You're The One Swinging Your Willy All Around
My article, Do Critical Race Theorists Know What Racism Is?, inspired a range of reactions.
Some, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, felt that a teacher’s right to teach racism (as opposed to teaching about racism) should override a child’s right to an education free from it.
Some (most?) were as mystified as I was that race education has reached such a low point that we’re debating whether kids should be learning that one race is superior to another.
And some, like Makayla…well, it’s better if you just read it for yourself:
[N.B., this is a completely insane conversation that I’m posting purely for comic relief. Absolutely no profound insights follow.]
Makayla:
Sufficiently understanding racism is beyond the average intelligence which poses a problem.
Intelligent tests have questions such as if a lemon is yellow and a lemon is a fruit. Is fruit yellow?
Believe it or not, a lot of people will get questions like that wrong. The more complicated the more likely. Sooner or later virtually everyone hits a limit.
Reality also has that kind of telescopic complexity.
People who are not grandiose about their intelligence and who know that they might be wrong tend to be well adapted.
To say it's purely a matter of intelligence is false. At any level of intelligence the correct mentality tends to sufficiently compensate.
It's not reaching the limits of intellect along but also absence of humility that cause the most confounding problems.
Ask a bunch of people if they know what racism is. Measure their answers and how sure they are. Then test them. Reality will become readily apparent.
Fundamentally in science racism is seen as a combination of logical errors though science alone can't define everything so this is often bridged with philosophy and higher morality.
To give an example of this, scientifically eugenics isn't an invalid theory. Eugenics is applied to other species all the time.
Many species of modern animals and plants used by humans to better serve domestication and civilisation are the result of extensive regulation of breeding both deliberate and incidental.
Though it is forgotten today as often the actual argument for something that's passed down is in some dumbed down or alternative form. The original compelling arguments restricting eugenics were little to nothing to do with World War II.
Intersectionality is actually ironically, almost the same formula used by the National Socialist German Worker's Party. That is, racial classism.
In programming it would be almost an identical application except for one interface they have replaced the sort function with one that examines a different property.
America in particular has a lot of people originating from Germany who sympathised and never really fully let go of these ideas.
It's also useful for them to invert the racial preferences rather than eliminating them. This both works as spite for defeating the Germans and it creates a system where races cannot coexist.
It insists on master and slave but in this case to make black people the master and white people the slave. This creates a situation where segregation becomes the answer.
As long as there are black people in the same country, socialists will never stop making a problem out of it and causing trouble so people can't get along.
They'll call it anti-racism but on examination they are making problems out of things where there are none. Many of these problems can be formally, logically and mathematically be shown to be near impossible to trivially solve without either separating black people from white people or resorting to full socialism where everything is rationed out absolutely evenly only that's not really possible either.
Racism originally focused around logic, prejudice, judgement, etc. Concepts such as white privilege are that same thing, prejudice, the same logical error.
It's not only a problem in race but is in face far broader. Such fallacies comprise an enormous proportion of corruption, though no one has any license to complain about corruption unless it can be made out to be racist.
You can do some fun scientific experiments with this yourself. Find some intelligence tests. Given them to some random people. Do they get any questions wrong?
Change the intelligence test to include race. Also see if you can make questions where the person would be trying to be antiracist but would get it wrong. Try to map the questions people tend to get wrong essentially to real life problems.
Add race, take it away, you still get errors so it’s not just about race. Between racists and antiracists you should also see a similar common underlying error rate.
If you made it through that word salad without skimming, I salute you. If you actually understood what Makayla was trying to say, you’re smarter than I am.
I get the odd pseudo-intellectual in my comments from time to time. This is the internet after all. But even after re-reading this numerous times (what can I say, I’m a masochist sometimes) I still had no idea whether I was in the presence of a genius, a moron or a drunk.
Steve QJ:
Sufficiently understanding racism is beyond the average intelligence which poses a problem.
I have no idea what you're trying to say in this comment except that people (presumably excepting you) are dumb.
I'd love you to explain why you think understanding racism is beyond the average intelligence.
Makayla:
Pretend that you're dumb and read it a second time.
It's actually even more problematic. Humans have higher intelligence but rarely resort to it.
Prejudice works pretty well in the animal kingdom. One snake bites a member of the tribe and kills them, assume they're all like that, probably works.
The problem is when that's applied to humans, acting on instinct, at some point it breaks down one way or another.
People on the left are ruled over by an elite that makes out like all black people share a criminal records and bank account. Then so to all white people.
That's moronic. That's what we call a category error.
I made a mistake. I thought you smart enough to be able to get some insight from this. Now you want me to dumb it down to an extraordinary level.
I smell someone who lets their ego get in the way of their brain.
I have my intelligence questioned fairly regularly on the internet. At least in conversations with people who disagree with me. But my secret weapon is that I genuinely don’t care.
