Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Realism about democracy, part 192

According to a recent study of the American electorate:

Americans’ understanding of basic facts about the U.S. government declined for the first time in six years, as fewer than half in a new survey could name all three branches of government..... 

About a quarter of Americans surveyed could not name a single branch. 

The survey also found a decline in the number of respondents who could name any of the five freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment.  

Freedom of religion was named by 24 percent of those surveyed, falling from 56 percent from the previous survey. Those who named freedom of the press also declined sharply down by 30 percentage points from 50 percent in 2021.  

Around 26 percent of respondents could not name any First Amendment freedoms. And the percentage of respondents who listed the right to bear arms — a right protected under the Second Amendment — as a First Amendment protection tripled from 2021 rising to 9 percent.

Trump's "Brownshirts" now threatening judge who signed off on the warrant to search his property

First we had the stormtrooper riot at the Capitol, and now we have threats against federal officials, including judges:

Far-right extremists on pro-Donald Trump message boards and social networks are making violent, antisemitic threats against the judge who reportedly signed the warrant that allowed the FBI to search the former president's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.  Multiple members of these toxic online communities are even posting what appears to be Judge Bruce Reinhart’s home address, phone numbers, and names of his family members alongside threats of extreme violence.

Of course, some of these folks are just keyboard warriors, but not all are.  As long as the lawful authoriteis with the guns--the police, FBI, Federal Marshalls etc.--step up and protect the judges and others who preserve the rule of law in a democratic society, we can weather these outbursts.  The tipping point will come when the keyboard warriors also turn out to be the people charged with preserving the rule of law with force when needed.

ADDENDUM:  A timely example, alas, that the crazies are not all keyboard warriors.

Modern mysteries: "Why" would a tech billionaire (Larry Ellison) become a leading donor to the Republican Party?

Utterly mysterious that someone fabulously rich would align themselves with the imprudent wing of the ruling class party.   What a puzzle.   Maybe Marcuse could help?

When you can't tell what's a parody and what isn't

This exchange has been circulating on social media.  My first reaction was that this had to be a parody of mindless identity politics, but in fact the participants actually believe their nonsense.   God help the universities if too many people like this gain a foothold.

(No doubt there are instances of "indigenous knowledge" that are actual cases of knowledge. But do they really add up to a Wissenschaft?  Maybe some do, but repetitive assertion of the point doesn't inspire confidence.   It's downhill from there in this Twitter exchange....)

Meet Kelley Watt of Tulsa, Oklahoma...

...a damaged human being who now damages others.

UPDATE:  It  turns out Ms.Watt has done work with James Fetzer, a notorious conspiracy theorist who lost a defamation action brought by a parent of the one of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.  (Thanks to Cora Diamond for the pointer.)

Jennifer Ruth, enemy of academic freedom

And she's now continuing her war on academic freedom (under the guise of protecting it) with Michael Berube in a very bad book reviewed here:

It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom...is a maddening book. It raises many important questions but is so chock-full of unresolved contradictions; gross misrepresentations; and wild, unjustified claims that it ultimately makes you wonder how the manuscript made it into print.

It's a serious embarrassment for the AAUP that Ruth is allowed anywhere near its committee on academic freedom.

Florida man, taking advantage of new "parental rights" law, asks school libraries to remove the Bible

Exactly right:

"My objection to the Bible being in your public schools is based on the following seven points, offered for your learned consideration," Stevens wrote.

Stevens proceeded to question whether the Bible is age-appropriate, pointing to its "casual" references to murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and fornication. "Do we really want to teach our youth about drunken orgies?"

He also took issue with the many Biblical references to rape, bestiality, cannibalism and infanticide. "In the end, if Jimmy and Susie are curious about any of the above, they can do what everyone else does – get a room at the Motel Six and grab the Gideons," he wrote....

"If you want to teach morality and ethics, do you really want to turn to a book that wants you to dash babies against rocks?" he told NPR, pointing to Psalm 137:9.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is still real

Dunning responds to critics.  Every day on Twitter confirms its existence, of course.

"Mob review" rather than "peer review"?

Last week the Twitter mob panned a book they hadn't read, and now we have this:

The blurb for the book “Bad and Boujee: Toward a Trap Feminist Theology” says that it “engages with the overlap of Black experience, hip-hop music, ethics and feminism to focus on a subsection known as ‘trap feminism.’”

