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Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting! NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets.
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On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts. I like this. If only more people thought for themselves...
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On April 09 2018 08:44 Acrofales wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts. I like this. If only more people thought for themselves... most people do not have the capability to do so that effectively; either in training, or in temperament. depending of course on what you meant by people thinking for themselves.
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What's wrong with technocratic fetishism? It's the only thing that'll save us all!
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On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts.
It's a fascinating dynamic indeed. The 'sides' pitted against each other as if the pursuit of one of them vanquishing the other is a biological imperative for them both.
On April 09 2018 08:47 Uldridge wrote: What's wrong with technocratic fetishism? It's the only thing that'll save us all!
See what I'm sayin' yo?
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On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts.
I would say replace experts with themselves. The US is rotten with "I am the exception to the rules" thinking so people can disregard whatever evidence is against them because their personal experience and can do attitude trumps experts.
There is a very real lack of respect for them now a days if anything. Or you could say people "shope around" for one that agrees with them.
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On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts.
Seems like two weird points to bring up together. Anti-intellectualism is rooted in instinctive distrust of experts. How would an 'intellectualism' look that is not willing to recognise authority of experts?
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On April 09 2018 07:19 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 07:10 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On April 09 2018 06:46 IgnE wrote:On April 09 2018 05:23 zlefin wrote:On April 09 2018 05:12 IgnE wrote:On April 09 2018 05:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On April 09 2018 04:16 IgnE wrote:What is so damning about Peterson for me, is not that he tells stories about the pancake-dragon, it's his completely disingenuous use and abuse of figures like Nietzsche and Orwell. Reading that CurrentAffairs essay previously linked in this thread by kollin, I don't know how any intellectually honest person can read JP's use of Orwell's Wigan Pier and not be completely disillusioned with most of his pronouncements in areas outside of clinical psychology. The Wigar Pier quotation is totally damning in my view, and clearly reveals the unconscious ideological iceberg underneath all of his political opinions (JP's constant insistence that he is against all ideology should put everyone else on notice that he is, in fact, a deeply ideological man). If he can't even deal with Orwell in an intellectually honest manner, imagine how he thinks about all the "postmodern neo-marxists" he's always railing about. I didn't know if this was a philosophical/ psychological reference so I Google that term. That was a mistake. Thanks, Urban Dictionary. Besides his obsession with trying to make outdated and disproven Jungian analysis look credible, his insistence on taking mundane and unremarkable platitudes and making them sound as ridiculously wordy and confusing as possible (which equates to "brilliance" in the minds of his supporters), his victim blaming for sexual harassment in the workplace, his denial of any gender pay discrimination, and the fact that he says he identifies as a Christian yet doesn't believe in Jesus's resurrection story (which I think is a contradiction or at least an inconsistency, no?), didn't he also gain notoriety from refusing to follow university protocols on simply acknowledging gender equity (citing freedom of speech, as if his employers aren't allowed to try to enforce additional policies that are aimed towards fairness and acceptance of students)? The pancake-dragon story is in the currentaffairs essay kollin linked and that I relinked. Robinson transcribed one of Peterson's lectures where he is talking about the dragon of chaos and ropes in a story about a young child eating pancakes. I don't find Peterson to be "ridiculously wordy and confusing." I think that says more about the willingness of critics to appeal to the lowest common denominator than it does about any intended obscurantism on Peterson's part. "Look at this guy using big words, trying to be nuanced, and capitalizing words! What a pedant!" That linked article from current affairs seemed to me to make a pretty good case for peterson being needlessly wordy and confusing. what do you make of the part of