I’m completely prepared for the possibility that I’ve missed something obvious. I’m eager to be shown the flaws in my logic. In fact, I’d be grateful to be disabused of my foolishness so that I can avoid making the same mistakes in future. The problem is, when people call you dumb or resort to insults, what they’re usually saying is “I disagree, and I can’t defend the disagreement.”
Steve QJ:
I made a mistake. I thought you smart enough to be able to get some insight from this. Now you want me to dumb it down to an extraordinary level.
Haha, yep, durr...dumb old me. You presume that you have insight to offer with this stream of consciousness, which is a little arrogant when talking to a complete stranger.
But regardless, I'm not sure how it's egotistical to ask for clarification. Isn't that what us mere mortals are supposed to do when we encounter a superior intellect? As the old saying goes, if you can't explain it to a five year old, you don't understand it.
Makayla:
You're upset because you're a writer. Basically, you play dress up in literary form.
Boo hoo. Can't even take a mind to mind let alone a heart to heart.
I bet all your interactions are like having your way with a thawed out slab of meat you ordered from the butcher.
You have something worse than race psychosis. You have intellectual psychosis.
Admit it, you're afraid. You want the smart to be judged by the stupid to lower the bar.
No one can be smarter than an idiot?
You fear job worthiness.
It's a legitimate fear. Today machines do all the physical work.
Intellectual work is ephemeral. No one knows where they stand. Paranoia sets in. OCPD sets in because there's no clear measure of what's enough so people either do nothing afraid of over doing or do too much afraid of under doing.
Some implode, you'll explode. You should. You should be angry. There's something wrong with society. We just can't pin it down. The risk is what to take it out on.
Go out into the wilderness and destroy a replaceable object. Let it all out. Then come out fresh and knowing just because some people are right about the problem even if partial and indirect doesn't mean they have a clue about the solution.
We measure the measurable eliminate it only to be to confronted the immeasurable only to end up where we started.
I could have paused at the end of any one of Makayla’s replies and marvelled at its incoherence. But the image of me having my way with a thawed out slab of meat seems like a good place to pause.
What’s interesting is that I see this way of “thinking” becoming increasingly common. Discourse has become so polarised that a worrying number of people seem to think that they know everything they need to know about you if you disagree with them.
In fact, in Mikayla’s case, I didn’t even need to disagree. Simply asking for clarification was enough to identify me as a brain-dead, meat-molesting psychotic.
Steve QJ:
You're upset because you're a writer. Basically, you play dress up in literary form.
I'm not upset at all. In fact, I'm quite enjoying this! Please, please tell me more about myself internet stranger.
I assumed you wanted to have a conversation about something I'd written, but it seems that you just wanted to monologue about how dumb everybody is, and of course, subtly insinuate how intelligent you are. That's fine. I don't begrudge anybody the chance to flex their insecurities. But actual intelligence requires. more than made-up qualifications from Wakanda😅 [for context, Makayla’s bio lists her as “Chief Scientist for the Mosque of Humanity, Wakanda.”]
Why not try having a conversation? Maybe you'll learn something. Maybe I will. This doesn't need to be a battle.
Makayla:
You're not a man because you'll fight a woman but you're a man because you can fight. At least you have something going for you. How far will you go though? Fighting a woman is one thing but will you fight dirty to win?
Imaging having to fight dirty to defeat a woman, shame.
It's not about how intelligent I am. It's about sharing intelligence. You however are acting like a little baby, the same way when there's some food, you want it, they say no you can't have it fell on the floor then you cry.
I'm not fighting you. I'm fighting the deprivation of your brain. No don't think, you can't have that, that's white people's things, germs have gotten it before I have I gotten it right? Zero second rule.
I'd like to have a mature conversation. Honestly though, sometimes the easiest way to battle yourself is to battle another.
I don't hate you nor am I so racist that I won't spar with you.
I think the mistake I made actually is sharing too much at once. It overwhelms you. I'm not a master of subtlety.
Black people have been turned into Eve, in the garden of creation afraid to receive the fruit of knowledge thus I has been made the serpent. The forbidden organ. The one that forbade all others. Reclaim it.
I am the one who has suffered. You are the people who fear being me. I suffered for what I was so you fear to be yourselves. The stupid try to be smart and the smart try to be stupid to escape their fate.
I’ve also lived the fate you’re so afraid of. Perhaps I should not challenge it. After all it is your fear of what is below that elevates you.
“I'd like to have a mature conversation”
Then why don’t you Mikayla?!
Steve QJ:
Imaging having to fight dirty to defeat a woman, shame.
Every time I think your replies can't get further removed from reality you surprise me😅.
Seriously, are you drunk?! High?! This is absolutely bizarre.
I'm not trying to fight you, dirty or otherwise. I'm trying to understand what the heck you're talking about. Who knows, maybe I'm not understanding because you really are so vastly more intelligent than I am. I'm not so insecure about my intelligence that the possibility scares me at all.
But if you can't communicate your point, even to a simpleton like me, then it's not much use is it? You seem much more interested in trying to insult me than in saying anything meaningful. And the insults are so hilarious and random that I'm kind of just enjoying the ride.
