tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post2494177231544336715..comments2024-03-18T08:02:51.154-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: The Tyranny of Political CorrectnessStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-21500821311554593392017-03-13T10:20:22.211-07:002017-03-13T10:20:22.211-07:00I'm glad you did!I'm glad you did!Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-24781514762942999362017-03-13T10:12:57.994-07:002017-03-13T10:12:57.994-07:00"I think the Left saw Obama as their Caesar w..."I think the Left saw Obama as their Caesar who take them across the Rubicon and the final destination. Well he did, but Rome didn't fall and now they know they are fighting for their existence."<br />I did it!Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13642228725661059539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-70404000111690657012017-03-12T15:01:57.439-07:002017-03-12T15:01:57.439-07:00Deresiewicz explains this salient point: That, by ...Deresiewicz explains this salient point: That, by the way, is why liberal students (and liberals in general) are so bad at defending their own positions. They never have to, so they never learn to. That is also why it tends to be so easy for conservatives to goad them into incoherent anger. Nothing makes you more enraged than an argument you cannot answer. But the reason to listen to people who disagree with you is not so you can learn to refute them. The reason is that you may be wrong. In fact, you are wrong: about some things and probably about a lot of things. There is zero percent chance that any one of us is 100 percent correct.<br /><br />No argument from me here, except that reasoned argument is always hard, and all of us look like fools when we try to articulate our muddles beliefs to the world.<br /><br />It's always fun to mock and provoke your rivals on the "triggers", and it does clearly show their derangement, while not necessarily invalidating your own.<br /><br />I accept this (new?) religion of the sacred victim (although it may sound like Christianity to some), is extremely confused. And it seems not correctable as long as you can hold the faith that the world can be simply divided between oppressed and oppressors, and all without asking questions. It is as thoughtless as any mob mentality, looking for the next villain to demonize to avoid your own corrupted heart. And it perfectly fits within the known problems of empathy - that encourages us to only see the needs of the home team members.<br /><br />Jonathan Haidt and others have made a valiant effort in explaining this failing.<br /><br />Like fish don't know what water is, people don't know what "psychic medium" they inhabit, and so we're all vulnerable to what's hidden right in front of us. Without opposing views, we have no way to see out, even if we know exactly why those opposing views are also corrupted.<br /><br />Trigger warning offers one suggestion "less coddling and more discipline" and its easy enough to agree, but what sort of discipline?<br /><br />Coddling is described sometimes as "trophies for all", so in part "discipline" means acknowledging there will be winners and losers, and not all the winners are cheaters, and not all the losers have been cheated. The word "all" itself is a cheat, but its supposed to open a gap of uncertainty for truth to sneak through.<br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-25784330418664311172017-03-12T14:21:56.284-07:002017-03-12T14:21:56.284-07:00Stuart: And if you think that it’s an accident tha...Stuart: And if you think that it’s an accident that this all came into full flower during the Obama years you have underestimated the damage that the great community organizer could inflict on the nation.<br /><br />Or maybe we could ask Obama of his views? He's made plenty of statements against the illiberal left, and I imagine he'd agree with William Deresiewicz's article at least in the nature of the excesses.<br /><br />http://reason.com/blog/2016/12/21/president-obama-on-political-correctness<br />---<br />"This is a tricky issue," Obama answered. "Because the definition of political correctness is all over the map. I suspect the president-elect's definition would be different than mine."<br /><br />The president then offered two definitions of political correctness: the first is simply having good manners. It's wrong to shout racial epithets at people, or to verbally harass them. Objecting to abusive treatment isn't an example of political-correctness-run-amok—or if it is, then political correctness is a good thing. Most people probably want to live in a country where people are encouraged not to scream obscenities at each other.<br /><br />The second definition of political correctness, according to Obama, is "hypersensitivity that ends up resulting in people not being able to express their opinions at all without someone suggesting they're a victim."<br /><br />He continued:<br /><br /> My advice to progressives like myself, and advice I give my daughters who are about to head off to college is don't go around just looking for insults. You're tough. If someone says something you don't agree with, engage them on their ideas, but you don't have to feel that somehow because you're a black woman, you're being assaulted. But speak up for yourself.<br /><br />The president went on to point out that when it comes to political correctness, conservatives are hypocrites. They routinely get themselves worked up, and cite offense, over silly slights, as the Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh pointed out in a recent op-ed for The Washington Post:<br /><br /> But conservatives have their own, nationalist version of PC, their own set of rules regulating speech, behavior and acceptable opinions. I call it "patriotic correctness." It's a full-throated, un-nuanced, uncompromising defense of American nationalism, history and cherry-picked ideals. Central to its thesis is the belief that nothing in America can't be fixed by more patriotism enforced by public shaming, boycotts and policies to cut out foreign and non-American influences.<br /><br /> Insufficient displays of patriotism among the patriotically correct can result in exclusion from public life and ruined careers. It also restricts honest criticism of failed public policies, diverting blame for things like the war in Iraq to those Americans who didn't support the war effort enough.<br />----<br /><br />The whole tricky issue seems to be that we're all hypocrites, and we don't like to see this failing in ourselves, and so all have one standard we apply to others, and another to ourselves, and when we fail to see this gap, we become the very people and attitudes we claim we hate.<br /><br />The interesting problem to me is how we can help bridge this gap in others, while not letting our own go unchallenged. Self-righteous condemnation is a mind disease, even when it claims to be calling out self-righteous condemnation of others.<br /><br />Myself, I'm blaming echo chambers, mostly the modern digital kind, where our increased connectivity enables us to believe our own self-deceptions, by surrounding ourselves with other people with the same blind-spots.<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-71942153429797577732017-03-12T08:35:45.068-07:002017-03-12T08:35:45.068-07:00"Political correctness" cannot be a caus..."Political correctness" cannot be a cause. It's an abstract noun.<br /><br />And, yes, there is a secular religion called Progressivism with a canonical text, The Narrative, that corresponds to The Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. But the secular religion is not the cause.<br /><br />The cause is neotenized, spoiled young adults, raised by neoSpockian parents. Their younger brethren can be seen red-faced and squalling in the grocery checkout aisle demanding a treat from the snack shelf.<br /><br />Frankly, they disgust me. What they need is less coddling and more discipline. trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.com