The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Superior Male Mathematical Ability’

Posted on | May 17, 2014 | 38 Comments

 

Does anyone else remember the “Teen Talk Barbie” controversy?

In July 1992, Mattel issued a talking Barbie doll which said various phrases that a teenager might say. One of these phrases was “math class is tough” and, to judge from the reaction by feminists, Barbie might as well have said, “All girls are stupid”:

A talking Barbie doll criticized by a national women’s group for saying “math class is tough” will no longer utter tve the offending lament, Mattel Inc. has decided. . . .
The American Association of University Women attacked the math comment in a report on how schools shortchange girls.

What was the problem? Math class is tough, after all, and for a kid’s toy to say so — well, who cares? Did anyone believe that girls were going to be brainwashed because of a four-word sentence they heard from a talking doll? It was absurd. But believing absurdities is what feminism is all about, so it became a huge controversy.

In fact, differences between males and females in terms of mathematical aptitude have been the subject of feminist protest for decades. In his 1999 book The New Know-Nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature, sociologist Morton Hunt recounted an earlier uproar over the same basic topic:

Neither [John Hopkins University] Professor Julian Stanley nor his co-author, Camilla Benbow, a graduate student, anticipated that they would be fiercely attacked by feminists or, indeed, by anyone when their brief report, “Sex Differences in Mathematical Ability: Fact or Artifact?” was accepted by the journal Science and published in its December 12, 1980, issue. . . .
Their final conclusion was that differences in innate ability accounted for the results, although they allowed that environmental factors might also have played a part:

We favor the hypothesis that sex differences in achievement in and attitude toward mathematics result from superior male mathematical ability, which may in turn be related to greater male ability in spatial tasks. This male superiority is probably an expression of both endogenous and exogenous variables. . . . It also seems likely that putting one’s faith in boy-versus-girl socialization processes as the only permissible explanation of the sex difference in mathematics is premature. . . .

Their report, only two pages long, was like a lighted match tossed into dry underbrush during a windstorm; it touched off a fast-spreading conflagration of articles and letters in the media throughout the country and in scientific journals. . . .
Articles and letters in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and many other magazines and newspapers, and many scientific journals, reported Benbow and Stanley’s finding, in most cases stressing its inflammatory nature. Some popular articles distorted the message in ways bound to enrage the public and scientists: Newsweek’s article was headlined “Do Males Have a Math Gene?” (Benbow and Stanley never mentioned the word “gene”). An Associated Press special was headlined , “Hopkins Study Called ‘Ridiculous’” and quoted the public statement of a feminist contingent at an annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society in San Francisco, “It is virtually impossible to undo the damage of the publicity surrounding the report” . . .

Think about that last phrase: “the damage of the publicity surrounding the report.” Who or what was “damaged” and how? All that Stanley and Benbow had done was to compile and analyze data and presented their conclusions which, although couched in qualifiers like “may” and “seems,” contradicted the feminist assumption that “socialization processes” explained the differences. If articles in the popular media misrepresented the Stanley-Benbow study, this was not their fault, but still: Who was “damaged”?

If your daughter excelled at math, would you stop encouraging her because a study found that, on average, boys scored higher on math? To say that Group A, on average, outperforms Group B in a skill is not to say that no members of Group B possess that skill.

Yet because feminists are very much obsessed with women as a group — and believe that any advantage exhibited by men (on average, as a group) must be a result of discrimination against women — the Stanley-Benbow study was a problem, in that it strongly suggested that anti-female discrimination did not explain everything.

We are, therefore, back at the kind of “is”/”ought” issue previously discussed, the feminist obsession with Equality, where every statistical disparity between men and women becomes a grievance.

Despite the fact that now women are 33% more likely than men to earn a college diploma, this disparity in favor of women hasn’t stopped feminists from whining about “discrimination.”

As for differences in math ability, a 2008 study found that most of that disparity had also disappeared, but this didn’t stop the study’s author from claiming that girls still suffer from prejudice:

Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.
“It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology,” Hyde said.
For the class of 2007 . . . boys scored an average of 533 on the math section of the SAT, compared with 499 for girls.

Alas, women are being denied “high-prestige, lucrative careers” because of anti-female prejudice and talking Barbie dolls!

