disaster.

   Imagine a ship run on PC principles: no noticing things on the list of unnoticeable things--e.g. shoals, storms, rogue waves--and no speaking of them either. No bringing them to anyone's attention.

   This, quoting Peirce from a different context, is a complicated way of spelling 'shipwreck'...

   No enterprise of any importance can succeed if run in accordance with these principles. These principles are specifically to prevent acknowledgement of truth and falsehood.

   The left either believes that society and government are so frivolous (or so easy) that they needn't recognize facts...or they think that maintaining leftist ideological fantasies is more important than those things...or...here's another possibility: since one of their goals is wrecking Western Civilization...well...you see where I'm going with this...

   I predicted the Dems would snap out of this a lot sooner than they have. My ad hoc hypothesis for explaining the failure of my prediction is: Trump. He's such a repellent figure in so many ways that he's keeping people on the left who, under different conditions, would have jumped ship by now. Thus forcing the left to return to the center or lose, lose, lose...

   Though, OTOH, back in the PC "1.0" era, almost everyone I knew who considered himself a liberal stuck with the left no matter how insane it became...and there was no Trump then...

   Well, anyway: at least we're not as royally f*cked as France...

0.5 Scaramuccis!

Katie, We Hardly Knew Ye

WSJ: To Russia, With Love, Signed Donald

link

I don't understand much about what's going on here. But I suppose the diesel deal doesn't anger me as much as it does others--and maybe not as much as it should.

I don't think either party should cut deals with our foreign enemies to gain advantage in elections...but I've gotta say...if it keeps control of the Senate out of the hands of the Dems by bringing down gas prices...I kinda want to allow it...

I know.

That's bad.

OTOH, the Euros were buying Russian oil hand over fist until Trump pitched a bitch about it...some still may be. Not sure...

Anyway: Trump certainly has a bug up his ass about Ukraine. I just don't get it. I don't think anybody gets it. Maybe it's just his contrarian nature. Maybe he's still sore about the Biden/Ukraine business. God knows.

Anyway, I think WSJ (and everybody else) is likely right about this one and I'm wrong.

But keeping Congress--and SCOTUS--out of the hands of the current, unhinged Dems is...extremely important.

That's my excuse.

John Ellis: Radical Professors Have Poisoned the Electorate

link

Ellis is basically right about academia, as usual.

I'm not sure about the causal link with DSA success, however.

There's some evidence that professors have little effect on their students' political views.

We should drain the swamp one way or the other--to be clear.