the article wherein they claimed such (if you read the full article and remember your thoughts on that part)? I think it's a mostly cheap tactic by a critic who wants to criticize both Peterson's supposed wordiness and his very plain-spoken teaching style. I don't think a "good case" is made that someone is "needlessly wordy" by simply pulling out a detailed paragraph in a 600 page book that is supposed to comprehensively address some topic. Robinson effectively points to it, and says, "there's nothing there, and it's confusing to boot!" I didn't find that paragraph particularly confusing, did you? And I certainly don't understand criticism that on the one hand the man is too wordy and confusing, and on the other hand he's just a demagogic self-help guru speaking in simple sentences that are infinitely interpretable. I much prefer it when someone lays everything out somewhere, like Peterson seems to do in his writings, because it's much easier to point out where he smuggles in baseless assumptions, compared to the relatively "straight-forward" or "common-sense" approaches he takes when speaking, that offer much greater hermeneutical latitude. There's a certain fetish for "clear writing" that relies upon a strong belief in the possibility of unambiguous communication of meaning in the Anglosphere, and it annoys me when people who should know better cynically deploy it as part of a short-sighted rhetorical philistinism. Yes, many people are obsessed with being able to understand others' arguments. How dare they have the expectation that an educator should be clear and concise and straightforward and comprehensible! Peterson's writing reminds me of middle schools students who repeat mundane statements and talk in circles just to reach the page requirement for the English assignment. I wouldn't be surprised if Peterson changes the margins and font sizes too. I think that judgment says more about you than it does about Peterson. And I know that you wouldn't say that a middle school student should be able to open a mathematics book on set theory and understand it. Many STEM people seem to suffer quite a bit from Dunning-Kruger when it comes to writing and literature. Nobody reads Maps of Meaning because it is Peterson's scholarly attempt to comprehensively tackle a subject. He's not an educator translating his findings to students in that text. He is an expert speaking to people who have already or are willing to put in the work to understand what he's saying. This conflation of his teaching and his scholarly writing is so lazy. I don't even think Peterson is a great writer! There are certainly valid criticisms of his writing style that could be made. But I reject the lazy, anti-intellectual philistinism on display here.
You bolded that phrase, but I'd like to point it out too... yes, he's an educator. He's literally a college professor; that's what I was referring to. For what it's worth, I wasn't trying to come across smugly as a STEM person (i.e., belittling other subject matter as trivial compared to how awesome math is, or saying that writing and literature are inferior or easy); as a fellow college professor and educator, I was thinking about how I (and other educators) speak, write, and present things to other people (students or otherwise), and I found a contrast between that and how Peterson presents things in interviews or on paper. That contrast, I feel, is not subject-dependent, and I also think it's unfair that you assume that critics of his statements simply haven't "put in the work to understand what he's saying". What if we have?
Anyway, assuming that you'll happily concede the point that Peterson is indeed an educator (because I don't think that makes or breaks your rebuttal), I think your criticism of that specific point would then be that his book of musings doesn't have to be aimed as educational or easy to digest simply because he's also, separately an educator, and I think that's fair. I'm sure it's possible for some teachers to turn off their teaching switch when doing other projects, and I think that's the point you're trying to make with that response. If I haven't correctly understood that remark, then please clarify it further for me.
That being said, just because Peterson's maps and words may be difficult to unpack doesn't mean he's brilliant. I really don't think this is an instance where everyone who criticizes him is simply too stupid to fathom his complexity. On the contrary, as was stated before, I think that the more we unpack the more we see a dearth of substance, hidden sometimes by Barnum/ fortune cookie/ horoscope-esque descriptions (so broad and unclear that anyone could agree with the statement if they really tried to only count hits and ignore misses), and hidden other times by language so overly complicated and superfluous and confusing and wordy that people are fooled into thinking that it must be dazzling and innovative, when in reality it's a mundane and simple thought. There are many examples of both of these scenarios in the sources previously linked (especially the pancake-dragon article).
