Mark Adomanis on John Derbyshire

I've kept quiet about the The Talk--and John Derbyshire's blacklisting--in no small part due to laziness. The greater part, though, is due to an apathy inside me that has seen this before. James D. Watson was met with a similar backlash after a similar comment on the hereditary nature of IQ, which I talk about in (a little) more detail here. Setting aside direct discussion about The Talk, I'd like to put part of an article from Forbes contributor Mark Adomanis on the table:

"It utterly baffles me how, in this day and age, anyone, even the most obtuse or egotistical, could possibly think that you would not be put out to pasture for authoring such a humorless, ill-informed, poorly written, and sophomoric screed about the mortal peril that white and Asian children face from African Americans."

I would disagree with the notion of Derbyshire's being ill-informed, but I'm sure that his time at Harvard/Oxford left Mark with a much more intimate understanding of Black Americans than mine. The poor writing accusation won't stand as well, considering just how fresh-out-of-college and overly-horny-for-a-big-article his own writing is. Yes, Adomanis knows how the game is played, as is demonstrated by the article in three major ways:

1) The most integral part of any left-leaning article is to make your opponent's political incorrectness known as often and as pompously as possible. Your opponent is a dim-witted, evil dickface. Mark follows the formula to a tee, using the words "racism" and "racist" a collective thirty times in-between dropping loads of shit much like the one in quotes above. 

2) Ignore the big, ugly truth about Blacks in the US, and reiterate that your opponent is a racist--therefore stupid, therefore a liar. Be sure to leave it at this, because delving into statistical detail will only encourage your opponents and may confuse your audience. Mark wrote an article about how Conservatism is hurt by racist assholes like Derbyshire rather than one on whether or not The Talk could actually save lives. 

3) Use words that will make people think you're smart. Like "screed." Screed, screed, screed.

I also really liked this:

"** I am not (let me repeat not) arguing that the conservative base is uniformly racist. Far from it. But the conservative base does have a much higher tolerance for harsh rhetoric provided that that rhetoric comes from other conservatives. This “us versus them” mentality is very much a basic part of human psychology, but does seem to be particularly well developed among contemporary American conservatives who will countenance almost any sort of conduct provided the person is part of their team."

Translation:

"I'm not saying that all Conservatives are racist--it's just that, on average, they're more likely to be racists. "

TheDailyIndoctrination

(Edit: Video was taken down, replaced.) 


I, like many people my age, frequent TheDailyWh.at for the latest in memes and other net-culture related things. As days turned into weeks turned into years, I noticed a slow but steady influx of liberal propaganda. It started out with a left-leaning statement here and there. Hell--maybe it was always there.

Just a few hours ago, I saw this gem. Since elaborating on what thedailywh.at had to say about the video would only serve to piss me off, we'll stick to the video for now...

I've been where Walsh is before--there is no arguing with a liberal. Years of social conditioning have taught them that not only is it uncool to disagree with the party line, but whoever does is fucking evil and doesn't need to be listened to. The video starts just after a conversation I imagine went something like this:

Walsh: (Statement of opinion)

Dude: (Statement of opinion)

Walsh: (Logical explanation of opinion/rebuttal)

Dude: (Statement of opinion)

Walsh: (Logical explanation of opinion/rebuttal)

Dude: (Statement of opinion)

Dude: (Statement of opinion)

Walsh: "I AGREEEEEE WITH YOU ABOUT THAT" (10 seconds in)

  

Not a phrase I'm unfamiliar with; I agree with Dude too. What Dude can't seem to comprehend is exactly what Walsh said--we already have regulations in place to prevent the market from dipping their hands in the fed's cookie jar, and they don't work. Dude, like most OWSers, will only follow logic so far. Why?

On one hand, I can see the incentive for bankers to use their influence in the media and other places to keep the public from putting a lock on the aforementioned cookie jar. On another, South Park park did me proud by pointing out that black people--like, I dunno, Obama--are just impervious to being fucked with nowadays.   Even if a chunk of the OWSers could pay fare for the logic train, it's social suicide to go against the crowd and--more importantly--socially advantageous to go with it. At 1:11, the smiling contempt Chubby has on her face would be enough to make me explode too.

Ignant

ig·no·rant/ˈignərənt/

Adjective:

Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.

I vaguely recall one evening, in a high school geometry class, something that still bothers me to this day. One of my peers, after arguing with the teacher over her failing grade, turned away from the teacher's desk and said, "Man, he ignant." Hilarious irony aside, I've noticed a trend of using the word 'ignorant' to describe somebody who holds politically incorrect opinions.

We all remember the James Watson brouhaha, where one of the guys responsible for discovering DNA was called ignorant by people who could hardly understand the word, let alone his work. Whether or not the liberal arts collective that descended upon Watson truly believe that he is some kind of idiot, this clever re-branding of ignorance is just another form of moral posturing. After all, what's better than being able to assert unquestionable moral and intellectual superiority over one of the 21st century's great minds?

But that's just the introduction for today's real topic--this is a blog (loosely) about Flint, dammit. A few days go, Rush Limbaugh had this to say about the city:

"If there is any dilapidation taking place, it's in the inner cities, and it's in cities run by Democrats for generations. Do I need to name names? Detroit, I hate to pick on 'em, Flint, Michigan, New Orleans. You go wherever Democrats have run the show for generations and you are gonna find big-time deterioration almost without exception."

To be perfectly honest, all I know about Limbaugh is that he's got a cool first name and my liberal friends/relatives hate his guts. I'm sure he has his faults, but he's got my support on this one for sure. Detroit, Flint, 'Nawlins and the like are all heavily liberal, black cities. Ignoring the latter, which happens to be the larger catalyst of dilapidation, Limbaugh has said nothing factually incorrect. Flint's mayor, Dayne Walling, fired back this morning.

"Communities across the state of Michigan all have the common challenge of rebuilding their infrastructure. That has nothing to do with party politics ... I see it as his responsibility to educate himself on the issues he speaks about ... "

Adding annoyance to aggravation, the article reports Dayne as having described Limbaugh's statements using the word of the hour: ignorant. I have to wonder what exactly he means by "educate himself on the issues he speaks about." Is flint suddenly not deteriorating? That would be strange, considering the blocks upon blocks of boarded up or torn down houses I see with my own two eyes, every single day...

"Stop saying true things."

Ignorant is stupid, is racist, is antisemitic, is sexist, is ageist, is evil. Dayne, like most liberals, uses the word as a placeholder for more inflammatory terms like those listed above. Because Limbaugh implicated democrats, Dayne couldn't just haul off and call him a homophobicracistnazibabykiller, so he went for the next best thing.