tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post6127699535746909942..comments2024-03-08T14:23:31.503-05:00Comments on A Puff of Absurdity: On DivisivenessMarie Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872774009526266579noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-9754348311210200712022-09-06T07:35:41.325-04:002022-09-06T07:35:41.325-04:00Love that Sartre quote - I've used it here bef...Love that Sartre quote - I've used it here before. I'm not hopeful about swaying the leaders as their focus on money overrides any potential inherent concerns about their citizens, or their minions as they're often to blind to the big picture. But I think we might sway more of the followers - the Hitler youth and their parents - to understand what they're doing when they don't wear a mask in school or throw CRT randomly in any conversation about eroding racism. And then we'll have more on board. Because I agree we're in a fight. We're back to where we were in the 1950s-80s, when the marches grew for one group and then another, and we have to be louder and prouder in solidarity. <br /><br />So it's still about educating the people wavering, those who might be swayed if they better understand. Despite my anti-Covid advocacy, my own kid didn't realize that Ontario had more Covid deaths and hospitalizations this August than the previous two Augusts combined. The media has convinced people it's over - even in my own home. So we still have to keep the facts at the forefront to maintain our integrity AND our numbers. <br /><br />Something like that.Marie Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13872774009526266579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-3729321456920067762022-09-06T07:06:22.383-04:002022-09-06T07:06:22.383-04:00I'm not saying it's useless to stand up fo...I'm not saying it's useless to stand up for good scientific reasoning: I'm a teacher too.<br /><br />But we didn't defeat the Nazis by carefully arguing that their prejudice against Jews was absurdly unreasonable.<br /><br />Sartre said, “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”<br /><br />This applies at least to the "thought leaders" of the right. The followers are (mostly) hopeless: their leaders give them logic and reason, and they don't have the tools to see through the vacuity.<br /><br />We're not in an argument; we're in a <i>fight</i>. And few on what passes for the Anglophone left seem to take the fight seriously.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-6412356052138239752022-09-04T19:33:31.985-04:002022-09-04T19:33:31.985-04:00I hold the smallest glimmer of hope that we can sh...I hold the smallest glimmer of hope that we can shift the understanding of what makes for <i>good</i> research with more and better education of the scientific method - so people understand what makes "Nature" a more reliable source than "Fox News," so it's no longer a stubborn defence of MY research against yours, but a joint venture to figure out which is the more <i>accurate</i> research finding. At the very least we can't let people continue to yell threats in the street or punch pharmacists for vaccinating kids (as happened in my city). If we retreat from the stupidity, it will get so much worse. When I tell my students about being yelled at in the street for wearing a mask, I've had racialized students say, more or less, welcome to my world. I've been sheltered enough to be able to think it won't ever have an effect me. Now that it's in my face, we can choose to retreat and let it burn to the ground or go out fighting. I feel some sense of responsibility to stand up, even though that, in itself, might put my on the side of the not so bright!! Marie Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13872774009526266579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-17001103547053875442022-09-02T04:17:11.123-04:002022-09-02T04:17:11.123-04:00It's worse than that.
It's not that those...It's worse than that.<br /><br />It's not that those loyal to the right are indifferent to facts and reasons; instead, they have their own "facts" and "reasons" from sources they trust.<br /><br />Just like us. You and I don't do the primary research; we get facts and reasons from those <i>we</i> trust. Of course, you and I both trust most of the same people for most of the same reasons, and I agree that our side is far better. Still we have our own problems. For example, we have to trust the pharmaceutical companies, at least to some extent, and the foundation of that trust verges on the absurd.<br /><br />But this division of trust and loyalty needs a deeper analysis. People on the right didn't just develop their loyalties in a vacuum. There has been a concerted effort, for at least the last 40 years, if not longer, to erode the trust in science and scientific reasoning, and this effort has received massive funding. <br /><br />Why, for example, did the Q cult grow so quickly? I mean, yes, a lot of people are stupid, but how did they get so stupid all in the same direction?<br /><br />To be honest, I've lost all hope. By the time the stupidity, denial, insanity, and the indifference to human suffering collapses on itself, the world will be uninhabitable. Kim Stanley Robinson's <i>The Ministry for the Future</i> (terrific book!) is nothing more than a pleasant fantasy.<br /><br />Things are different from the nuclear war worries of our youth. Back then, not destroying the world just required that no one actually did the monstrously idiotic and set loose the missiles. Now, it's not enough to only avoid idiocy; we must commit to doing something smart that will destroy the power and privilege of our rulers. Not going to happen: better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-85511635616472958382022-08-29T07:48:29.848-04:002022-08-29T07:48:29.848-04:00I think you're right, but it's terrifying ...I think you're right, but it's terrifying to think that we have to sway people <i>without</i> facts and well-reasoned arguments. I'm hoping to persuade a few, or at least provide some rebuttals to help <i>others</i> move people who might be toying with this new conservatism. It would help if we had more media on board, but the antics of this crew sell more papers.Marie Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13872774009526266579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5939915290794973654.post-7993842522931602342022-08-29T07:26:38.246-04:002022-08-29T07:26:38.246-04:00It's not about education, Marie, or about what...It's not about education, Marie, or about what "works" or doesn't work; it's about <i>loyalty</i>. In the words of the immortal Sgt. Hulka, it's about honor and duty and courage and discipline.<br /><br />You and I, we're loyal to Pirsig's "Church of Reason", but it's loyalty just the same. Those loyal to their "conservative" leaders just see our "arguments" and "reasoning" as sophistry in the service of a pernicious, evil, and Satanic ideology.<br /><br />The "conservative" leaders are trying to whip up fighting spirit in those loyal to it. They want to start a civil war. They're close, very close. The U.S. is ahead, but Canada is not too far behind.<br /><br />The time for reasoned arguments in good will has long since passed. Our only hope is that the "conservative" leaders are so venal and corrupt that they self-destruct before they can really start something catastrophic.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.com