But the book, written by Jennifer M. Buck, a white academic at a Christian university, was criticized by some authors and theologians as academically flawed, with deeply problematic passages, including repeated references to the ghetto. The project was also widely condemned on social media as poorly executed and as an example of cultural appropriation.

In response to the criticism, the book’s publisher, Wipf and Stock Publishers, decided on Wednesday that it would pull the title from circulation.

The incident touched on a larger debate in the world of publishing over when, how, and even whether, it is appropriate for authors to write about subjects outside their own culture....

There is actually a whole academic discipline in which authors write "about subjects outside their own culture":  it's called anthropology.

(Thanks to John Doris for the pointer.)

Justice Ginsburg is a philosopher, and other great moments in the Dunning-Kruger Effect

A propos this (and especially this), it was recently brought to my attention that philosopher Sandra LaPointe (McMaster), opined as follows on Twitter:

And now the "open letters" attacking OUP begin

Yesterday's English professor who doesn't speak English is now apparently behind this letter, whose contribution to scholarly debate and free thinking is to ask OUP for,

[A] clear and detailed account of what measures have been taken to ensure the scholarly quality of this forthcoming publication (while being mindful of the need to maintain reviewers’ anonymity), and what further steps the Press is taking to make itself accountable for the consequences of its publication should the book go forward to print. Measures the press could undertake to offset the harm done by the publication of this work might include soliciting and publishing trans-affirming scholarship by transgender authors, updating the house style guidelines to include specific guidance on language around transgender rights, donating a portion of the book’s profits to supporting transgender rights organizations, and/or developing editorial guidelines for the submission of works that challenge the human rights of any marginalized group. We recommend that these steps for accountability be undertaken in consultation with transgender rights activists and transgender scholars. We hope that this process can help guide OUP in editorial directions that affirm trangender peoples’ humanity and rights.

Of course, it is quite normal to demand that an academic press account for the publication of a book that none of the critics have read.   I do hope OUP will ignore this little tantrum by the thought police.

OUP publishing a book="organized violence"

Thus spake this English professor in Canada, who apparently doesn't know what words mean:

If only Hitler had realized that a book could constitute "organized violence," he could have just published his way to the Third Reich.   Naturally, the University of California professor who flagged this for me said,

I hate to have to add that, if you say anything about this on your blog, I’d be grateful if you didn’t mention my name. My husband is still working at [our UC campus], which, as you know, is a hotbed of Diversity etc. I am looking forward to his retiring so I can speak my mind about the [insert expletives here] mess we’re in with regard to gender and biological sex.

The academy, or at least some campuses, are in a "mess" if faculty don't feel they can object in public to stark-raving idiocy like the tweet, above.

UPDATE:  An alert reader points out to me this extraordinary response on Twitter:

U.S. life expectancy continues its decline, thanks to the mishandling of Covid

Here; an excerpt:

The study -- published Thursday on the preprint server medRxiv, which means it has not been peer-reviewed -- found that after falling nearly 1.9 years in 2020, life expectancy in the US decreased another 0.4 years in 2021.  In the decade before the pandemic, life expectancy in the US changed by an average of less than 0.1 years annually, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Changes to life expectancy amid the Covid-19 pandemic widened an existing gap between the US and other high-income countries, the new report shows. Among a set of 19 peer countries, life expectancy dropped only a third as much as in the US in 2020 (down 0.6 years, on average) and rebounded in 2021, with an average increase of about 0.3 years.

 

For yet another instance of American exceptionalism, we can thank the Republican Party, Tucker Carlson, Alex Berenson, and other pathological liars and ignoramuses.

Right-wing "cancel culture" watch: study room at University of Florida named for Karl Marx has the name removed

Zieg Heil, baby, we're ideologically pure in Florida!   The case study in the Dunning-Kruger Effect that initiated this bit of petty tyranny in the service of ideological delusion is one Jennifer Carbrera who objects--obviously on the basis of no study or knowledge--to Marx being described as a "philosopher, radical economist and revolutionary critic" (all true, of course), adding that the description "neglects to mention the millions of people who have died as a direct result of his ideas."   Direct result?   Some people have funny views about causation, but I guess she's opposed to the Bible too for similar reasons.

Arthur Caplan, bioethicist...and aspiring war criminal?

