Bari Weiss in the NYT: the “intellectual dark web”

May 8, 2018 • 12:30 pm

I received this link from many readers, so of course I had to read it. Plus it was a piece by Bari Weiss, a beleaguered Leftist who’s been ostracized by her fellow New York Times writers for going after the Authoritarian Left:

A few quotes from Weiss:

What is the I.D.W. and who is a member of it? It’s hard to explain, which is both its beauty and its danger.

Most simply, it is a collection of iconoclastic thinkers, academic renegades and media personalities who are having a rolling conversation — on podcasts, YouTube and Twitter, and in sold-out auditoriums — that sound unlike anything else happening, at least publicly, in the culture right now. Feeling largely locked out of legacy outlets, they are rapidly building their own mass media channels.

The closest thing to a phone book for the I.D.W. is a sleek website that lists the dramatis personae of the network, including Mr. Harris; Mr. Weinstein and his brother and sister-in-law, the evolutionary biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying; Jordan Peterson, the psychologist and best-selling author; the conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray; Maajid Nawaz, the former Islamist turned anti-extremist activist; and the feminists Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Christina Hoff Sommers. But in typical dark web fashion, no one knows who put the website up.

. . . But they all share three distinct qualities. First, they are willing to disagree ferociously, but talk civilly, about nearly every meaningful subject: religion, abortion, immigration, the nature of consciousness. Second, in an age in which popular feelings about the way things ought to be often override facts about the way things actually are, each is determined to resist parroting what’s politically convenient. And third, some have paid for this commitment by being purged from institutions that have become increasingly hostile to unorthodox thought — and have found receptive audiences elsewhere.

What she could have said is that all of these people dare to criticize the Authoritarian Left. Period. Otherwise any extreme right-winger could be considered part of the IDW. And of course Weiss is not only part of the IDW, but it’s most visible mainstream scribe. As she says:

Like many in this group, I am a classical liberal who has run afoul of the left, often for voicing my convictions and sometimes simply by accident. This has won me praise from libertarians and conservatives. And having been attacked by the left, I know I run the risk of focusing inordinately on its excesses — and providing succor to some people whom I deeply oppose.

Still, I’m not happy with her piece, largely because of her failure to explain the dissimilarities of people whom she lumps together. The list includes, for example, conservative broadcaster and writer Ben Shapiro, but I wouldn’t include him as part of the IDW because he’s a garden variety Republican, not a liberal of any stripe, though he at least has sympathy for the #MeToo movement. But why not all vocal Republicans who dare risk the chance of being deplatformed by speaking at a college?

I think where Weiss goes wrong is implying that there’s some political agreement between these “renegades” (as she calls them), and the right: between someone like Ben Shapiro and Bret Weinstein. But there isn’t: Weinstein is a classic anti-racist liberal, and Shapiro is a a young and less abrasive William F. Buckley. Michael Shermer? A libertarian Leftist and hardly someone espousing right-wing politics. And putting Steve Pinker in the group with Milo Yiannopoulos? Again, their only commonality is their criticism of Control-Leftism, but Yiannopoulos isn’t a serious thinker but a provocateur.

Most of the people mentioned by Weiss do, as I said, converge in being willing to call out the Authoritarian Left, but that’s where it ends, unless you’re one of those people who claims that Weinstein or Sam Harris or Claire Lehmann or Steve Pinker are “alt right”—accusations that are common but palpably ridiculous.

Jordan Peterson is in the IDW mix too, but I still don’t know what to make of the guy, and haven’t had much time to listen to his stuff or read his books or articles. Alex Jones? He’s a bull-goose looney, as Randle McMurphy would say.

I wasn’t too impressed by this article given that Weiss tosses into the IDW pot a whole group of people having little in common—people like Kanye West and Alex Jones. So I have a hard time taking her seriously when she concludes this:

I get the appeal of the I.D.W. I share the belief that our institutional gatekeepers need to crack the gates open much more. I don’t, however, want to live in a culture where there are no gatekeepers at all. Given how influential this group is becoming, I can’t be alone in hoping the I.D.W. finds a way to eschew the cranks, grifters and bigots and sticks to the truth-seeking.

The association of cranks like Jones or provocateurs like Yianopoulos with serious thinkers like Heather Heying, Christina Hoff Sommers, Sam Harris, and Steve Pinker isn’t the fault of the cranks; it’s the fault of those (I won’t name them) who want to tar with the label “Nazi” any Leftist deviating from Ideological Purity. We already eschew the cranks, and if Weiss thinks there’s more we can do than say what we think, she should suggest a way.

