What’s Mine, And What’s Yours
My analogies are always illuminating and apt.
Your analogies are always misleading at best, and completely-inapplicable nonsense at worst.
My positions are backed by solid empirical evidence, unassailable cold logic, and spotless moral reasoning, speaking to eternal truths.
Your positions have all the firm solidity, pure motivations, and gravitas of Jell-O that was personally made and hand-delivered by Bill Cosby.
My readings are charitable; and when they are not charitable, it is only because mine eyes can see clearly through the foul veil of your lies.
Your readings are laughably idiotic and/or malicious; and when they are not, it is only because you agree with me.
I was wondering where would be an appropriate place to discuss this sort of thing as it probably could be interpreted as a grenade while, on the other hand, could probably also be interpreted as an example of yet another old dude complaining about kids these days.
http://www.dailycal.org/2015/01/20/occupy-syllabus/
Anyway, this thread strikes me as the perfect place.Report
While we’re at it, can we discuss the comments on any McArdle post? Please?Report
Have at! This post was mostly to amuse me and hopefully others.Report
Oh, that’s one of those things where I feel like saying, “They have some good points, and they express them poorly.” In other words, they’re young people.Report
Kids these days.Report
@jaybird
Sorry, I stopped reading that when the words “Classical Social Theory” was followed by “The syllabus did not include a single woman or person of color.”
Granted this isn’t my field, but ‘Classical’ tends to imply that the material will be from an age when White Men did the majority of publishing in the field. I skimmed the rest of the article and didn’t spot any obvious call-outs by the authors to potential thinkers who are female, or persons of color who fit the ‘Classical’ descriptor.
If one is going to complain that a course is not inclusive, one should do the leg work to offer some alternative suggestions.Report
If you’ve gotten to Foucault and you haven’t included a single woman, the word “classical” can’t save you.Report
When I was taking classical Greek Philosophy, we spent a couple of days on Sappho, and got into the Lysistrata with a great enthusiasm (which, while written by a dude, was obviously a dude who had spoken to a non-zero number of women at at least one point) as well as half a class spent on the murder of Hypatia.
Now, these classes were in more of my specialized classes rather than in the intro ones. While I’m willing to argue that this could be indicative of a problem, I don’t know how much time they’re really going to be devoting in this class to the weeds as opposed to the high notes.
If you’re in a class on classical Greek poetry? YES. YOU NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT SAPPHO. If you’re discussing Classical Social Theory? I could see how a professor might not mention Sappho at all.Report
Ahhh! Wrong Foucault!
(Told this wasn’t my field)Report
@chris
Still, if one is going to complain, one should offer up alternatives that would fit on the syllabus.Report
(To be honest, I can’t help but wonder if the section on Foucault wouldn’t be the section that addresses the issues that they’re saying they have.)Report
MRS, with that I agree. If I were to write a similar op-ed, it wouldn’t have been so overwrought, and it would have offered an alternative syllabus for the class, one that included the classics, and in the more modern portion of the course, included readings from some women and non-Europeans.
But kids… In their defense, that op-ed would have been even more insufferable had it been written in 1995.Report
@chris
Perhaps this is just me, but I’m not so inclined to grant them the whole “Eh, they’re just kids”. They are college students taking an upper division class (I’m assuming here that this means it is a class meant for Seniors or grad students), so I would think that they have the ability to produce written work that doesn’t look like something an over-wrought high schooler would kick out.
(OK, that is a bit unfair, the writing wasn’t as bad as what I’ve seen high schoolers produce.)
Still, the arguments put forth seem designed to rally the faithful, not to convince the powers that be. Although perhaps that was the point of the op-ed…Report
Mad, email and the text message have ruined writing, and blogs have ruined thinking.
I pretty much assume that, outside of their classes, these kids have never read anything by anyone whom they disagreed, except possibly as the blockquoted text in a blog fisking.Report
I pretty much assume that, outside of their classes, these kids have never read anything by anyone whom they disagreed, except possibly as the blockquoted text in a blog fisking.
LMAO!