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU's medical school, is certainly very good at talking to journalists.  My impression has long been that he is not well-regarded by philosophers, and not even by many fellow bioethicists.   But this is really a new low:

Arthur L. Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, has been campaigning for a program of mass death. He has written, not one, but two op-eds calling for a pharmaceutical boycott of Russia.

"How far does noncooperation with Russia go?" wrote Caplan on March 11 in Medscape. "Very, very far ... Whatever can be done to minimize harm to existing subjects in a short period of time ought to be done, but that is it. Similarly, no sale of medicines or therapies ought to be occurring, be they life-saving or consumer products." (Emphases mine.)

"The Russian people need to be pinched not only by the loss of cheeseburgers and boutique coffee but by products they use to maintain their well-being," Caplan lightheartedly adds.

The targeting of civilians is a relatively new form of barbarity in the history of war.

Caplan is untroubled by the implications of his proposal. "War is cruel that way," he shrugs, "but if you tolerate a government that is bombing and shelling a peaceful neighbor to oblivion, then pharma must ensure that efforts to make Putin and his kleptocratic goons feel the wrath of their fellow citizens."

In America the Vengeful, even the philosophers of health can preach death....

The backlash to U Mass/Boston's proposal to cease being a university in favor of becoming an "anti-racist" institution

We noted this embarrassment previously (here and here), and now CHE has an article:

An early draft of the statement, which would commit the university to becoming “an anti-racist and health-promoting institution that honors and uplifts the cultural wealth of our students,” has drawn sharp criticism both on and off campus, even as some applaud the effort.

As of March 11, some 75 faculty members at the university had signed an open letter of opposition written by some colleagues from the College of Science and Mathematics, which called the draft statement “deeply flawed in content, direction, and representation.” The letter argues that “the fundamental role of the public university can neither be political nor ideological activism.” A growing number of supporters from other colleges have also signed the letter of opposition online. A Boston Globe column characterizing the draft as reeking of “woke indoctrination,” has added fuel to the conflict.

Banning Dostoevsky to punish Putin?

A university in Milan had that stupid idea, but it looks like the decision will be reversed.  This is, indeed, a very good time to be reading Dostoesvky, who understood human beings, not to mention Russia, better than most.

(Thanks to Blake Myers for the pointer.)

Here we go again: St. Olaf students protest Peter Singer's virtual talk at their college

At least they only want the talk "boycotted" rather than cancelled, although they also want a commitment that the college will not invite speakers with incorrect views again.  (The misuse of the category "hate speech" is particularly remarkable:  nothing they quote from Singer would qualify as "hate speech" in any democracy with actual "hate speech" laws.)

(Thanks to Justin Garson for the pointer.)

America is doomed, an ongoing saga

During 2021, American voter party identification shifted from the Democrats to Republicans. 

Smarmy Jonathan Ichikawa still dissembling

Somehow Ichikawa (part of the miscreant team from Vancouver) thinks that the unfortunate disagreement (and, in part, misunderstanding) between the PGR editors, Professors Brogaard and Pynes, and Wiley-Blackwell, shows that I'm not honest (!).  (A reader sent me his tweet [we are mutually blocked on Twitter] stating, "Brian Leiter is not an honest person, and the PGR is intellectually bankrupt.")  Since I literally have nothing do with any of this (I appointed Brogaard as a co-editor in 2014, and then Pynes as another co-editor for 2017, at which point they were in charge, and I have only offered them advice about the PGR when asked, and that's it), this really is a stretch even by Ichihkawa's standards of dishonesty, which are, to be sure, peerless.  (Recall that when Ichikawa and Carrie Jenkins were challenged over their defamation of me, their own lawyer would not defend their statements as true [see #5], arguing only that they were "lawful.")

There are two other ironies here, beyond the "pot calling the kettle black."

Amy Wax and "the Asians"

At my law school blog, I comment on the latest travesty from Professor Wax.  She is certainly pushing the envelope on her academic freedom rights.

Do your own research on how to "do your own research"

Philosopher Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham) and psychologist David Dunning (of Dunning-Kruger Effect fame) comment.

America is doomed, part 414: millions of armed individuals may revolt if Trump doesn't win in 2024

That's the short version; here's a longer excerpt:

If armed violence erupts the 2024 elections, quelling it could fall to the U.S. military, which may be reluctant to take arms against U.S. citizens. In that case, the fate of the nation might well be decided by a simple fact: a big subset of one of the two parties has for years been systemically arming itself for this very reason.

"I hope it's just too crazy to happen here," says Erica De Bruin, an assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, who studies coups around the world. "But it's now in the realm of the plausible"....

DEI initiatives in action in the public schools

This would be laughable if it wasn't real:

They also recommend that people read a bunch of Robin DiAngelo books and brag that “more than 2,000 DCPS staff have participated in Courageous Conversation training.” But is Courageous Conversation training a good idea? This NYT Magazine profile of the company and its founder made it sound pretty bad:

    Singleton, who holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford, and who did     stints in advertising and college admissions before founding what’s now known as Courageous     Conversation in 1992, talks about white culture in similar ways. There is the myth of     meritocracy. And valuing “written communication over other forms,” he told me, is “a     hallmark of whiteness,” which leads to the denigration of Black children in school. Another     “hallmark” is “scientific, linear thinking. Cause and effect.” He said, “There’s this whole     group of people who are named the scientists. That’s where you get into this whole idea that     if it’s not codified in scientific thought that it can’t be valid.” He spoke about how the     ancient Egyptians had “ideas about how humanity works that never had that scientific-       hypothesis construction” and so aren’t recognized. “This is a good way of dismissing people.     And this,” he continued, shifting forward thousands of years, “is one of the challenges in the     diversity-equity-inclusion space; folks keep asking for data. How do you quantify, in a way     that is scientific — numbers and that kind of thing — what people feel when they’re feeling     marginalized?” For Singleton, society’s primary intellectual values are bound up with this     marginalization."

 

I don’t think Frankfurt School Marxists are going to take over society by injecting these ideas into K-12 schools or anything like that. What I do think is that time and money is being wasted on initiatives that are run by people who are somewhere between stupid and fraudulent.

America is mostly doomed, the latest poll evidence

Here, although it isn't all bad news.  Some excerpts:

Only 29% of Republicans today say that American culture and way of life have changed for the better since the 1950s, a substantial decrease from 46% in 2020 and a return to their opinion in 2016 (31%), prior to the election of former President Trump. Most Republicans (70%) say American culture and way of life have changed for the worse since the 1950s. By contrast, a majority of Democrats (63%) think that American culture and way of life have changed for the better, much the same as in 2020 (62%). Independents closely resemble the general population (48% better) and have also declined in this view since 2020 (57% better).

Just as a reminder, large portions of the U.S. were a de jure apartheid regime in the 1950s.  Onward:

Around three in ten Americans (31%) say that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. This share has remained steady throughout 2021, in August (29%), June (30%), and March (29%).

More than two-thirds of Republicans (68%), compared to 26% of independents and 6% of Democrats, believe that the election was stolen from Trump. These shares are even greater among Republicans who most trust Fox News (82%) and essentially universal among those who most trust far-right news (97%). Less than half of Republicans who most trust mainstream news agree (44%).

Brad Rosenheim (South Florida) and Dawn Sumner (UC Davis) are enemies of academic freedom

Two other choices quotes from the Boston Globe article about MIT faculty protesting the shabby treatment of Professor Abbot:

Brad Rosenheim, associate professor of oceanography at the University of South Florida, said EAPS did the right thing because Abbot’s opinionsconflict with the department’s official stand on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “It’s almost schizophrenic, in a way, to have a diversity statement and to invite somebody who espouses these views,” Rosenheim said.

The problem wasn’t Abbot’s political opinions, Rosenheim said. Rather, it’s the fact that he has so openly expressed them.“I could invite somebody else who has the same views as Dorian Abbot, but hasn’t written a Newsweek piece and hasn’t promulgated videos of it on the Internet,” Rosenheim said.

Nothing is too trivial to nonetheless inspire a grievance

Many in the STEM fields now use "JEDI" as the acronym for "justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion."   This, however, is offensive according to these academics (mostly from education schools).  One mathematician who sent this to me, singled out this passage from the article:

[T]he Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of “Jedi mind tricks,” etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or “Force-sensitivity”).

The mathematician added:  "At first I was certain it was Onion-style parody. But the rest is too sanctimonious. Maybe we *are* in end-times?"  Characteriznig the Jedi as "white" makes about as much sense as characterizing Plato as "white."  Vide Professor Reed.

21 million American brown shirts ready for action

Wow!