But perhaps her piece is useful in calling the public’s attention to a number of “renegade” thinkers who might have escaped their attention. Yet Weiss damages her effectiveness by an uncharacteristic lack of thoughtfulness, and a desire to lump together people who aren’t all that similar. The stuff about “gatekeepers” I don’t understand, unless she’s somehow trying to make amends with her critical colleagues at the New York Times. 

Paris: Day 1

May 8, 2018 • 11:30 am

I can’t promise to post a daily account of my Parisian adventures, as I’m too busy eating and walking around this most beautiful of cities. The weather is perfect here: about 29°C (84° F)—in fact it’s a bit hot—but still sunny and cloudless. Just right for walking around until it’s time for a rest and a cooling citron pressé in a café.

Yesterday after I arrived I decided to stay up all day and crash at night, which is the best way to cure my jet lag. I slept a bit on the plane, but it was uncomfortable even in Premium Economy seats (I’ve accumulated enough miles for free but tiny upgrades), and so I watched three movies: “Lady Bird” (excellent; reminded me a bit of “Juno”), “Darkest Hour” (pretty good, also shows how bibulous Churchill really was), and “Letters from Iwo Jima” (also quite good, Clint Eastwood can be an excellent director).

After arriving, I met up almost immediately with two friends to have lunch in one of my favorite restaurants: Chez Denise in the First, a great bistro that has lost none of its character since I first came here in 1989. If you’re in Paris, this is a must-go bistro. I’ve sent many people here over the years, and none have been disappointed.

I’m going again soon, so I didn’t do much photography yesterday, but here is the menu outside (not everything on offer is listed) and photos of the two desserts we shared: millefeuille (layered custard pastry) and the fantastic baba au rhum, a luscious spongecake soaked with rum (they put the bottle on the table so you can soak it with more rum.  I had the salade frisée for starters and the onglet de boeur avec frites (hanger steak) for a main course, along with a liter bottle of Brouilly, which we shared.  As always, the steak was fantastic, and I’ll have it again very soon!

The menu (in Euros). As I said, I had the frisée and the onglet de boeuf grillé, truly one of the great pieces of meat in Paris. Most of the entrées (appetizers in France) aren’t listed on this outside chalkboard menu, but are posted (also on chalkboard) inside the restaurant. There is no written menu, and the desserts are recited by the waiter.

Bon appetit!  Here are the desserts with the lagniappish bottle of rum. Note that the baba au rhum, graced with two dollops of whipped cream, is already soaked in rum (this is pre-our-addition). And the millefeuille is one of the best I’ve had in Paris, with crispy layers of pastry and scrumptious eggy custard between them.

After lunch, I was in a food coma, but my foodie friends insisted on checking out Bachir, a famous Lebanese ice cream place in Les Halles. There was a big line at the place, and they had all kinds of flavors, including rose petal.

I was able only to manage one small bite of a friend’s cone, which (their speciality) they roll thoroughly in crushed pistachio nuts and top with whipped cream. Here are some locals enjoying their cones.  Everyone loves good ice cream!

Outside the Pompidou Center (the human gerbil cage), an old man with two carts was feeding the pigeons. It was clear that this was one of the important activities of his life, and it made me sad when people ran through the pigeons to disturb them. When that happened the old man yelled at the miscreants, but they paid no heed. Someday I will be that old man, but feeding a single duck instead of a flock of pigeons:

And the Hôtel de Ville, the first building I ever saw in Paris, and the administrative headquarters of the city of Paris. When I first came here in 1989 on a Guggenheim Fellowship, I was immediately driven to the labs and villa of the evolution group at Gif sur Yvette, out in the suburbs where I stayed for a couple of weeks. But that first weekend I took the RER line B into Paris and emerged from the Metro at the Hôtel de Ville. I instantly fell in love with the city, a feeling that has grown over the years; but of course this proved to be only one of many splendid buildings in Paris. I photographed it for the memories.

Tomorrow the food photos begin in earnest, with a new visit to L’Ami Jean, a restaurant I thought I’d discovered but was then publicized by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker. Has it been ruined by the publicity? Stay tuned.