Chris wins the thread!Report
Now that I think about it, if I were one of those nutballs that wanted universities to stop teaching Marx, this would be a way that might actually work.Report
Re: Daily Cal piece. Is that a Reverse Poe? I’m not sure if that’s winking parody or deadpan sincere.Report
“Dude, I don’t even know anymore.”Report
Yes. Except the parts that are no.Report
You’re wrong!Report
Well Glyph, all I can say is… It’s about damn time you realized all that!Report
My jokes are always funny.
Your jokes are always Dennis Miller circa 2003.Report
Awesome! I hope people will add more.Report
I disagree.Report
You make a valid point. However, I see it differently. Here’s why….Report
This post reminds me of a certain song by white rapper Mickey Avalon, also featuring Dirt Nasty (aka Simon Rex, the former MTV VJ and porno actor). I won’t link to the song, because of its very NSFW nature, but maybe some of you know it.Report
I can’t lie, it’s modeled a bit on this classic:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/you-will-suffer-humiliation-when-the-sports-team-f,10804/Report
Not the same thing but it reminds me of Bertrand Russell’s game of Conjugations:
I am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool.
I’m an idealist. You’re a Utopian. He’s a fuzzy-thinking radical.
I’m cautious. You’re timid. He’s chicken-hearted.
I’m glib. You’re garrulous. He can’t keep his mouth shut.
I’m human. You’re prone to err. He’s a blundering idiot.Report
I’m interesting, you’re odd, he’s a misfit.
He’s devout, you’re a cult member, I’m a heretic.
(this fun game can go in both directions, @kenb )Report
Have you need following me on Facebook or something?Report
I don’t do Facebook (spits over shoulder). And this isn’t targeted at anyone.
It’s targeted at everyone (including me), if that makes any sense…Report
I’m pretty sure that you’re not talking about me, but I understand that you have to say “everyone.” Wink wink.Report
Well, of course I didn’t mean *me* me, if you know what I mean…that’d be crazy talk.Report
Oh, I didn’t take it as an attack. It’s just that I think I annoy people by posting things like this on Facebook:
“What you say may sound reasonable, but I feel more comfortable arguing against something entirely unreasonable. So I will assume you are actually subtly making a very unreasonable point.”
I figure at some point I’m going to start a blog called Every Blog Ever, mostly full of things like this.Report
@will-truman
That sort of already spontaneously happened here.Report
What’s very clear is that if people simply accepted that I’m right about everything, things would go a lot smoother ’round here.Report
I should note that I tried this tactic with R., and it didn’t go over so well.Report
A good friend of mine (the guy who opened Swan Dive, actually) was once in a fight with his girlfriend of the time (I don’t recall what it was about). He made and gave her a necklace with beads on it as a “conciliatory” gesture.
The beads each had a letter on them, and they spelled out “(FRIEND’S NAME) IS THE MAN”.
They broke up shortly thereafter.
(I had another friend who had a girl break up with him because they were in a heated argument in the car, and in the midst of that argument, he “Punch-Buggied” her, as they were in the habit of doing; but it was definitely Not The Time For It.)
(I had some immature friends back in the day).Report
I probably would punch buggy in the middle of an argument. I haven’t really grown up.
The beads, though… even I could see that was a bad idea.Report
I forgot the immature coda to the bead necklace story. He then attempted to give the necklace (which the girlfriend of course did not accept) to another friend (#2) who shares his same name, as a birthday gift.
(#2) knew (#1) wouldn’t have just made something so thoughtful and personalized for him as a birthday gift, and interrogated/dragged the true ridiculous story out of (#1).
Then (#2) proceeded to wear the necklace as a headband at his birthday celebration anyway, and get so drunk that he passed out in the front yard in a fire ant pile.