I feel his speaking and writing styles mask the fact that many of the things he says are not groundbreaking; they're often pseudointellectual or even just plain wrong. Here is a paragraph I wrote to you earlier (nested in this very conversation), and I notice that you only responded to the one remark about his style (I've bolded it) and you ignored the rest of the list (all substance, based on positions he's taken, which I've underlined):
Besides his obsession with trying to make outdated and disproven Jungian analysis look credible, his insistence on taking mundane and unremarkable platitudes and making them sound as ridiculously wordy and confusing as possible (which equates to "brilliance" in the minds of his supporters), his victim blaming for sexual harassment in the workplace, his denial of any gender pay discrimination, and the fact that he says he identifies as a Christian yet doesn't believe in Jesus's resurrection story (which I think is a contradiction or at least an inconsistency, no?), didn't he also gain notoriety from refusing to follow university protocols on simply acknowledging gender equity (citing freedom of speech, as if his employers aren't allowed to try to enforce additional policies that are aimed towards fairness and acceptance of students)?
I find those positions of his to be incredibly controversial and probably wrong, and when he responds with circumlocution it only furthers my suspicion that he's not being honest or fair.
Furthermore, I don't think it's appropriate to dismiss critiques of substance and style as "philistinism". There's a difference between not being cultured and not putting up with remarks against women or the LGBT community. I also don't think it's appropriate to dismiss certain things as simple fetishes when referring to the communication and clarity of ideas. Considering how viral and politicized his statements are in the United States, I think it's quite important his viewers and readers understand what he is actually saying and not saying. And yeah, that's the educator in me who always strives for clarity, but that's also because it's vital we have a well-informed electorate. There's enough lying and absurdity and smoke and mirrors in politics already.
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Well I didn't address the underlined part of your text precisely because I wasn't trying to dismiss the critiques of his substance. If you are going to critique someone, you should do it well. Diluting a critique with petty arguments about how "wordy and confusing" his book is is counterproductive and annoying.
For what it's worth, I think that pretty much the entirety of the underlined paragraph is an overreach, but I won't go into it now, because somewhere in that thicket of overstatements is a set of reasonable criticisms that I agree with.
Edit: please note the closing prepositional phrase in the sentence, "He's not an educator translating his findings to students in that text."
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On April 09 2018 08:44 Acrofales wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts. I like this. If only more people thought for themselves... There's a low ceiling for how much one person can know, think all you want there's simply not enough time to dip below surface level on more than a few fields. As for the rest, it's not exactly a mystery which option is less risky.
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On April 09 2018 10:46 IgnE wrote: Well I didn't address the underlined part of your text precisely because I wasn't trying to dismiss the critiques of his substance. If you are going to critique someone, you should do it well. Diluting a critique with petty arguments about how "wordy and confusing" his book is is counterproductive and annoying.
The critiques of his style, wordiness, and ambiguity are perfectly valid on their own merits, and you haven't managed to refute the many examples besides making a blanket statement of the assumption that his critics either can't or don't want to understand his brilliance. That's disingenuous, especially when people have written pages and pages of criticisms of his quotes. Are they quote mining and misrepresenting everything? If so, then you should argue such a thing. Literally everything in the pancake-dragon link ( https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve ) is quite damning, for a start. The criticisms presented there, elaborating on just how wordy and confusing Peterson's remarks can be, appear to be quite legitimate. You may not like that, but I feel like you're conceding his flaws of substance and expecting the compromise that everyone else will drop the criticisms of his stylistic flaws. I think Peterson fails frequently in both cases, as is shown by the countless examples already presented.
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On April 09 2018 11:54 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 10:46 IgnE wrote: Well I didn't address the underlined part of your text precisely because I wasn't trying to dismiss the critiques of his substance. If you are going to critique someone, you should do it well. Diluting a critique with petty arguments about how "wordy and confusing" his book is is counterproductive and annoying. The critiques of his style, wordiness, and ambiguity are perfectly valid on their own merits, and you haven't managed to refute the many examples besides making a blanket statement of the assumption that his critics either can't or don't want to understand his brilliance. That's disingenuous, especially when people have written pages and pages of criticisms of his quotes. Are they quote mining and misrepresenting everything? If so, then you should argue such a thing. Literally everything in the pancake-dragon link ( https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve ) is quite damning, for a start. The criticisms presented there, elaborating on just how wordy and confusing Peterson's remarks can be, appear to be quite legitimate. You may not like that, but I feel like you're conceding his flaws of substance and expecting the compromise that everyone else will drop the criticisms of his stylistic flaws. I think Peterson fails frequently in both cases, as is shown by the countless examples already presented.