Perhaps, someday in the Feminist Future, women will receive 100% of college degrees and there won’t be any difference between boys and girls in SAT scores, because boys won’t be allowed to take the test, as boys will be prohibited from attending college.

And this result will be called Equality!

 

Category: Education, Feminism

Generally Speaking, @AmandaMarcotte Is Insane, and Feminism Is Always Wrong

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 46 Comments

So now, reacting to the firing of Jill Abramson discussed previously, we encounter this commentary from Amanda Marcotte:

Women, particularly ambitious women, often feel like they’re in a no-win situation when it comes to climbing the career ladder. They’re told to “lean in” and stop being afraid to ask for what we want. They’re told they’re holding themselves back because of a “confidence gap”, and that all they need to do to get ahead in life is to start acting as bold and confident as men do. They’re told they don’t make as much as men because they don’t demand higher salaries. Or worse, that they’re “choosing” to make less than men by applying themselves less at the office.
But what happens when women follow all this advice to lean in, hold their heads high, make demands, and fake it ‘til they make it? Well, a lot of women rightfully fear that they’ll be considered bitchy shrews. Women know that the very qualities that cause so many to see men as “powerful” look like, well, pushiness when they manifest in women. In fact, research confirms this fear: Following all that advice to act like a man can backfire and cause your boss to apply misogynist stereotypes to you that you will never get past. So the lame advice women get is to be pushy and confident sometimes and demure and retreating at others. How to tell the difference? Sorry, no one can help you there. You just have to know. Good luck, ladies.

Do ambitious women “often feel like they’re in a no-win situation”? I’m certain they do, just as I am certain that the advice they receive on how to deal with this situation is confusing. I am likewise certain that in their career competition with men — having chosen this competition themselves — these women expose themselves to the known ferocity of men in situations where a man’s ambition puts him in a posture of rivalry toward others who seek to ascend the same career ladder.

Ambitious women, I’m sure, encounter the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that Marcotte describes. There is no argument here, you see, with what Marcotte says the reality is. Rather, the question is about what ought to be, and in that question, Marcotte expects her readers to choose sides. She expects women to believe that ambitious men should just step aside and restrain their own competitive instincts, and let themselves be eclipsed by female rivals, merely because these rivals are women, for the sake of an ideological abstraction, Equality.

OK — but why?

Please tell me why, in such a situation, any man should be expected to act this way? Why should a man be less competitive toward a female rival than toward a male? Why must a man accept that his own individual ambition must be thwarted for the sake of Equality?

You’re crazy if you expect men to “play nice” in that context.

Grant that, within organizations, all employees are rightly expected to cooperate for the well-being of the whole organization: Teamwork. But when it comes to the individual’s desire for advancement within the organization, the ethos of teamwork will give way, and people will fight for that which they think they deserve.

To tell women that they are entitled to be promoted, to tell them that they are victims of discrimination if they are not promoted — which is what feminism tells women — is to guarantee that the conflict between ambitious rivals within organizations will be even more damaging to a spirit of teamwork than it would otherwise be.

If women believe that a preponderance of males in top management necessarily indicates that women are being treated unfairly within the organization, demoralization will ensue. Qualified and effective managers are hard to find, and if the company can’t find enough women managers to make it seem “fair,” to meet some quota dictated by concerns about Equality, this does not mean that women on lower rungs of the ladder are doomed never to be able to advance. Yet the unfairness experienced by women is really no different than the unfairness experienced by men who, seeking to advance in their careers, are subject to envious backstabbing and sabotage by rivals, just as are women.

Feminism is thus exposed as a sort of special pleading, by which women claim entitlement to certain benefits, demanding that the world be rearranged for their benefit, simply because they are women.

And yet the question remains: Why?


Never expect consistency from a feminist. And if you point out their blatant hypocrisies and paradoxes, you’re a hater.

(Hat-tip: Donald Douglas at American Power.)

 

Category: Feminism

The Science Is Settled?