Other monkeys besides humans also enjoy ice cream (h/t: Michael):

Tuesday: Duck report

May 8, 2018 • 9:30 am

Anna reports that “Frank’s friend,” as I call him, has appeared again. He’s a wild mallard with a brown bib (Frank, with a lighter bib, surely has some domestic duck in him), and is visible in the photo and video below. He’s too shy to take food by hand, and I, like Anna, am wondering if we should feed him. My worry is that he and Frank will start competing for food, and Wild Duck will hang around and do damage to Honey’s ducklings—if she ever shows up.  If you know about ducks, weigh in. Duck-tending is no picnic! There’s always something to worry about!

Meanwhile, Anna reports:

One advantage to Frank liking being hand fed is that the wild drake doesn’t get the food. Wild drake is way too scared for hand feeding.

And a short video showing that only Frank comes to the whistle. But I still feel  sorry for Unfed Wild Drake:

Tuesday: Hili dialogue

May 8, 2018 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Today in 1886 Coca-cola was sold for the first time, a non-alcoholic version of coca wine, but still with the cocaine. It’s a wonder any of our ancestors lived long enough to reproduce.

It’s the birthday of David Attenborough (1926), Alex Van Halen (1953), and Enrique Iglesias (1975), and the anniversary of the death of Robert A. Heinlein (1988) one of my favorite weirdo sci-fi writers.

On Twitter today, 13th century constellations.

Unimpressed cat is unimpressed.

Eric Idle has a new version of his FCC song. (Warning: language. Unlikely to be suitable for the office unless you work from home.)

Teasing the cat

https://twitter.com/StefanodocSM/status/993424124717555712

Lava in Hawaii

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/993529911871754241

And finally, our raison d’être with a motivational message. Demotivational message?

Hili: What was there before the Big Bang?
A: A horrible silence.
(Photo: Zuza)
Hili: Co było przed Wielkim Wybuchem?
Ja: Straszna cisza.
(Foto: Zuza)

 

 

 

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center goes after cultural appropriation

May 7, 2018 • 11:00 am

How far the mighty have fallen, and how well the termites have dined! I am, of course, referring to the odious Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), once an important voice against racism and a major player in dismantling it in America. With tons of money but not so much work to do these days, they’ve taken on a distinct Authoritarian Leftist cast, making lists of “anti-Muslim extremists” that include Muslim reformers like Maajid Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (The SPLC quietly took down that list when Nawaz, a Muslim, threatened to sue.)

They also stash their millions of saved bucks in offshore bank accounts, which is legal but sleazy. You can see my posts on the SPLC here.

But now it’s not enough for the SPLC to make little lists of “Muslim haters”, for they’ve decided to start tut-tutting about cultural appropriation. Get a load of their recent tweet and the website they run:

I don’t think anybody who celebrates Cinco de Mayo thinks or intends for their celebrations to encapsulate “all of Mexican culture.” Yes. there can be stereotypes, and I deplore those, but I don’t know who has the right to distinguish between good or bad cultural appropriation.

If you go to the page they link to at “tolerance.org,” you find first that this is a project of the SPLC, though it’s in small print at the bottom of the page. Then you get a snooty little lecture about cultural tolerance that touts one incident of Mexico-bashing (an unwise attempt by Anglo students at a California high school to exacerbate tensions with Mexicans by wearing USA-flag teeshirts on Cinco de Mayo), but that also gives us the usual but bogus definition of cultural appropriation as “borrowing + power” (my emphasis):

Most of the festivities surrounding Cinco de Mayo in the United States are textbook examples of cultural appropriation, relegating the vast history and culture of Mexican people to a few novelty items. Mexican culture cannot be reduced to tacos, oversized sombreros and piñatas.

Cultural appropriation occurs when a person or other entity—a sports franchise, for example—claims as their own an aspect of a culture that does not belong to them. Doing so can, knowingly or unknowingly, deny the authenticity of that culture, particularly if it belongs to a marginalized group, and it can send harmful messages rooted in misinformation, prejudice and stereotypes.

Well, the incident the SPLC describes is manifestly not cultural appropriation but instead simple bias against Mexicans, despite the SPLC saying it’s an “example that shows how far the celebration of Cinco de Mayo has come from its original purpose of honoring Mexicans.” And yes, there can be cultural appropriation that is bigoted and harmful, but the Cinco de Mayo celebrations by non-Mexicans rarely cross that line. And why is the SPLC lecturing us on these things? It’s a task far removed from what they used to be good at.