Really dude? You want to go back to square one? You want to go back to how "confusing" Peterson's writing is? Really? I've been talking about just that article for like 3 thread pages now, and it doesn't sound like you are specifically responding to anything I've actually said about it. I never said he was brilliant. If anything I was implying that he was completely ordinary. And I'm sorry, but just because you write "pages and pages" of criticisms, that doesn't mean they are legitimate. I really can't be asked to respond to this if you don't indicate even the faintest understanding with what my argument the last three pages has been. I'm not even mad, just disappointed.
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On April 09 2018 12:15 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 11:54 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On April 09 2018 10:46 IgnE wrote: Well I didn't address the underlined part of your text precisely because I wasn't trying to dismiss the critiques of his substance. If you are going to critique someone, you should do it well. Diluting a critique with petty arguments about how "wordy and confusing" his book is is counterproductive and annoying. The critiques of his style, wordiness, and ambiguity are perfectly valid on their own merits, and you haven't managed to refute the many examples besides making a blanket statement of the assumption that his critics either can't or don't want to understand his brilliance. That's disingenuous, especially when people have written pages and pages of criticisms of his quotes. Are they quote mining and misrepresenting everything? If so, then you should argue such a thing. Literally everything in the pancake-dragon link ( https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve ) is quite damning, for a start. The criticisms presented there, elaborating on just how wordy and confusing Peterson's remarks can be, appear to be quite legitimate. You may not like that, but I feel like you're conceding his flaws of substance and expecting the compromise that everyone else will drop the criticisms of his stylistic flaws. I think Peterson fails frequently in both cases, as is shown by the countless examples already presented. Really dude? You want to go back to square one? You want to go back to how "confusing" Peterson's writing is? Really? I've been talking about just that article for like 3 thread pages now, and it doesn't sound like you are specifically responding to anything I've actually said about it. I never said he was brilliant. If anything I was implying that he was completely ordinary. And I'm sorry, but just because you write "pages and pages" of criticisms, that doesn't mean they are legitimate. I really can't be asked to respond to this if you don't indicate even the faintest understanding with what my argument the last three pages has been. I'm not even mad, just disappointed.
My intentions were not to regress; I actually felt that we hadn't significantly progressed. I know that you don't identify him as brilliant, and you've outlined reasons why you disagree with him. I think I should take a little break from the Peterson conversation for now, and certainly get some sleep. I appreciate the dialogue
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On April 09 2018 10:49 Dan HH wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2018 08:44 Acrofales wrote:On April 09 2018 08:41 IgnE wrote:On April 09 2018 08:35 GreenHorizons wrote:On April 09 2018 08:24 IgnE wrote: Rhetoric and style are political. Also it's fun. I definitely think both the tourism advice and Peterson/rhetoric and style can be relevant to a US politics thread, but I wasn't reading that. I was reading a rather pedantic discussion where your opponents largely don't even understand your argument (not that I understand the specific texts any better than anyone involved). You're probably more aware than most that I'm interested in dissecting the way people engage with political ideas they reflexively disagree with in the thread and in society at large, but it doesn't feel like that's where this is heading. To the more generic aspect of simply being political, then it could just as easily be had in any of the other politics threads that struggle for such post volume. fwiw I just wanted to nudge the conversation back towards the parts that make it relevant to the US politics thread specifically or at least understand how what seemed like personal beefing on some obscure stuff was relevant. To that end I can see your point. Anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest problems in this country. Along with technocratic fetishism and misplaced trust in experts. I like this. If only more people thought for themselves... There's a low ceiling for how much one person can know, think all you want there's simply not enough time to dip below surface level on more than a few fields. As for the rest, it's not exactly a mystery which option is less risky. There's a big difference between thinking and knowing. I often think I should talk to someone knowledgeable about a topic before making my own decision.