Who is vaccinated against COVID and who is not?

Interesting poll (based on self-reports, however) of the demographic breakdown of those who say they have been vaccinated against COVID:

• Whites: 66 percent
• Blacks: 76 percent
• Latinos: 71 percent
• Urban residents: 79 percent
• Suburban residents: 67 percent
• Rural residents: 52 percent
• White evangelicals: 59 percent
• Democrats: 88 percent
• Independents: 60 percent
• Republicans: 55 percent
• Republicans who support Trump more than party: 46 percent
• Republicans who support party more than Trump: 62 percent
• Democratic Sanders-Warren voters: 88 percent
• Democratic Biden voters: 87 percent
• Biden voters in 2020 general election: 91 percent
• Trump voters in 2020 general election: 50 percent
• White non-college grads: 60 percent
• White college grads: 80 percent

 

Alex Berenson, the world's dumbest journalist, redux

A good overview of the serial misinformation emanating from this malevolent buffoon, whom we've noted before.   Karl Kraus:  "No ideas the ability to express them:  that's a journalist!"

Fascists in Idaho target the public universities

CHE story here.  They should target me, since I am promoting Marxism and anti-Americanism, albeit not really in my classes (sorry), but at least on my blog!  And I favor repeal of the absurd Second Amendment.  (On the other hand, I don't "attack law enforcement" [the armed faction of the working class, after all] and unlike the Idaho fascists, I actually believe in free expression, especially in the universities.)

QAnon and survey responses

A props the QAnon craziness, a couple of readers point out that some number of survey respondents (maybe 4% on average?) are either inattentive to the questions being asked or simply mischievous.  That's worth remembering, but hardly reassuring given that the survey found one in four Republicans believed in a batshit crazy conspiracy theory:  if we discount the clueless and the pranksters, that still gets us 1 in 5 believing a batshit crazy conspiracy theory!  So America is still doomed!

Hawaii legislature moves to eliminate salary for tenured professor

While Republican legislatures are (rightly) attracting attention for their attempts to violate the constitutional and academic freedom rights of faculty at state universities, the threats to these rights are becoming an increasingly "bi-partisan" problem (recall, e.g., it was the Democratic legislature in California that pushed for the unlawful "diversity statements"); this shocking move by the Hawaii legislature is the latest example:

Senator Donna Kim, chair of the higher education committee, said the effort to sweep the position at the university was part of cost-cutting measures. The provision is in the main budget bill for the university.

“We need to control the costs and we need to make sure that our students in Hawaii are being able to afford higher education,” she said.

Two years ago, Kim requested from the university a list of professors who did not teach classes and did not bring in any extramural funding. She had at the time proposed cutting that entire list of about 100 professors, but that did not come to pass. This year, Vogel’s position [a cancer researcher] was the only one proposed to be cut. There are no classes taught at the cancer center, where he works. She said she did not have names associated with position numbers, but she was informed that the position’s occupant did not hold office hours and was hardly on campus.

25% of Americans think Trump is currently the "true President" of the U.S.

53% of Republicans believe that.  On the other hand, 14% of the poll respondents aren't sure whom they voted for in the 2020 election, so go figure.

"Indigenous science" is bad science

That's pretty clear; calling it pseudoscience presupposes a solution to the demarcation problem, which no one has.

(Thanks to Mike G. for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  If you're coming here from Justin Smith's aggressively dishonest characterization of this post and Professor Pigliucci's critique of including "indigenous science" in the Canadian science curriculum, do take the time to follow the link, above, and read what Pigliucci actually had to say--Professor Smith obviously didn't.

Yoga is banned in Alabama public schools...

...because it might, after all, lead to Hinduism!

(Thanks to John Styles for the pointer.)

America is doomed, part 328: One America News Network edition

This propaganda network, which makes Fox look responsible, has 1.5 million subscribers and is available  in some 35,000,000 households around the country. 

These people are all out of their minds

Female white Yale professor serving on a nearby town council makes a "point of order" while a male Black councilmember is speaking; the latter refers to her as "councilwoman," she demands to be called "Dr."  He declines (rightly so, the title is irrelevant in a democratic body--he's the only sane person in the mix!), she calls him a sexist on her Facebook page.  Now there's a petition denouncing her as a "racist" and demanding her removal from the council.

"Anywhere out of this world," said Baudelaire.

