Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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This article pointed me to Quillette.com
You could think of the gathering as a board meeting of sorts for the “intellectual dark web,” or IDW, a loose cadre of academics, journalists and tech entrepreneurs who view themselves as standing up to the knee-jerk left-leaning politics of academia and the media. Over the past year, the IDW has arisen as a puzzling political force, made up of thinkers who support “Enlightenment values” and accuse the left of setting dangerously illiberal limits on acceptable thought. The IDW has defined itself mainly by diving into third-rail topics like the genetics of gender and racial difference—territory that seems even more fraught in the era of #MeToo and the Trump resistance. But part of the attraction of the IDW is the sense that many more people agree with its principles than can come forward publicly: The dinner host on this night, Lehmann says, was a famous person she would prefer not to name.
--snup--
For those in attendance, it was a ringing confirmation of just how politicized academia had become, and how blindly devoted to fashionable moralities.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... ann-221917

Now, look. Some folks will be put off by what they read at Quillette. "Shine your shoes, light the fuse. Can you use them ol' US Blues?" It happens. Be warned.
But now, more than 70 years after the fall of Berlin and the death of Adolf Hitler, it might be time for a new kind of Nazi field guide. On one hand, we are plagued by men such as Robert Bowers, who allegedly committed mass murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue after posting explicitly anti-Semitic messages on a web site known to be a haven for self-described neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. On the other hand, the Internet is now so full of spurious allusions to Nazi ideology that the term is in danger of losing all meaning. On social media, especially, “Nazi” has become a sort of four-letter synonym for “alt-right,” which itself now fills in lazily for “conservative” or “right-wing.” So even a politician or pundit who is mildly right-of-centre is in danger of being libelled as a “Nazi” by people who couldn’t find Germany on a map or name a single major Second World War battle.
https://quillette.com/2018/10/31/nazis- ... eld-guide/

https://quillette.com/

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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"I'd like to be a racist, sexist asshole who believes in the wholesale murder (only as a last resort of course, wink wink) of impure races. Can you give me some thin veneer of scientific credibility that fails immediately under scrutiny for my position?"
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

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Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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Lots of articles at the main site.
On the other hand, transgender activists maintain that the distinction between being a man or a woman is entirely in the mind, and a person’s reproductive anatomy is not what defines them as male or female. Whatever a person states about his or her gender identity reflects their authentic inner nature, and may not be challenged. Scholars who raise questions about transgender identity face not only criticism and counterarguments (fair game for anyone making a claim), but also demands that their published work be removed from the written record rather than rebutted in open debate. Increasingly, journal editorial board members and university administrators side with these demands for retractions of articles rather than encouraging reasoned rebuttal, as scholars like Lisa Littman of Brown University and Rebecca Tuvel of Rhodes College have learned.

Now, in many ways, these issues are irrelevant to my work in a male-dominated STEM discipline. I don’t teach anything related to the biology of sex or the brain. My colleagues may or may not have traits that are typical of their respective sexes, but what matters is their competence as individuals, not whether their abilities are abundant or rare in the wider populations of women or men. I have worked productively with transgender scientists, and I don’t need to subscribe to any particular narrative about identity in order to treat them with common decency. So one could see the argument that I should just stay in my lane.
https://quillette.com/2018/11/14/schrod ... womanhood/

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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I was in academia for over 30 years, and it's true that there is truth behind the stereotypes that exist--underwater basket weaving, studying the desires of cockroaches, and so on. They're not all gold. I am glad for this magazine, though. Some interest is there for me.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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A lot of articles written by grad students, probably filling in time while researching and writing their dissertations. Most of what is on the Internet isn't worth reading, rambling opinions and little verifiable facts.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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Marlene wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:53 am
Calling someone a Nazi is practically meaningless. Now, let me tell you how scientific my racism is because I know the word “genetic” and I have a tweed jacket. Also, liberal intolerance is why my only friends also traffic in kiddie porn.
Now THIS was the spit-take line!

I just think of a room full of Sebastian Gorkas, talking about how it's now the age of the alpha male, while everyday he caries TWO guns, a knife, a wound kit, a tourniquet and a garrote because he feels SO secure in his alpha maleness! :sarcasm:
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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CDFingers wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:45 am Lots of articles at the main site.
On the other hand, transgender activists maintain that the distinction between being a man or a woman is entirely in the mind, and a person’s reproductive anatomy is not what defines them as male or female. Whatever a person states about his or her gender identity reflects their authentic inner nature, and may not be challenged. Scholars who raise questions about transgender identity face not only criticism and counterarguments (fair game for anyone making a claim), but also demands that their published work be removed from the written record rather than rebutted in open debate. Increasingly, journal editorial board members and university administrators side with these demands for retractions of articles rather than encouraging reasoned rebuttal, as scholars like Lisa Littman of Brown University and Rebecca Tuvel of Rhodes College have learned.