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There is absolutely nothing confusing about Peterson or any of his discussions. He's extremely straight forward and easy to digest hence his overwhelming support with the masses. The intentional misrepresentation in this thread alone of the man is laughable. Which is why on any major news outlet that has posted his discussions in the comments sections (when they allow it) they have lambasted the news articles as hit pieces and properly so.
It's absolutely not a surprise that the equity authoritarian who still believes in a naive egalitarian mindset doesn't allow comments on his articles. Nor is it a surprise that at least two of the people in the thread who at least mildly believe in equity are misrepresenting Peterson so blatantly and doing so knowingly.
On April 09 2018 10:31 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: his victim blaming for sexual harassment in the workplace
Absolutely untrue. This is a vice smear attempt. He was asking about what are the rules of the workplace. Vice attempted to make him seem like an oppressive patriarch who was asking why should women be allowed to wear makeup in the work place.
His denial of any gender pay discrimination
Also untrue. He explains part of why it happens. I.e. women are on average far more agreeable than men (or more submissive, if you will). Most of it is not 'systemic discrimination'. Hilariously enough when most companies get accused of this for paying females lower than males they often say, 'after our analysis we are actually paying our employees equally.'
Pic very related. I have more. + Show Spoiler +
didn't he also gain notoriety from refusing to follow university protocols on simply acknowledging gender equity (citing freedom of speech, as if his employers aren't allowed to try to enforce additional policies that are aimed towards fairness and acceptance of students)?
This is untrue. His concern was with writing compelled speech into law. Which has never happened in Canada and is dangerous territory to attempt to legislate thought. These are not simple university guidelines. Why should anyone support the far left ideologues attempts at pretending equity is the ideal? Men and women are not equal. And they should not be treated as such. They should both be treated well by their peers and society - and they should both be treated fairly, yes. But male and female are not just physical manifestations. There are also internal differences rooted deeply in their being. This doesn't disclude outliers but when working with a group it's fair to say the averages are clear.
On the subject of Peterson it should be noted that every time he was debated on live television or just in general he has trounced the opposition thoroughly. What he wants to have with these people is a meaningful dialogue and he says that clearly. Which is why he would like to be invited back on to talk to Cathy Newman after he tears down her ideological possession. But he keeps running into ideological possession and indoctrination. That much has been clearly seen. Which again, leads to his very widespread support.
Also since this is a lefty hideout and I was assured that most lefties believe in reformative justice I am surprised to see I am banned permanently from this thread. Rather they should allow me in to their community so that I can re-integrate myself and attempt to learn to conduct myself better through trial and error. Much like a youth whom has 35 arrests but the courts cannot keep the youth behind bars because he is just shy of 18. If I am permanently banned, are they not denying me human dignity and my human rights to speak as an equal with my peers? It's a private site but surely they should practice what they preach. It's been a year of being banned. It's not very inclusive of them and shows that they are not willing to engage in a diversity of opinion.
Since I believe them when they say they believe in reformative justice and not authoritarianism and censorship, surely my ban should be lifted. Consider this post an appeal to that. Though I expect it to be thoroughly denied.
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Hey Testie,
Thanks for responding to some of my remarks. I'm going to take at least a day or two off the Peterson conversation and focus on other topics and irl things so that I have time to digest what I've learned and encountered over the past few days. If the Peterson conversation is still going on then, or if it comes back in the near future, I'd be happy to address your points then. For what it's worth, a few days/ pages ago we already covered the victim blaming situation by looking at his exact interview clip and question and response, so it's definitely not a mistranslation, let alone a "smear attempt". I've seen and heard enough of his actual responses- either on YouTube or in writing- to have made that list of controversial issues that I disagree with him on. He and his supporters frequently attempt to justify those positions, but that's completely different than pretending they don't exist.