If Tucker "you're not as white as me" Carlson survives this latest fiasco, it will be further proof America is doomed

Amazing that he'd go there.

What the heck is going on in the Evanston, IL schools?

Evanston is a suburb just north of Chicago, where Northwestern University is located.  This interview with a parent there makes the school district sound like a nuthouse, a place where Ibram Kendi isn't viewed as a slightly ridiculous "anti-racism" grifter, but is instead the intellectual lodestar.  The interview is with Ndona Muboyayi, a parent, and member of the NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch.  From the interview:

Mboyayi: One day my daughter told me she was taught that all white people are privileged and part of a system of white supremacy. My son said the same thing. So I reached out to my daughter’s teacher to find out what exactly was being taught. It was pretty much like she said: that all white people were part of this system of white supremacy, and that all white people, because of the color of their skin, had privilege. I said, “But that's not true.” And the teacher said, “Well, what do you mean?”

I have traveled a lot. My father was a university professor and taught in both the United States and Paris, France. And when I visited, I saw white people in public housing. I’ve been to Belgium and Switzerland and seen very poor white people. I’ve visited other parts of Europe. I lived in Canada for 10 years. There are poor white people in Canada as well. I’m not saying systemic racism doesn’t exist, but class exists too, and I don’t believe that all white people have privilege. That white person who’s living in the Appalachian Mountains, who has no means or prospect of changing their situation—do they, too, have privilege? Compared to me and my kids?

UPDATE:  An Evanston resident and parent of kids in the public schools there  writes:  “Your comment about Ibram Kendi isn't off the mark at all. Evanston Township High School's Family Action Network actually had Kendi on campus twice to give talks, once in 2018 and 2019. In 2020 they doubled down by having huckster Robin DiAngelo come and give a talk. The last thing you want to be caught doing in this town is questioning the dominant ideology."

Some further thoughts on Twitter

The first round of observations was so popular (especially on Twitter!), I thought I'd add a few more based on things I've learned and observed the last couple of months.

1.  I came across this interesting chart via Justin Weinberg's blog, which shows that the vast majority of U.S. adults do not use Twitter at all (thank God!), and that usage varies, unsurprisingly, by generation.  38% of those 18-29 use Twitter (the highest percentage), while only 7% of those over 65 use it.  I'm in the distinct minority in my age range (only 17% of those 50-64 use it), and I mostly use it to provide links to the blog for the benefit the readers who now follow the blog by Twitter. 

2.  This data is consistent with an e-mail shared on Twitter awhile back by the journalist Jesse Singal: 

"[T]he vast majority of both psychologically healthy and accomplished philosophers stay off twitter like their life depends on it. The vast majority of people I know in academic philosophy either ignore, mock, or disdain philosophy twitter." - professional philosopher in email

Although many Twitterati reacted with rage and denial to Mr. Singal's tweet, the claim about "the vast majority" is consistent with the data about usage by age alone.  (Are the non-users psychologically healthier and more accomplished?  Probably, but the preceding data are neutral on that.)   I strongly suspect that relatively few non-Twitter users "mock or disdain philosophy twitter" (although that would be a warranted response were they to look), and that most simply ignore it. 

Condescension from below watch: Matt Taibbi edition

It's clear the silly Taibbi--who is sometimes an amusing polemicist but is equally obviously a lightweight--did not understand a word he read, and didn't even read the "Repressive Tolerance" essay in its entirety (he doesn't realize that Marcuse is a Millian, and that his dispute with Mill is about the background conditions under which liberty actually produces good consequences).   I do not recommend reading the essay, unless one wants to be reminded that anti-intellectual hatchet jobs are not wholly proprietary to right-wing pundits.

(Thanks to Prabhu Venkataraman for the pointer.)

America is doomed, part 499: the Republican Party is crazier now than it was even before Trump

The new target is Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of the former Vice-President and an extremely conservative Republican--but not as crazy as some members of her party:

As she watched Mr. Trump and his supporters peddle conspiracy theories and promote what she called “the big lie,” Ms. Cheney became deeply unsettled by how many of her colleagues seemed so cavalier about Mr. Trump’s actions, friends and associates said. She was also bothered by the way Republicans cheered and mimicked the kind of behavior she expected of a foreign authoritarian leader but never from an American president....

