Incredible Stat
In NYC last year, 4 anti-Asian hate crimes and 462 murders.
Goes to my theory yesterday -- crime goes up, it hits Asians. Because crime hits everyone.
It seems like progressives can only care about crime going up when labeled hate crimes. Is that what's really going on here?
Easiest Jeopardy Question
And The Answer Is...White supremacy.
What is (any question will suffice), Alex...
Trite Banality
The most surprising element of critical race theory, to me, is the trite banality of the ideas.
Logging
Film: Holiday
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn Whoa. A really terrific film. Here's a pitch to oversell it: Rules of the Game meets His Girl Friday. I go a bit too far, but it can stand in that company. A shockingly relevant and honest film that services the POVs of the antagonists just as well as our heroes. Essentially, the story boils down to a conflict of values when Cary Grant unwittingly gets engaged to the daughter of a very wealthy American banker family and yearns to live a life of adventure and freedom, but finds himself slowly being compromised into the way of the upper crust. Katharine Hepburn plays the disillusioned sister of his fiance who sees him as a breath of fresh air and someone who will rescue her sister. You may be able to imagine where it goes, but it's nevertheless fun to see how.
What this film explores are essentially the values which will 25 years later become the counter-culture versus the values of the old WASP establishment. The irony, methinks, is the Hepburn-Grant, "live your life of bliss" has now won out over those old, stuffy values of making money, working hard, doing your duty, etc...and yet...I think our those old critics would look at our contemporary society and be like: told ya'll you shoulda kept it in your pants.
Alt Theory
Without question, there's something going on with the attacks on Asian Americans in cities across the country. But I don't buy for a second the white supremacist/Trump supporter argument because it simply doesn't add up. A great number (if not the majority) of these attacks are being perpetrated by African American men against older Asian people. What gives? Are we really going with the argument that Trump's anti-Asian sentiment has miraculously influenced African American men to commit these crimes? What is Trump, some type of svengali? Further, is anyone actually listening to Trump anymore? Doubtful.
I have more more plausible, canary in the coal mine theory: the anti-police movements in blue cities across the country are emboldening criminals generally. And the first victims of criminals are the most vulnerable -- or at least those perceived as the most vulnerable -- and so the anti-Asian violence, to my best guess, is correlated with a general increase in urban crime. Note, the murder rates in blue cities are also on the rise.
So Many Good Lines
Here.
In my investigative reporting, I’ve noticed something quite interesting: the core demographic of Kendi readers is liberal, white, middle-aged women who work in public institutions. On one hand, this is a surprise: Kendi embraces a radical vision of Black Power-style revolution. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense: Kendi’s politics provides a vicarious thrill, but is completely in line with conventional wisdom. It’s revolution without risk; it’s liberation without leaving the house. That’s really the best way to understand what he’s doing. He’s not a revolutionary; he’s a self-help guru for white liberals and a reputation-laundering mechanism for multinational corporations. He is an apostle of anti-whiteness, but a mouthpiece for elite white opinion. He preaches anti-capitalism, but accepts Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
Racism
There are now significantly more anti-White liberals than anti-Black conservatives.
Anecdotally, this is the case. I have never once in my life met a person who espoused true anti-Black racist rhetoric and nowadays, if you live in liberal circles, undoubtedly someone will make an "anti-White person" missive.
Here's the thing - racism poisons the heart, regardless of where it's directed. And many liberals are now blatantly letting themselves go there. Regardless of the public outcome, they will suffer privately. Re-read your Dostoyevsky.
Recall
I find the "it's destabilizing" argument against the Newsom recall to be pretty unpersuasive coming from people who spent the last four years supporting the various Trump impeachments and bringing forth the vile, unsupported accusations from Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh.
Don't ask me to believe these folks believe in anything but raw political power.
Still, on the recall, I'm not sure where I stand yet.
Interesting Take
The fact that this dude gunned down 10 people, and the police didn’t shoot his a**that means HE’S WHITE. We ain’t gonna start playing games just because he was born in Syria. The suspect is white enough to benefit from the privileges of whitenessWatch The Narrative Shift This Week
Whereas with the Atlanta spa shooter, the narrative was "anti Asian hate" and any evidence to the contrary ignored and silenced. This week, we will see the narrative on the Colorado shooter to be centered around the problem of gun ownership. The motive of the killer will go completely unexamined.
Just a guess.
UPDATED: Maybe I was wrong, see the above link.
Amen
Black intellectuals demand Smith College apologize. They shouldn't apologize, they should pay.