Anyways, I'm sorry to hear that you're banned from this thread for whatever reasons (although you just posted! yay! so maybe not perma?), and I think that varying political viewpoints can strengthen our thread discussions. I feel like you calling this thread a "lefty hideout" is purposely inflammatory and focusing on the wrong people, as I absolutely welcome reading articulate and informative posts by everyone on the political spectrum. Echo chambers can be bad, but shouldn't you be critiquing any politically outspoken members who purposely avoid the thread, rather than critique those of us who actually show up for the discussion? Instead, why not challenge those on the right to join our conversation? We might all learn something new
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How exactly are you banned if you can continue post here..? Also, this thread is far from a leftie hangout. The majority seems to be (but then again compared to the US, the vast majority of Europeans are left leaning), but there's some very active right leaning people as well, as long as you don't equate Trump to right, as Trump has long passed any left vs right discussion and moved it over to the stupid debate. I think there's only one or two actual Trump supporters/excusers in here from what I have seen.
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Seeker
Where dat snitch at?36920 Posts
Testie being able to post in this thread was because he was not banned yet from this thread. We locked the old thread and made a new one. Testie was banned from the old thread but we forgot to ban him from the new thread. He is banned again now. Please proceed as usual with your political discussions.
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DatkPlasmaBall, I laud it whenever someone says they will refrain from further posting and instead think about or just clear their mind. That is a thing everyone should learn and practice!
Therefore it is a little snide to comment on your post, it is with good attentions though! Although some of you looked at the clips in question, that doesn't mean that it is in good faith. I saw some and then some more confirmation biases. I think that is what Testie means, when he speaks of a leftist thread, a thing which I cannot really subscribe to, although some of the more prominent posters are left leaning, because there are posters like zeo and Danglars and the usual right leaning suspects who can lend their voice here. But they get trounced upon more so than the left leaning ones, with the exception of GH because he is over the top left.
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There are plenty of right leaning posters in the thread depending on the topic, they just don’t actively complain about number of left leaning posters. There is this narrative of repression and victimization among some self appointed spokespeople for the right. It is often used as a substitute for real arguments. Furthermore, it is hard theory to agree with since the Republicans have held both chambers for around 8 years at this point and the majority of the last two decades. It is hard to argue that a political view is oppressed when hold power for a decade or more. But it is a great way to stifle discussion.
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On April 09 2018 22:20 Plansix wrote: There are plenty of right leaning posters in the thread depending on the topic, they just don’t actively complain about number of left leaning posters. There is this narrative of repression and victimization among some self appointed spokespeople for the right. It is often used as a substitute for real arguments. Furthermore, it is hard theory to agree with since the Republicans have held both chambers for around 8 years at this point and the majority of the last two decades. It is hard to argue that a political view is oppressed when hold power for a decade or more. But it is a great way to stifle discussion.
Even more remarkable is that the ones whining on the right don't make the obvious connection between their flawed views and the decline of their power. They scream about media bias, shills, and manipulation instead of simply acknowledging that their "side" is just flat out regressive/unpopular. I have a number of friends who just can't seem to understand that they're backing a losing horse in this race of ideologies. Frankly, it scares me a bit. It shows that some people really are just too far gone to be helped.
That's why I poo poo anyone who claims the path to victory is trying to get through to those people and "turn" them. The numbers are such that they can just be ignored. I think the Dems should take power, impose their will legislatively and without mercy, and move on from there.
It's like dealing with children. Your kids don't understand or agree with your decision to ground them for breaking the rules, but they get it when they reap the benefits later. Same here. The Trumpets will get it when they have Medicare for all and decent jobs. Until then, just pretend they don't exist.
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