And there’s a lot of stuff like this, too, which is meant to apply not to colleges, but to secondary schools:Should the SPLC be lecturing schools on the urgency of amplifying LGBTQ Asian identities in the classroom, and constantly? I don’t think so.

If you want to donate to an organization fighting for civil rights, I’d suggest the ACLU, not the SPLC. I wouldn’t give a penny to that offshore-cash-stashing pack of Pecksniffs.

h/t: John B.

One space or two after a sentence?

May 7, 2018 • 10:00 am

I have arrived in Paris, the weather is gorgeous, and I look forward to reacquainting myself with what I consider the world’s most beautiful city. If I had a gazillion dollars, I’d buy myself a pied-à-terre in the Sixth Arrondissement, near where I lived for six months in 1989-1990, but overlooking the Seine and the Louvre.

But we have more important issues to consider: when typing, do we use one space or two between sentences?

I use two, as that’s the way I was taught in 10th-grade typing class (an alternative to “shop”—woodshop—and a choice I’ve never regretted). But there’s a bitter argument about this issue, and no strong consensus. I will use one space between sentences in this first paragraph.

Now two spaces in this one.  The Washington Post has an article about this kerfuffle (click on screenshot).  Its answer, which purports to be “scientific” is “TWO SPACES AFTER A SENTENCE!”

(One space). Science? How could it do that? Well, the Post reports on an article that tested reading ease with different spaces. Here’s the result:

The researchers then clamped each student’s head into place, and used an Eyelink 1000 to record where they looked as they silently read 20 paragraphs. The paragraphs were written in various styles: one-spaced, two-spaced,  and strange combinations like two spaces after commas,  but only one after periods.  And vice versa, too.

And the verdict was: two spaces after the period is better.  It makes reading slightly easier.  Congratulations, Yale University professor Nicholas A. Christakis.  Sorry, Lifehacker.

Christakis’s tweet (remember him?) pushing the two-space approach:

But it’s not that clear-cut!:

Actually, Lifehacker’s one-space purist Nick Douglas pointed out some important caveats to the study’s conclusion.

Most notably, the test subjects read paragraphs in Courier New, a fixed-width font similar to the old typewriters, and rarely used on modern computers.

Johnson, one of the authors, told Douglas that the fixed-width font was standard for eye-tracking tests, and the benefits of two-spacing should carry over to any modern font.

Douglas found more solace in the fact that the benefits of two-spacing, as described in the study, appear to be very minor.

Reading speed only improved marginally, the paper found, and only for the 21 “two-spacers,” who naturally typed with two spaces between sentences.  The majority of one-spacers, on the other hand, read at pretty much the same speed either way.  And reading comprehension was unaffected for everyone, regardless of how many spaces followed a period.

The major reason to use two spaces, the researchers wrote, was to make the reading process smoother, not faster.  Everyone tended to spend fewer milliseconds staring at periods when a little extra blank space followed it.

(Putting two spaces after a comma,  if you’re wondering,  slowed down reading speed,  so don’t do that.)

(One space.) Amusingly, the authors report that they submitted their paper to the journal with two spaces between sentences. The journal changed every one to a single space.

(Two spaces.)  The article is below.  I haven’t downloaded it as I’m at O’Hare writing this, and all you can see is the abstract (which is in Cristakis’s tweet above) but it’s a sign of how venal Springer is that they want $39.95 for a pdf of this article!  Do weigh in below about whether you’re on the one-space or two-space side.

______

Johnson, R. L. et al. 2018. Are two spaces better than one? The effect of spacing following periods and commas during reading. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2018 Apr 24. doi: 10.3758/s13414-018-1527-6. [Epub ahead of print]

Springer, you suck!

Frank on the job: two videos

May 7, 2018 • 9:00 am

My co-duck-sitter Anna Mueller, who was clearly a good choice to tend the mallards, made two 47-second videos of Frank at the pond:

Here’s the first, showing Frank eschewing peas at lunchtime. Anna’s caption:

If you bring peas he’ll kindly request you pick out the corn for him.

He’s quite finicky, as he used to eat peas! What’s next: the duck equivalent of Fancy Feast?

You also see that Frank prefers to eat out of one’s hand rather than off the ground.

And here’s “Frank takes a bath”. I’ve never seen him bathe himself this vigorously. Perhaps he’s ridding himself of dirt or parasites, or maybe he’s just having fun: