Aug 16, 2017

Hardening Evidence

So, this isn't fully baked yet - it has to be submitted for peer-review and then maybe we'll see it in the journals.

Vox, Brian Resnick

One of the starkest, darkest findings in the survey comes from a simple question: How evolved do you think other people are?

Kteily, the co-author on this paper, pioneered this new and disturbing way to measure dehumanization — the tendency to see others as being less than human. He simply shows study participants the following (scientifically inaccurate) image of a human ancestor slowly learning how to stand on two legs and become fully human.

Participants are asked to rate where certain groups fall on this scale from 0 to 100. Zero is not human at all; 100 is fully human.



- and (btw) -

Also important:
Alt-righters in the sample aren’t all that concerned about the economy. The survey used a common set of Pew question that asks about the current state of the economy, and about whether participants feel like things are going to improve for them. Here, both groups reported about the same levels of confidence in the economy.

What’s more, “the alt-right expected more improvement in the state of the economy relative to the non-alt-right sample,” the study states (perhaps because their preferred leader is president).

Fake Jesus wept.

This Gets Weirder Still

"So you're not really a White Supremacist?"

"Apparently not."


It's a wonderment.

hat tip = @justcallmeBABA

Cornered

Christopher Cantwell - Alt-Right, Smug-White, Fucking Nazi Ass-Wipe - the guy they spotlighted in that VICE piece on HBO a few days ago.

It's the Age Of Poor Poor Pitiful Me.


Something that just got clearer: these jagoffs talk trash all the time about how "all those people" are getting everything for free, and they're a burden to society, and honest tax-paying Americans always have to pick up the tab, and blah blah blah.

But Cantwell's not bitchin' because somebody else is gettin' the goodies - he's bitchin' cuz he's not gettin' the goodies.

There's a lot of weirdness rattling around in my brain about all this - economic pyramids, and wealth disparity, and Maslov's Hierarchy, and the downward pressure of that Supply Side crap, and what always happens when there's too much power in too few hands and too many people with nothing more to lose.

The kicker is - I wasn't expecting Cantwell to be so scared. You don't cry like that if you're not scared.  And that's quite the odd little wrinkle.

Mr Colbert

Stephen brings it.  And even tho' it seems like the jokes are writing themselves, this is work, kids. It's not as easy as it might look.

Today's Tweet



Now that's one eloquent lady

Aug 15, 2017

Scary Shit

HBO's VICE News via YouTube:


...but a little bit encouraging in spite of it all.

Because we've been here before, and we managed to muddle thru just by stumbling forward.

Today's Pix

Brazil Condom Ad
Brazil Condom Ad
 











Keith


"...praising by faint damnation."


And Away We Go

This is not right.  Even though I sure as hell understand the impulse, I can't encourage or approve or condone. I have to condemn this action unless these people stayed to be arrested and jailed and fined for it.

Civil Disobedience is not about Justice if you don't follow through - you have to play the whole 9 innings.


We need to maintain a healthy skepticism and be wary of "movements".  Once put in motion, these things take on a life and a will of their own, and they can go in directions we can't anticipate and don't control.

Today's Tweet



Because of course it has to be all about 45* - that's where we are now - The Era Of Victimized Privilege.