So perhaps the necklace….was CURSED! Dun-dun-dun….Report
Many, many years ago I dated a woman who was exceptionally smart, but she took any disagreement as a sign that I, or whoever disagreed with her, thought she was stupid. This was before the internet had really blown up, so I didn’t realize that, “If you disagree with me, you must think I’m an idiot” was a common thing. I remember driving up Interstate 5 from San Diego to L.A., stumbling into an argument with her about something stupid, and within minutes desperately wanting to jump out of the window, off the cliff, and into the Pacific Ocean, at which point, should I somehow survive the fall, I would swim as far out to see as my arms and legs would let me.Report
@chris
That sounds like my sister. I had to unfriend her on Facebook because I just could not handle all the crap she lobbed my way when I disagreed with her.Report
I’m surprised that relationship didn’t make it, Chris.Report
and get so drunk that he passed out in the front yard in a fire ant pile.
Amateur. You mow those things before the party.Report
It was a rental, we didn’t mow jack.Report
Will, she friended me on Facebook a year or so ago, and we had a very awkward conversation about why we broke up. She told me, in essence, that I was the last guy she really got along with, and wanted to know why we couldn’t make it work. I was thinking, “Wait, did we have the same relationship?”Report
It was a rental, we didn’t mow jack.
There should be a law requiring the landlord to compensate you for mowing.Report
That landlord and I almost came to blows once, because a possum had died way under the house and the stench was unbearable. He wouldn’t do anything about it, so I hired an animal removal company that charged three hundred bucks, and deducted it from rent.
When I balked at the $300 price, the trapper said “I have to crawl under an old house, with unknown, probably outdated electrical wiring, maybe water, possibly snakes, etc, etc…and when I reach the target, the BEST case scenario is that a large bloated animal corpse is the only thing I have to deal with, and not any other live animals that may have been related to it, or are feeding on it.
Now…how much would I have to pay YOU to do that?”
I shrugged and said, “About three hundred bucks.”Report
I hired an animal removal company that charged three hundred bucks, and deducted it from rent.
And in return, he horsewhipped you on the steps of his club.Report
No, but I really did think he was gonna take a swing. He looked like it, then he walked away, then he came back again. He was *pissed*. But what the hell was I supposed to do? The house was uninhabitable, and it wasn’t me who’d failed to block access to underneath it. We’d been hoping it was a squirrel or a snake or something small that would get better with some time, but this just kept getting worse. We had placed pans of powdered carpet cleaner and mothballs to try to absorb/mask the scent all over the first floor. It was summertime, truly horrendous.Report
I am open-minded enough to consider reasonable arguments and evidence offered against my position, but you have offered no such thing. Consequently, your claim to have the superior position in this exchange is risible.
By contrast, you stubbornly refuse to accept plainly obvious and reliably-cited facts poking holes in your premise, and are too blinded by emotion to accept even the most basic conclusions of logic and common sense leading, inevitably, to the downfall of your position.
I grow tired of being merely contradicted. Thus, I claim victory and withdraw.Report
Yeah, you’d better run! And take this white flag that you were waving around with you!Report
“I may agree with what you have to say, but will nitpick to the death the way you said it.”Report
I agree with your conclusion Gabriel, but will tear you apart for the way you got there.Report
You!…Hypocrite lecteur!….Mon sembable!….Mon frere!!!Report
This seems apropo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecn5be5MBJE
Especially Scorpius chair, which is an analogy for …. oh forget it.Report
Dude, I’m Tod Kelly. Are you Tod Kelly? No? Then why are we even having this conversation?Report
I’m just here so I don’t get fined.Report
Is this going to be on the final?Report
And I’m trying to find an appropriate analogy for this. Does this demote the Governor of Big™ to the the Clown Car of Contenders?Report
Getting rid of the Office of Public Integrity has been a GOP goal for years. Perry found an excuse to gut it. There’s an exact analogy: the Roberts Court and the VRA.Report
And a glorious excuse it was! They shouldn’t need an excuse, though. The model is flawed.Report
Which model is that?Report
The model of prosecutor’s authority for public crimes going to an entity only accountable to the voters of a single county.Report
You make the assumption that I care what you think. That your opinions matter, in some way, to me. I’m barely aware of your existence.Report
To quote Johny Casper “You’se fancy pants, all of you”Report
“What is this, the high hat?”Report
This proves that I am omniscient and infallible.
http://philrsss.anu.edu.au/people-defaults/alanh/papers/RMG.pdfReport
I do self-referential sarcasm so much better than that.Report
…Report