“We didn’t march so that Americans of any race could be presumed guilty and punished for false accusations while the elite institution that employed them cowered in fear of a social media mob. We certainly didn’t march so that privileged Blacks could abuse working class whites based on ‘lived experience.’”
Wokeism
I struggle with how to "deal" with wokeism, an ideology I absolutely loathe. I can see a couple options:
1) Confront and Fight
The problem with such a strategy is that wokeism breathes on this oxygen. The ideology is meant to provoke "regular" people into stupid debates. Hence, the "Black Lives Matter" slogan (as if anyone doesn't think BLM).
2) Ignore
A possible alternative, but can one really ignore if it's invaded your workplace and children's schools (which it has)?
3) Mock
A strong option, but takes patience and wit.
Or perhaps some combination of the three. My true hope for the ideology is its self collapse under its own stupidity. So for instance, the public schools struggle, in general, to get their students to pay attention and learn anything -- even the good stuff -- so I can only imagine they won't be very successful transmitting the bad stuff either. Of course, this is a rather cynical and sad state of affairs.
Anyhow, my only evolution on this is that I used to think the woke were well intentioned fools. Now I know they are ill intended fools.
Amurica
Where on talk shows, they interview other talk show hosts.
And cancel everyone else.
What a country.
To A Hammer, Everything's A Nail
Subheading: "How White Supremacy Tried to Black and Asian American Communities"
Is there nothing white supremacy can't do?
The Border
There are now more kids in cages than during the Trump administration and yet...no one cares. The current border crisis is one entirely of Joe Biden's own making. Why essentially open the borders for unaccompanied children, especially in the midst of a pandemic? In a regular world, this would be one of the dumbest unforced errors of all time. But we don't live in a regular world.
Wait A Minute...
African American man has history of attacking Asian elders.
Please mass media, tell me how to process this...
Logging
Script: The Favourite
A great film and script. I assign in my classes. I have the students do a brief character analysis of the three main characters. Everyone "gets" the Queen, and Abigail (emma stone), but almost none of the students notice Sarah (Rachel Weitz's) underlying motivation is one of patriotism and love of country. I am tempted to read something about the American mind into this -- that is, we understand frailty and we understand ambition and manipulation, but perhaps we don't quite understand on a basic level, the concept of duty.
Then again, she's probably the hardest character to "read" of the three.
Anti Americanism
And why the Brits hate Meghan Markle. Many nuggets of gold in here:
Reading Caroline’s explanation for why she likes to go out shagging strangers, you are immediately beckoned into the modern American psyche. Such epic, almost heroic, self-obsession and narcissism, plus pretentiousness and a healthy side order of acquired victimhood.
and
What the ghastly Oprah Winfrey and indeed Hillary Clinton do not understand is that if there was any resentment towards Meghan in the UK, it was not because she is of mixed race, but because she is American and behaves like a caricature of a particularly stupid American. The color of her skin matters not a jot: it is the noisome ordure which spews out of her mouth on a daily basis that grates. Again, the narcissism and self-obsession and the acquired victimhood, the vapid and banal attempts at self-justification.
and
The American insistence on the primacy of the individual also explains Meghan’s different interpretation of two words which we, over here, think we understand clearly: ‘duty’ and ‘truth’. When her idiot husband was told he would not be getting back his honorary military ranks, the two of them (i.e. Meghan) released an emetic statement to the press suggesting that there were many ways one might perform one’s duties. No. Duty is something imposed and involves self-sacrifice, discipline and obedience. It does not mean doing what the hell you like, which is what the two of them have done. But if you are a country which doubts the validity of a communal ethos of ‘duty’, then Meghan’s standpoint is one you may well arrive at, especially if you are not terribly bright.
I used to find European anti Americanism annoying, obvious, and trite. Now I'm more sympathetic.
All of This
But this is now a commonplace tactic among the society’s richest, most powerful and most influential public figures. The advent of the internet has empowered the riff-raff, the peasants, the unlicensed and the uncredentialed — those who in the past were blissfully silent and invisible — to be heard, often with irreverence and even contempt for those who wield the greatest societal privileges, such as a star New York Times reporter. By recasting themselves as oppressed, abused and powerless rather than what they are (powerful oppressors who sometimes abuse their power), elite political and media luminaries seek to completely reverse the dynamic.
Meghan Markle, a literal princess, with access to Oprah to spout her vile accusations about whatever she FEELS is such a backwards, perverted spectacle, it's difficult to stomach.
Logging
Film: Equalizer 2
First one was better.