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 59 Comments

Definition of intellectual: Someone who presumes to judge, outside the field of their own expertise, who qualifies as an “expert”:

Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio came under attack this week for refusing to submit to scientific authority. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it,” he said in an interview with Jonathan Karl.
Nonscientist Ruth Marcus, writing for the Washington Post, declared that Rubio’s words “undermine his other assertion,” namely “that he is prepared to be president.” Juliet Lapidos, also lacking in scientific expertise, went so far as to assert, in a New York Times blog post, that Rubio had “disqualified himself” from the presidency. . . .
[T]hey’re entirely typical of the genre of global-warmist opinion journalism, in which ignorant journalists taunt politicians for their ignorance but have no argument beyond an appeal to authority. . . .
Appeals to authority aren’t necessarily fallacious, except in the realm of formal deductive logic, where they entail adopting the unfounded premise that the authority is infallible. . . .

Read the whole thing. Conservatives are often accused of being “anti-intellectual” for the very reason that we are suspicious of the kind of “expertise” which demands that we accept tendentious claims without criticism, skepticism or dissent. But our skepticism toward climate-change doomsayers is not a reflection of conservative ignorance — quite the opposite. There is a well-established pattern, dating back to the 19th century (if not earlier) of erroneous “consensus” among self-appointed scientific “experts,” and it is our knowledge of this pattern — repeat, knowledge, not ignorance — that leads us  to be skeptical of global-warming Chicken Little prophecies.

The sky is (probably) not falling. Earth’s atmosphere is (probably) large enough to absorb anthropogenic CO2 emissions without catastrophic damage. The result of global warming will (probably) not resemble any of the doomsayers’ predictions, and it is entirely possible that the global warming trend is not actually anthropogenic, but is instead mostly the result of normal variation in Earth’s temperatures. Inaccuracy in measurement, misguided computer modeling, flawed theories and other methodological errors (probably) explain most or all of the “science” that claims we are hurtling toward an impending man-made climate disaster.

Conservatives skeptical of climate-change doomsaying should not let themselves be bullied by arrogant “experts,” nor by the naive “intellectual” apostles of this Chicken Little cult.

 

Category: Global Warming, Science

Can the #Benghazi Spinners Win?

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 13 Comments

If you’re going to win a spin war, you’re going to need some better answers than “I don’t know.” Lanny Davis, who spent years spinning for the Clinton administration, certainly knows this. I remember Davis’s role in helping shape the administration’s media message on the Lewinsky scandal, and so when Davis was brought in to help do damage control on Benghazi — to try to protect the Hillary Clinton “brand” going into 2016 — this was important: Davis is an experienced professional spinmaster.

Unfortunately for Hillary, when Davis went on the Larry O’Connor radio show, the only answers he seemed to have were, “I don’t know.”

They’re going to have to do better than that. And they will.

We can expect Team Hillary to try and make it seem un-American to ask questions that Democrats don’t want to answer.

 

Category: Hillary Clinton, Libya

Was She Too … Bossy?

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 26 Comments

Gossip swirls after New York Times publisher Pinch Sulzberger fires the paper’s top editor Jill Abramson:

Sulzberger and Abramson had a fraught relationship almost from the start of her tenure as executive editor, nearly three years ago. He saw her as difficult, high-handed, and lacking in finesse in her management of people at the paper. She, in turn, was increasingly resentful of his intrusions into her command of editorial operations, and of his increasingly close relationship with Mark Thompson, the company’s C.E.O., who came from England and the BBC to run the business side.
It is always hard to say what causes a final break—a firing, a divorce—but, clearly, a last straw came a few weeks ago, when Abramson, who made little secret of her displeasure with Sulzberger, decided to hire a lawyer to complain that her salary was not equal to that of her predecessor, Bill Keller. She had also been told by reliable sources at the paper that, as managing editor, she had once earned less than the managing editor of news operations, John Geddes. Abramson’s attempt to raise the salary issue at a time when tempers were already frayed seemed wrongheaded to Sulzberger and Thompson, both on its merits and in terms of her approach. Bringing in a lawyer, in particular, seems to have struck them as especially combative. Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, argued that there was no real compensation gap, but conceded to me that “this incident was a contributing factor” to the firing of Abramson, because “it was part of a pattern. . . .
Another episode that added to the characterization of Abramson as hard to deal with came after a decision was made to hire a second managing editor to oversee the Times’ digital endeavors. Abramson led that hiring effort. The Times, in its story on Abramson’s dismissal, said that Abramson had offered the job to Janine Gibson, the editor of Guardian U.S., “without consulting” Dean Baquet, then the managing editor and now Abramson’s successor. This implies that Abramson was operating more or less in a vacuum, without consistent consultations with her colleagues, particularly Baquet. Gibson met separately with Sulzberger and Thompson on May 5th, and had lunch with Baquet that same day. What Baquet did not know, until Gibson herself mentioned it to him at lunch, I’m told, is that she was offered a managing-editor job comparable to his own. . . .