Makayla:
The closer to reality the further away people retreat then blame it on the other.
No, I've decided to just say screw it. The elite can be corrupt and defecate all over the place then why should I be so restrained?
My initial message pointed out that there's something more than merely traditional intelligence.
It was you who got all worked up about that part and you missed the rest so you exposed yourself.
You're the one swinging your willy all around completely clueless like a naked drunken stumbler.
It was an ambiguous argument both raw but also looking at both sides. It was you who went all yangster showing what side you’re on.
Humans are very sad. We’ve been watching for a while now. They never grow up. The child mortality rate is 100%.
Always starting off learning taking a side but barely getting more further than that. Never learning to take the right side or fight for what is right and get between each side.
targhlIj yab tIn law’ no’lI’ Hoch yabDu’ tIn puS!
All that said and done why desecrate the dead when the aristocracy desecrates the living?
Steve QJ:
You're the one swinging your willy all around completely clueless like a naked drunken stumbler.
😂😂😂 You my dear, are a genius. I've had thousands of conversations online and you are, hands down, the most unhinged person I've come across. Yet at the same time it's quite fun talking to you.
I have no idea where you got the idea that I got worked up by your initial reply, it just didn't make any sense. And I have even less idea why my willy is being brought into this! But then again, I have no idea where you're getting pretty much anything you're saying from.
But hey, if you'll keep writing this stuff, I'll keep reading. "targhlIj yab tIn law’ no’lI’ Hoch yabDu’ tIn puS!" to you too.👍
I’m not sure if that last line is some kind of incantation (bonus points to anybody who can decipher it), but Makayla stopped replying after this. In fact, she seems to have deleted her Medium account altogether.
And while you might think that talking to people like her is a waste of time (and you’re almost certainly right), occasionally I like to repeatedly ask people to express themselves clearly, until they realise that they can’t.
Organising one’s thoughts until they’re coherent enough to be understood by others is surprisingly difficult. And the reason it’s difficult is that our thoughts are often less coherent than they seem in our heads. Too many conversations are based on emotion and projected insecurities, not because we’re dumb, but because we haven’t really taken the time to think.
And while they’re not usually as extreme as this, they inevitably devolve into bizarre accusations, that thankfully, couldn’t be further from the truth. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to thaw out a slab of meat…
Usually the "everyone who disagrees with me is stupid" people have PHD after their name and mention critical thinking. This is different. She's like the crackheads in the Quick-Trip parking lot near the methadone clinic asking for money. I'm not going to read it twice and I confess that I skimmed. Thanks for the laugh on an otherwise bad day.
Hmm. How not to use words. But Steve, back on topic: I oppose CRT and the way race and racism is being presented to students for what seem to be almost unique reasons which I think you mostly or entirely share. I don't know if the conservative and Republican opposition is quite as ignorant and evasive of the real issues and partisan as is claimed in the article below, but from my POV this is a straw man and I agree with the author's criticisms in this regard. Rufo is doing nothing better than guaranteeing that every blue state will be subjecting K12 kids to this racist indoctrination. That's half the county, which is more than the Project could have assimilated without the help of ignorant partisanship.
I oppose this "Project" (let's call it), because I think it is reversing our progress in conquering racism. It's like racism was diminishing on about as good a schedule as can be expected, (given that the vast majority of people cannot change their minds on fundamental issues past the age of about 35 and therefore some generations must pass before something like racism is eradicated as much as it realistically can be eradicated), and this Project rose up to snatch defeat from the jaws of moral victory.
I am particularly concerned about the effect of such teaching on children. There are friendships between children of different races. (We should be learning from the kids on this matter, not imposing our crazy racial distinctions on them.) I can imagine such a friendship between a black and a white child when they are say 9 years of age. But this year they are learning how different they are. The black child learns they are likely to face life-long difficulties and oppression at the hands of "whites," and the white child learns that they have sins to atone for, not because they've done anything but because of their white skin. What happens to that friendship? The result will not always be the same, and in some few happy cases they will reject feeling "how they are supposed to feel" about each other and continue to be friends. But many will distance themselves from the friendship. Many will interpret their next insignificant children's argument as evidence of the truth of the teaching. And a decade later, they may not remember why they dislike people of the other color skin, for they have been politicised and racialized at an age where they still believe that everything they are taught in school is actual, positive and useful knowledge.
Anyway, this is all to get around to my point, which is that I believe that the real goal of the Program is to increase racism and create tension and division in society. (We can discuss the validity of my contention, but that isn't my point here.) So it is amazing and unusual to read, from someone who is deeply enmeshed and invested in the Project -- an authority, if you will -- what amounts to a clear confession of malevolent intent. He may not realize it, and his readers may not see it, but I think it is screamingly clear if one reads this article of his with discernment and with one's critical faculty fully engaged. (And I mean 'critical' in the proper sense - another word they have warped.) It's this:
https://timjwise.medium.com/students-deserve-the-truth-about-injustice-and-schools-should-teach-it-fdfc988cb133