Now, in many ways, these issues are irrelevant to my work in a male-dominated STEM discipline. I don’t teach anything related to the biology of sex or the brain. My colleagues may or may not have traits that are typical of their respective sexes, but what matters is their competence as individuals, not whether their abilities are abundant or rare in the wider populations of women or men. I have worked productively with transgender scientists, and I don’t need to subscribe to any particular narrative about identity in order to treat them with common decency. So one could see the argument that I should just stay in my lane.
https://quillette.com/2018/11/14/schrod ... womanhood/

CDFingers
My humanity, my ability to be the best judge of who I am, and my right to live in the world as I see fit are not up for debate. Suggesting that this is a matter of intellectual disagreement rather than giving validity to the notion that I’m a piece of shit is a coward’s excuse.

Motherfucker is afraid I’ll stab him if he doesn’t shut his yap. Truth is, when he opens his yap, I know I better stab him before he stabs me. Insisting my life is debatable is an existential threat to me, not a fucking game or cocktail conversation for assholes.

Tell me different to my face some time.
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Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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Marlene wrote: Thu Nov 29, 2018 11:40 pm
CDFingers wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:45 am Lots of articles at the main site.
On the other hand, transgender activists maintain that the distinction between being a man or a woman is entirely in the mind, and a person’s reproductive anatomy is not what defines them as male or female. Whatever a person states about his or her gender identity reflects their authentic inner nature, and may not be challenged. Scholars who raise questions about transgender identity face not only criticism and counterarguments (fair game for anyone making a claim), but also demands that their published work be removed from the written record rather than rebutted in open debate. Increasingly, journal editorial board members and university administrators side with these demands for retractions of articles rather than encouraging reasoned rebuttal, as scholars like Lisa Littman of Brown University and Rebecca Tuvel of Rhodes College have learned.

Now, in many ways, these issues are irrelevant to my work in a male-dominated STEM discipline. I don’t teach anything related to the biology of sex or the brain. My colleagues may or may not have traits that are typical of their respective sexes, but what matters is their competence as individuals, not whether their abilities are abundant or rare in the wider populations of women or men. I have worked productively with transgender scientists, and I don’t need to subscribe to any particular narrative about identity in order to treat them with common decency. So one could see the argument that I should just stay in my lane.
https://quillette.com/2018/11/14/schrod ... womanhood/

CDFingers
My humanity, my ability to be the best judge of who I am, and my right to live in the world as I see fit are not up for debate. Suggesting that this is a matter of intellectual disagreement rather than giving validity to the notion that I’m a piece of shit is a coward’s excuse.

Motherfucker is afraid I’ll stab him if he doesn’t shut his yap. Truth is, when he opens his yap, I know I better stab him before he stabs me. Insisting my life is debatable is an existential threat to me, not a fucking game or cocktail conversation for assholes.

Tell me different to my face some time.
Curiously enough, this is EXACTLY the argument Rand makes in "Atlas Shrugged"--my/your right to live is not up for debate. The assholes and shitheads don't get to decide who lives and who doesn't because they are Black, Brown, Asian, Jewish, Muslim, 7th Day Adventist, Hindu, Buddhist, Satanist, LGBTQ+, Liberal, Progressive, or Socialist. And because they think they CAN make that decision is why I decided to become armed.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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When one is armed, one may defend self, family, tribe, etc. The big question is when do we shoot someone over an idea? To me, I prolly won't shoot someone over an idea. I can discuss ideas I disagree with without wanting to shoot the other person. I think that is the strength of academics exchanging ideas. Sure, some ideas might seem stupid or even dangerous. So we discuss them to death. :-)

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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CDF I generally agree with you, but the cowardly pseudo intellectual game of framing eliminationist threats as “ideas” and “disagreements” doesn’t magically stop them from being threats. Using the liberal intellectual traditions of debate to build support for notions of my inherent inferiority IS an act of violence against me, and I have the right to defend myself.

The shift from “these are just ideas” to “this is a valid debate” to “this is up for consideration as public policy” to “this is now a notion enforceable by state violence” is entirely smooth. Fascism/Nazis use the mechanisms of liberal democracy to subvert democracy and the rule of law. Claims on the grounds of intellectual freedom and free speech are entirely disingenuous and punching Nazis is always good, whether or not they have ties and university degrees.
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Re: Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)

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8B5884DC-65F0-4CCB-ABBF-1D80EC9B7B6B.jpeg
If you’re feelin’ it, you might as well do it.

I think it’s more true that inaction based on fear of retaliation is what keeps people from acting on anger than the intellectual desire to protect free speech.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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