“We control the true spirit and identity of America,” said [Representative Matt] Gaetz (Fascist-Florida), who is leading the effort to oust Ms. Cheney from the House leadership.

After his speech, Teresa Kunkel, a retired state employee, said that she had attended the rally because, as a Christian, she did not believe Ms. Cheney was being an honest representative for Wyoming. “She didn’t represent what we voted for,” Ms. Kunkel said. “She betrayed us — big time.”

The second impeachment of Mr. Trump last month, which Ms. Cheney supported, was an injustice, Ms. Kunkel added. “It’s like: ‘I didn’t like what you did, so you’re out. And we’re in the majority, so we can do that.’ That’s cancel culture,” she said.

Bear in mind that the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against certifying legitimate election results.   The majority!   Ms. Cheney was one of just ten Republicans in the House to support impeachment of the monster-child for the January 6 stormtrooper riot.

 

Is anyone surprised that a Trump-appointed commission about how to teach American history...

...produced reactionary garbage?  I assume not!

Chapman law professor and right-wing activist John Eastman spoke at the rally before the stormtrooper riot...

...and now some faculty want him fired.   The problem is he didn't commit a firing offense (as the University President recognizes).  He has not been convicted of a crime, only of world-historic stupidity and venality.  Lisa Leitz, a Chapman professor of peace studies, is calling for him to be fired because "his appearance at the rally and his past Trump campaign activities have scarred the university's reputation...it undermines the credibility of every faculty member."  Professor Leitz has obviously not thought very carefully about what she is saying.   No one, including her, would enjoy any academic freedom were the standard for termination "speech that, when it enters the public eye, 'scar[s] the university's reputation.'"   That standard would have surely justified the illegal firing of Steven Salaita, to take but one example.

Chapman has since announced that Eastman is retiring, and has agreed not to take legal action against the university.  (Eastman is 60 and has taught at Chapman for about 25 years.)   In other words, he and the University reached a settlement involving mutual release of legal claims, his agreement to retire, and in all likelihood a financial payout to Eastman to get him to retire.

 

There is no bottom to dumb, again

A friend of mine in New York City sent me this e-mail from the actual head of an investment firm.  It is below the fold.  No comment needed, the message speaks for itself.

Texas congressman: if the Georgia Senate seats go to Democrats...

...we'll go from "cold" to "hot" Civil War.

The Dunning-Kruger effect: just statistical noise?

With a whole blog category devoted to the phenomenon ("the less they know, the less they know it"), it would be disappointing if this is true.   But I'm sure it isn't, so there!

Some observations about Twitter, esp. philosophy-related Twitter

Max Noichl, a graduate student at the University of Vienna, made a map of philosophy tweeters (based on followers and retweets) which is making the rounds on Twitter.  I'm not really sure what it means, but it looks neat!  (Mr. Noichl offers some explanation here.)

Friends and colleagues like Leslie Green at Oxford and Queen's, and Eric Posner here at Chicago, used Twitter for awhile, but then gave up (Green later returned, but, wisely, doesn't engage).   I don't abandon the medium because I know some folks now follow the blog through Twitter links (my main activity on Twitter), and some of those I follow also post interesting material.   Prompted by the new Twitter map, herewith some observations about this strange medium:

1.  Putting aside those already famous, "success" on Twitter (i.e., lots of followers) seems to track three things:  actual expertise (e.g., about infectious diseases, about criminal law) which one shares on Twitter on a regular basis in long threads; championing a political or partisan cause on a regular basis, which attracts a flock of like-minded partisans; or extensive tweeting and extensive engagement with others (e.g, retweeting, responding, entering "dialogues" on Twitter).   There are outlier cases (e.g., Scott Shapiro, the funniest academic on Twitter, with his serial shticks), but most of the Twitter users with substantial followings (e.g., 30k or more followers) seem to fall into at least one of these categories, and sometimes more than one.

2.  Blocking nuisance Twitterati is, itself, a nuisance.  Twitter basically has all the worst features of an unmoderated comment thread on a blog or anywhere else in cyberspace, and so all the laws of cyber-dynamics apply.  "Condescension from below" is the primary form of expression for the average active Twitter user which, combined with the Dunning-Kruger effect, makes for a mess.

"Killology" and "sheepdogs"

Philosopher Susanna Siegel and a Harvard colleague comment.  If there were any doubts that large parts of America are nuts, this essay will eliminate them.