Abramson offended the patriarchy! The New York Times is sexist! Has Amanda Marcotte reacted to this news yet?

UPDATE: Haven’t found Marcotte’s reaction yet, but the headline at the feminist blog Jezebel is: “Jill Abramson and Those Goddamn Pushy Female Bosses”:

Abramson had been a staunch advocate for women at the Times, but it was clear that gender imbalance remained an issue at the paper , and not only on the masthead. In a piece about the gap in byline counts this week, Times ombudsman Margaret Sullivan lamented that, “After three decades in journalism, I find it hard to believe that — while things have changed radically in some ways — there’s still such a gender imbalance.”

Yeah, baby! Patriarchy wins again!

 

Category: Feminism, Journalism, New York Times

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.16.14

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
It Is Modi All The Way

The next Prime Minister of India

BJP headed for historic victory, Congress for catastrophic failure

Judge Strikes All Bans On Gay Marriage In Arkansas
Loophole closed that temporarily halted gay marriages

At Least 21 Dead In Vietnam From Anti-PRC Protests
Rioters protesting against PRC oil rig in disputed area of South China Sea



POLITICS
Va Secretary Shinseki “Mad As Hell”, Not Resigning

Veterans attend a Senate hearing as Secretary Shinseki testifies

Vows to stay on job until problems are fixed or President fires him; Sanders makes excuses while Heller demands accountability, resignation

VA IG Says Federal Prosecutors Involved In Probe, Charges Possible

Federal Appeals Court Puts Idaho Gay Marriages On Hold

Lawmakers Says Rice’s Story Has “Absolutely Collapsed” Amid Ongoing Questions About Benghazi

Indiana Governor Pence Unveils “Homegrown” Health Care



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Down Slightly On US Supply, Eurozone Weakness: NYMEX $102.00, Brent $109.42
Draghi Urged To Stop Being Shy, Buy Euro Bailout Bonds
Penney’s Beats Expectations As Sales Improve
Stung By Weather, Walmart Profit Down 5%
Deutsche Bank Agrees To Sell Cosmopolitan Resort In Vegas For $1.73 Billion
Gold Settles Below $1300 After Jump In Consumer Prices
Controversial Net Neutrality Proposal Gets Nod From FCC, Public Comment Solicited
UCI Med Students Get Google Glass
Giant Amazon Locker Placed In San Francisco Plaza
Top Tech Titans Get Thumbs-Up In EFF Transparency Report
Flappy Bird Flies Again In August With Multiplayer



SPORTS
Kevin Durant Leads Thunder Past Clippers

Russell Westbrook scores in the second period

Thunder rally in the final minute, win Game 6 104-98

Sterling Refuses To Pay Fine, Threatens NBA With Lawsuit

Morse Homers As Giants Hold Off Marlins

Cueto Pitches Three-Hitter, Reds Blank Padres 5-0

Orioles Beat Royals 2-1 To Snap Skid

Twins Edge Bosox In Extras 4-3

The Struggles Of Ian Desmond



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
SI Swimsuit Model Slammed For Topless #HashtagDiplomacy

Doing her part for Nigeria

Got to admit, she looks better doing it than FLOTUS

“Spring Breakers 2” Producers – James Franco Is A Hypocrite

Bieber Sued Over Alleged Subway Beatdown

Country Singer Randy Houser Divorcing

Drew Barrymore On Baby Girl Frankie: It Feels Like A Miracle

Miranda Lambert Reveals Her Favorite Post-Weight Loss Body Part

Emily Maynard Celebrates Bachelorette Party With “White Trash Bash”