Film: Coming 2 America and Coming To America
I turned part 2 off during the scene when Eddie Murphy's son lectures the dude whose married to Scarlett Johannson about his white privilege. Oy vey! I can't believe Eddie Murphy let such sloppy, unfunny bullshit slide. This is the guy who made one of the best films of last year: Dolemite is My Name!
So Part 2 was more or less unwatchable.
Part 1...still one of my favorite comedies of all time. And also just a really great movie story. Full of ironies, layered conflicts, and among the most brilliant performances by both Arsenio and Eddie. In hindsight, a bit of a crime they both weren't nominated for Oscars in some type of special category.
The parts that made me laugh the hardest this time around - Randy Watson, Eddie singing joyously and people yelling at him from apartments, random animals passing by in Zamunda. I feel like one of Eddie's secret great moves is capturing the public reaction to the needy performer and the humor between those contrasts. I can't help but wonder if Eddie sees himself that way--
Film: Poltergeist
Not really a very good movie, despite several memorable moments.
So Sad
Bari Weiss writes about the horror of wokeness in the schools. My initial reaction: fury.
But upon reflection, I think to myself: maybe all these people deserve each other. Let them all immiserate themselves and realize: they are the ugly history lesson. Let them know they were complicit in the book censorship and dabbled in totalitarianism. I wouldn't care except that it impacts me, my kids, and my country but people across time and history have dealt with worse and prevailed.
And maybe, just maybe, it'll spark a counter-revolution and finally give kids something really good to rebel against. Although that's a dangerous path too...
Or maybe I'll just move to the OC.
Facts
Google will no longer publish facts if not equitable.
I wonder if any of these non-equitable facts will also happen to be good for Google's bottom line.
But They Want To Be Paid "Equal"
Australian women's national team beaten 7-0 by 15 year old boys team.
If anything, the 15 year old boys have the claim they ought be paid on par with the women.
Progressives Don't Give Two Shits
Pediatricians are calling on schools to be reopened.
And the worst irony of all - well-to-do people will cope by sending their kids to private schools, form learning pods, extend daycares, etc. The kids who will suffer most are the minorities and working poor folks.
And guess who will later scream racism at disproportionate learning outcomes that THEY ARE CAUSING.
Teacher's unions and other so called progressives. What they really are is something more fundamental: cowards. They are afraid of taking any sort of risk and afraid of taking any sort of responsibility and of asking others to do the same.
So It's Not Just My Imagination
LAPD has gotten a whole hell of a lot better since 1990. You wouldn't have thought so given media attention.
So when people want cops to do better - does this qualify as doing better?
TaNehisi Coates and John McWhorter
On my way to get vaccinated, I listened to this old podcast from 2017. Reason: today, none of the leading antiracists (Kendi, DiAngelo) actually debate their ideas in public, whereas at least Coates would engage in debate. So I wanted to hear his POV when put to the fire by McWhorter. One area of the podcast was particularly striking - their discussion about Obama prevailing over Hillary. Coates had called out Geraldine Ferraro for racist signaling when she reasoned that Obama was getting the nomination because he was black. McWhorter was defending her position for at least being somewhat true - voters liked Obama's blackness over Hillary and Coates was arguing: why single out his blackness over all the other components of his candidacy - Ivy League credentials, prior elected offices, his opposition to the war, etc.
Basically, I was in almost complete agreement with Coates -- although for a slightly different reason -- I always thought Obama benefitted greatly from Hillary being an uncharismatic candidate. I would've argued that Obama's charisma helped him more than his blackness -- but that most of all it was Hillary's LACK OF charisma that really tipped the scales. History, I believe, has borne this out, that when it comes to casting a ballot - voters never wanted to press the Hillary button. Now, you might have an argument it is partially due to her sex, but Coates would say such reasoning is overly reductive. And he's RIGHT!
Except, of course, when it comes to police shootings. And this is the funny thing. Coates is very cautious and nuanced when discussing blackness as a possible positive factor in the case of Obama. But when it comes to blackness being a possible negative factor - as in the case of police shootings - he and the BLM cult want to reduce it all down to one metric: cop was white, victim was black. It never has anything to do with any other myriad of factors.
I'd be interested to hear how he squares those ideas.
Vaccination
I don't want to speak too soon, but on casual observation, we're doing pretty good on vaccinations. It is my understanding the US has gotten the most people vaccinated in the world thus far. I imagine we are also doing the most per day, so this record will only increase. I am also pretty sure the vaccines we are using are the most effective of the bunch.
I wish we had performed similarly well with testing. And I think we could improve our collective fight against the virus by about 10-15% by focusing on getting more people single doses. But because of the rate we are going with vaccination, I think the single vs double doses matters less than I did 3 weeks ago.