is mid cringe or basic? (surely it's not based.)
Text: The rigor and exactitude of social sciences offer real advantages, but it is easy to overstate them. Social science is quantitative, precise, analytically sophisticated — and thus seems far superior to the educated guesswork of drawing lessons from history. Yet the models of social science are quantifiable and analytically manipulable only because of their reductionism — that is, because of all they leave out. The model is not reality: its relationship to reality is analogical. Accordingly, when we are presented with two different models that yield very different conclusions, how do we determine which is the better fit to current circumstances? In exactly the same way that we decide whether this or that historical precedent is more relevant — by judging which analogy is the more apt. Social science provides us with new concepts and new techniques as the basis for making analogies, but ultimately the best social scientists, like the best historians, practice the art of developing, refining, and exhibiting well-informed good judgment.
in my cultural revolution there are snuggle sessions.
they say money doesn’t buy happiness, but very wealthy people seem a lot more excited to fund research into longterm life extension than the rest of the population.
Vila @llimllib's essential notes: "A really lovely, well presented table of all the unicode characters" https://symbl.cc/en/unicode-table/#basic-latin
the buried lede is we are one step closer to human-like AI. the bots have figured out how to shit.
from @pluralistic https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/
"The delay in the use of puberty-blockers is presented as a precautionary concern over irreversible change, but it looks a lot like a desire to preserve childhood innocence by paradoxically embracing puberty." #DavidTimoney https://fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2024/05/zones-of-interest.html
When will AI switch to proof-of-stake? https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/05/northern-virginia-fact-of-the-day.html
This post is unhinged.
so next month begins the summer of love, right?
@FlashMobOfOne You too! Pleasure to chat, agreement isn’t everything!
@FlashMobOfOne I think quite the opposite. Peaceful political activity accomplishes pretty much everything actually virtuous and desirable. There is perhaps some role for the threat of disorder, but its actuality beyond a very limited degree provokes segregation into warring camps and fascist hierarchy. All that rioting discredited the post George Floyd movement. Once nothing happened in the immediate aftermath, there’s nothing politically viable to build from.
@FlashMobOfOne I guess I disagree. Armed protests would either be violently crushed, or if widely accommodated while violating the law, would so weaken state authority any hope of a decent society would be impossible. if you’re an anarchist, you’ll see that last as nonsequitur, but i think anarchists very badly mistaken. i do not support Waco / Bundy style resistance, and think “sovereign citizens” who occupy Federal land unlawfully should be held to account.
@FlashMobOfOne are Columbia students not largely rich people? do you see the Palestinian cause as somehow socialist/redistributionist? do you think armed challenge of state authority Waco / Ammon Bundy style a path forward for your values and causes that you support?
@pants @jalefkowit he threatened something to get the Erez Crossing opened I think and trucks suddenly through I think. obviously not enough, and as soon as the melee with Iran began, then the protests, he effectively lost interest. he clearly has to be pushed to put pressure on Israel. the dispute here is about what constitutes effective pushing. and yes, someone will tell you anything, like ‘vote uncommitted’, like me + these protests, is the wrong thing. we all have to use actual judgment.
@pants @jalefkowit ‘inclined to listen’ in the sense of genuinely concerned about the politics. Biden’s attitude at and just following the State of the Union address was extraordinarily about pressuring Netanyahu, and he apparently threatened something after the WCK killings. but now his stronger political incentives are to distance himself from these protests.
@pants @jalefkowit i guess we’ll just disagree. to learn capability rather than helplessness, i think you have to act capably, intelligently. acting for the sake of acting in ways likely to be ineffective will just drive home helplessness.
@emma if you think that people aren’t persuadable, then what is it that you think you are doing? we have to win over people to do the right thing and vote for the less terrible people. probably calling anyone garbage won’t help much, but sure there may be groups that are unreachable. if you don’t think winning people over possible, what’s the plan? create so much pain they are compelled to do what you want? do you think that’s the likely response?
@pants @jalefkowit disorder and protest aren’t the same thing! these protests may be mild, but they are purposefully adopting tactics that will lead to forcible removal. on the one hand that gets media attention, but on the other hand, it’s costly to protesters and doesn’t win the sympathy of less engaged bystanders. 1/
@pants @jalefkowit in today’s argumentation ACT UP came up a bunch. their protests (mostly) were targeted to institutions that could do something about their problem, and they were performative — die ins, ashes of the cremated. they attracted attention by clever dramatization rather than generalized disruption of bystanders’ lives. their free speech rights did not eclipse the issues they were trying to call attention to. 2/
@pants @jalefkowit over the last few months, activists in places like Michigan pursued a brilliant “uncommitted” campaign in Democratic primaries. no on-the-street protest, no new culture war fronts, no inward-directed free speech debate. just plain demonstration of political risk if Biden’s course does not change. for a minute, until Iran and now this, they seemed inclined to listen. 3/
@pants @jalefkowit just because people are doing something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. it certainly does not mean it’s the only or the best thing that can be done. /fin
@kentwillard oh shoot. this was supposed to have been a response.