Lily Allen Turns Thumbs Down On Incestuous “Game Of Thrones” Role



FOREIGNERS
Cold-Shouldered By West, Putin Hopes For Sympathy From PRC
Bangladesh Ferry Capsizes; At Least 26 Dead
Sudanese Woman Gets Death Sentence For Converting To Christianity
“Friends Of Syria” Discuss Supporting Opposition
Turkish Unions Hold Protests In Wake Of Mine Disaster
Thai Army Chief Warns Of Military Action If Clashes Escalate
Syria UN Peace Envoy Brahimi Quits Amid New ChemWeapons Charges
Egypt’s Imprisoned Journalists Angry After Lawyers Quit



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: The VA’s Deadly Bureaucratic Drones
Doug Powers: “Phony Scandal” Update – Meet More “Low Level” IRS Employees In Cincinnati
Twitchy: And Now, A PSA From FLOTUS, Brought To You By “Bad People”
American Power: Liberals’ Dark Ages
American Thinker: Walls Closing In For Jews At UCLA – And In America
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – Dale Brown’s Starfire
Conservatives4Palin: Why Democrats Are So Scared Of Benghazi
Don Surber: Under Obamacare, She Pays $987 A Month
Jammie Wearing Fools: Flashback – How Ten high-Profile Democrat Senators Pressured The IRS To Harass GOP And Tea Party Groups
Joe For America: Moderate Muslims In US Condemn Boko Haram – Oh, Wait…
JustOneMinute: Funny, In A Terrifying Sort Of Way
Pat Dollard: Obama Threatened Nigeria With Sanctions In 2013 For Fighting Boko Haram
Protein Wisdom: New Benghazi Investigation Spooks GOP Leaders
Shot In The Dark: Dear Minimum Wage Activists
The Jawa Report: Everyone Wave Buh-Bye To Kassim Alhimidi
The Lonely Conservative: While Veterans Die Waiting For Care, Bradley Manning Gets Approval For A Sex Change
This Ain’t Hell: Shinseki Vows Not To Resign
Weasel Zippers: Jeb Bush – I Would Like To Govern Like LBJ As President
Megan McArdle: Why Antibiotic Dreams Don’t Come True


Deadline to submit links for the FMJRA is noon tomorrow.
DO IT.
Deadline to submit links for Rule 5 Sunday is midnight tomorrow.
DO THAT TOO.


Category: Live at Five

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.15.14

Posted on | May 15, 2014 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Death Toll Nears 285 In Turkish Mine Explosion

Rescuers carry a miner to safety

Hope fading for the remaining 150 trapped

Black Pastors Join Legal Fight Against Gay Marriage In Michigan
Ministers criticize gay marriage/civil rights parallel

Iran Nuke Talks Resume In Vienna
Emerging deal unlikely to satisfy Congressmen wanting harder line against Iranian nuclear weapons



POLITICS
VA Secretary Shinseki Welcomes White House Review

The VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona

Expected to testify today about “wait list” allegations


Obamacare Contractor Reportedly Pays Employees To Do Nothing



Obama Promotes New Transportation Bill

Geithner Backs Off Claim Of White House Pressure

GOP Lawmakers Tell FCC To Back Off Internet Rules

Court Strikes Down Wisconsin Issue Ad Ban

High School Senior Beats Incumbent WV State Legislator In GOP Primary



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls From US Highs: NYMEX $102.04, Brent $110.00
Japan’s First-Quarter Growth Strongest In Two Years
Macy’s Profit Up 3% Despite Declining Sales
US Household Debt Jumps For Third Quarter
German Economy Grows As France Stagnates
Asia Stocks Down As Weak Wall Street Offsets Japan GDP News
Autodesk To Offer Spark Open-Source Platform For 3-D Printing
Will Elon Musk Help Fund A Tesla Museum?
Comcast Exec Says Wired Broadband Users Should Pay As They Go
Netflix Share of Peak Internet Traffic Rises
“Game Of Thrones”, Super Mario Brothers Style



SPORTS
It’s Over And Out For Bruins

Net Loss: The puck slips by Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask

Listless start leads to sad end as Habs win 3-1

Spurs Beat Blazers, Return To West Finals

Kings Edge Ducks To Force Game 7

Heat Defeats Nyets In Game 5, Advance To East Finals

Murphy, Indians Rout Blue Jays 15-4

Ortiz Bashes Two More Dingers As Bosox Beat Twins Again

Dominguez Delivers In 9th, Lifts Astros Past Rangers

Nats Score 4 In 9th, Take Series From The Snakes



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Olivia Munn Now Dating Aaron Rodgers

It’s football season already?

Recently split from BF of two years Joel Kinnaman


Casey Kasem Found In Washington State, Daughter’s Publicist Says

“Grace Of Monaco” Slammed At Cannes

“How I Met Your Dad” Not Going Forward At CBS

“Two And A Half Men” To End After Season 12


Lindsay Lohan Reveals Miscarriage In Reality Show Finale

Rihanna, Drake Split

Angelina Jolie Talks Wedding Plans, Her Health, And How Her Life Has Changed

Coroner: Julia Roberts’ Half-Sister Committed Suicide

Lea Michele, Naya Rivera Both Returning To “Glee” Next Season

Jessica Simpson Sets Wedding Date With Fiance

Prince Harry Hooks Up With Blonde Socialite After Cressida Bonas Split



FOREIGNERS
UK Official: Nigeria Rejects Swap Of Jihadis For Schoolgirls
Riots In Vietnam Leave One Chinese Dead, Hundreds Injured
Ferry Captain, Three Crew Face Murder Charges In Sewol Sinking
Three Anti-Government Protesters Killed By Gunmen As Violence Returns To Bangkok
Afghan Presidential Election Heads For June Runoff
EU Court Holds People Have Right To Be Forgotten On Internet
Japanese Panel Says Nation Should Exercise Right Of Collective Self-Defense
Takeaway From Modi’s Success Story? Ignore The Critics
Kiwi Government Projects Budget Surplus
Ukraine Reports Military Success In The East



BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Feds To Pay For Manning’s Sex Change
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Trigger Warning – Dude Looks Like A Lady
Michelle Malkin: Cash For Obamacare Shirkers
Twitchy: Texas Gun Shop Takes Swipe At Obamacare With Provocative Sign
The Peoples’ Cube: Do Not Ridicule Hashtag Diplomacy!
Chicks On The Right: This Chick Wants To Reclaim Her Mamahood After Abortion. OMG.
American Power: Well, I Was Wondering What Got Jill Abramson Fired…
American Thinker: Inside The Obama Frat House
Conservatives4Palin: New SarahPAC Video – Roaring To November
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, May 14
Jammie Wearing Fools: Eleanor Rodham Clift Doubles Down On Idiotic Benghazi Tale
Joe For America: Drugs Are Bad! Dancing Naked Woman Proves It
Pat Dollard: Mark Levin Goes Off – “Carl Levin Should Be Dragged In Front Of A Grand Jury And Forced To Answer Questions”
Protein Wisdom: Sterling’s Silver Lining
Shot In The Dark: Of Those With Cow, And Those With Moo
The Jawa Report: American Muslims More Outraged Over Bill Maher’s Islamophobia Than Boko Haram Kidnapping & Selling Christians
The Lonely Conservative: Obama Says Enforcing Immigration Laws “Isn’t Smart”
This Ain’t Hell: And The Coverup Continues…
Weasel Zippers: New E-Mails Show Dem. Senator Carl Levin Pressured IRS To Target Conservative Groups
Megan McArdle: Why The US Isn’t Creating More Small Businesses


Category: Live at Five

The Kook Caucus and the Pervert Lobby

Posted on | May 14, 2014 | 47 Comments

The earlier post about @Belle_Knox (Miriam Weeks) elicited an e-mail response from my old college buddy Bert the Samoan Lawyer, who suggests that Ms. Weeks is in need of prayer.

Be that as it may, however, Ms. Weeks has quite emphatically rejected any suggestion that she is a “rescue project” in need of assistance. Furthermore, as my analysis of her situation made clear, Ms. Weeks is not a victim of poverty or misfortune; she is not an outcast or an orphan or the product of a broken home; rather she is the typical result of parental overindulgence and leniency, accustomed to the satisfaction of her childish whims as she was raised in protected circumstances of affluence that failed to prepare her to lead a responsible adult life.

There are too many innocent souls in this world afflicted with real hardship for me to waste prayers on Poor Little Rich Girls.

Beyond that, however, I cannot help but view Ms. Weeks as symbolic of much larger problems, so that her bad example is held up for emulation, sending the message that what she does is valid, and that all criticism of what she does is invalid. These are themes I explored in my e-mail reply to Bert the Samoan Lawyer:

Glad you are still reading the blog. The fact that Weeks’ behavior presents itself as symptomatic of mental illness and yet, in contemporary culture, has been analyzed chiefly in terms of its feminist political significance, tells you an awful lot about (a) what’s wrong with contemporary culture, and (b) what’s wrong with feminist politics, as well as (c) the correlation between (a) and (b).
Instead of trying to solve personal problems — attempting to help people experiencing unfortunate circumstances — instead contemporary culture prefers to politicize everything. Therefore, the attempt to understand extraordinary phenomena (e.g., a girl from a privileged background whose psychiatric problems lead her to make a spectacle and a ruin of herself) is thwarted by the kind of horse-race politics, which side wins or loses in the politicized Culture War, because the Left insists that all such phenomena must be viewed in that context. Because the culture of sexual restraint — of chastity, fidelity and modesty — is associated with the Right, and because Weeks presented herself as a symbolic champion of sexual liberation, therefore the Left must justify the career of “Belle Knox” against all critics, impugning them as adherents of an obsolete Victorian or puritanical ethos, as well as branding these critics as misogynists whose “slut shaming” is assumed to express an anti-female double standard.
Never in contemporary culture can the most obvious truths about the analyzed phenomenon be admitted by all: i.e., that Miriam Weeks’ behavior is extremely dysfunctional, harmful to herself and others, and symptomatic both of her own personal psychiatric afflictions and of the way in which social environments foster such afflictions in young people. The fact that Weeks was a “cutter,” and the fact that self-mutilation is a common enough trend among youth that we have a well-recognized slang term to describe such people — well, it’s shocking. I know that when I graduated high school in 1977, the term “cutter” was unknown in youth culture. There may have been young people in 1977 who did that to themselves, but they were called “kooks” or “weirdos” and viewed as being in need of confinement in what it was still possible to call “the loony bin” without fear that one had committed ThoughtCrime by the use of such vernacular.
We have, in a sense, mainstreamed mental illness and normalized the pathological in such a way that even to speak of sanity and normality may be politically incorrect, as these terms imply a negative judgment on the insane and the abnormal. Thus empowered by an egalitarian worldview (in which all personalities and all behaviors are of equal value) and by the victimhood rhetoric common to identity politics, lunatics and deviants present themselves as oppressed minorities, gaining sympathy, support and advocacy from all the Usual Liberal Suspects who are forever looking for new Victims of Society whose trendy “causes” can be used as a bludgeon with which to knock down another pillar of Western Civilization.
Thus do what can be called the Kook Caucus and the Pervert Lobby manifest themselves in contemporary culture, exercising a political and social influence that renders it impossible either to treat the individual weirdo’s problems or to alter the environments that breed weirdos. And it takes a strong mind to resist the temptation to believe that this is exactly what the Left wants. That is to say, because the Left has always hated America, they must embrace and advocate anything that harms American civilization, anything which weakens our civilization and which may hasten its collapse. Never mind how many people suffer needlessly in the process, of course, because liberals care nothing for actual human beings, loving only “humanity” in the abstract.
— RSM

Anyone who wishes to pray for Miriam Weeks may do so. My own impulse when confronted with such evil people as Ms. Weeks — who daily curse God and mock the righteous, as they urge others to join them in the willing embrace of Satan in a self-chosen journey to Hell — is to wish them bon voyage on their journey, and to hope that their destruction is both sudden and so catastrophic that the agony of their disgrace will make their spectacular doom a warning to any other fool who may ever be tempted to emulate them.

One hesitates to wish destruction on others. Yet when fools bring destruction upon themselves, when they disregard all warnings of the wise, when they mock those who attempt to tell them they are traveling the road to Hell — well, like I said: Bon voyage!

UPDATE: The latest from the inspirational Ms. Weeks:

Because, hey, getting paid to satisfy the kinky tastes of fetishistic paraphiliac sadomasochists is “empowering”!

 

Category: Culture
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