Science is a process and Bias is unavoidable

Mac Coon (and I agree)

"I certainly am not anti-science by any stretch, but i definitely do not worship at the 'shrine of holy science' (or any other shrine) either. there are often (understatement) times when science overreaches the limits of the scientific method and substitutes purely emotional conjecture for hypothesis then assumes a theory has been constructed out of re-defined variables which were so altered to fit the conclusion."

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And to point out what might not be obvious to folks: Science is performed by scientists who are themselves raised in a culture  with its values, its limitations, its ignorance, its social pressures, and so on.

Objectivity is a kind of useful goal that is not possible in reality - one cannot step outside of this universe in order to study it - all attempts to understand invariably alter in myriad ways the thing you're studying.  The questions you pose reflect your ignorance, your biases, your cultural and/or religious indoctrination, your Human limitations and myopia, and so on.  This is inescapable - yet it is laudable - and required for Science to be Science - to make every possible attempt to know your own biases and remove them from your experiments as much as possible.

That said, Objectivity can be a sort of trap as well, with tons of wankers believing that they're truly objective and everyone else is fools.  That's just more bias (and a particularly male and juvenile one at that).

Science is an attempt to see what is true, record what is true, pass on what is true and go beyond our biases towards facts as much as Humanly possible.

...it just turns out that Humanly possibly isn't all that, and must be constantly reexamined and broadened and deepened.

I'm a firm believer in seeking truth, facts, reality.  Science is our formalized attempt to learn from our mistakes and build on each successive generations attempts to do just that.

But fools and politicians (wait, redundant?) will try to manipulate the public through claiming authority everywhere that they can - including co opting "Science" as if it were a religion or a cloak of authority and then making absurd and false claims that appeal to people's ignorance and emotional biases.

That doesn't mean Science itself is wrong - or that all Science cannot be trusted.

But like *EVERYTHING* in life - you - yes YOU - actually have to have a brain, study, learn, learn to think, and think about what folks are saying to understand what is likely to be true, and likely to be false.

Putting your "faith" in anything - Science or your pastor or your politicians - is a step away from thinking, knowing, understanding - and step towards being a fool.

Do not be a fool.  Think.  Learn.  Strive for understanding of what is really, actually, factually true.  And help everyone else figure this all out along with you.

Only through being smart are we able to avoid the traps laid out for us by those who wish to dominate and exploit us.

In Love and Reason,

Steve Wolf
2018-08-16

Jordan Peterson reflections

Some reflections on some of Jordan Peterson's lectures and ideas (in no particular order):

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I've been thinking that inequality is fundamental to greed - which is of course not limited to capitalism - but it is worshipped by capitalism - and all obstacles to greed are quasi-religiously bulldozed by capitalist societies - they are considered anathema to the true free market that is the bringer of all goodness[tm].

But it is obviously not limited to Capitalistic nations.

My sense was also that the power structures that tend to encourage the concentration of wealth towards the few is systemic to Humans - but exaggerated and exacerbated by Capitalism; with Patriarchy - which is far older and occurs in nearly all extant Human civilizations - is also key to such tower-shaped distributions of wealth. i.e. it encourages hierarchies, and supports systemic systems of power distribution that favors 1/2 of the population over the other half right from the get-go.

Additionally, patriarchy is aggressive, combative or competitive in nature, and it rewards "winners" over losers - not merely as one who wins at a given contest - but as a way of dividing who should get the overall spoils of life vs. those who should not. It's a winner-takes-all mentality; rather than merely winner gets more or better.

And finally patriarchy encourages a world-view which is grounded in such zero-sum games, competition, winner takes all, take or be taken; and the paranoia that accompanies such a mindset and world-view.

To me, these are deep archetypes that distort any culture and unbalances it if such tendencies are not counterbalanced by an equally strong pull towards honoring wisdom, group effort, common survival, common cause, common grounds, the wellness of the whole, respect for one's peers and elders, preparation and sacrifice for the future generations, and a sense of borrowing or using with respect, reverence, and in balance with what can be reasonably afforded any given individual - or at least balanced against the greater good (Humans and Nature).

These ideas seem to me to be core to health - to a literal and alliterative sense of wellbeing and balance and deep contentment and integrity - that are just not possible - nor encouraged in any way - under patriarchy.

Jordan Peterson points out the fallacy that inequality is limited to Capitalism - or that thinking of capitalism as the root of the evil of inequality is too narrow-minded and fails to notice a much larger tapestry of human societies that have tended towards concentration of wealth.

However, for my 2c, I find the archetypes of the divine feminine to hold real promise in offering a way to rethink society and culture to avoid the endless traps of dickishness and its constant narrow towers...

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I guess as far as I can see - balance and wisdom and honor and grace and compassion and a consideration for the welfare of everyone cannot be mandated by laws or rules - cannot be defended by police - cannot be made into a competition or rewards system.

The only way to have a society that values health, well being, compassion, and so on is to actually hold those values as a people, and hold each other accountable to such lofty - wise - ways of being and acting - not by punishment primarily - but by example and by social interconnection.

Such motivations must come from within individuals - and those individuals must be raised with some awareness of such high-minded principles - we must reinforce such goals and values as a collective people.

I honestly think we all start out with a very solid sense of fairness and desire for the wellbeing of all - and learn later on that such things are for suckers as we're abused and we see example after example of the destitution that "losing" brings.

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So, JP says it's all personal - it's the struggle of the individual to do right by themselves - which is inherently right by others - to achieve a life that makes up for the pain and suffering of existence.

Okay - solid on many levels. Wise words IMO.

That said - there is undeniably racism, sexism, colonialism, imperialism, classism. There are easily understood and mathematically trackable biases woven into the collective systems we call society that make the games of life considerably easier for some, and vastly more difficult for others.

So, to my eyes, we have a valid truth of individual responsibility, willingness to shoulder their own load (self-love and self-care being obvious motivators); and we have the equally valid truth of systemic racism and sexism and so on stacked against various people to various degrees through no fault of their own. none. It's just the shit they were born into. Because of others' crazy beliefs - women are inferior, or blacks are not really humans like themselves, or native americans are just whatever - it's their own fault - whatever the sick and twisted belief happens to be.

These things are not mutually exclusive.

Both can - and absolutely undeniably do - operate in the same world at the same time.

It is not enough to simply say "take responsibility".

It is not enough to simply say "society is corrupt and unjust."

In fact, part of taking responsibility is knowing that society is corrupt and unjust and - who the fuck else is going to bear the burden of righting that wrong? Of making things a little better for the next generation? For helping our children to have less of a headwind to fight against while doing the already seriously challenging work of individual growth?

If not you, if not me, then who?

These are not mutually exclusive, but go hand in hand. And I wish to do my part to make a better world by changing the corrupt and unjust and evil mechanisms buried in our societies that stack the deck against people of color, and women, and other minorities, including the surviving remnants of our genocides against the first peoples of this continent.

I hope you'll join me.

Criticism is (also) Love

In my time as an "SJW" - I've watched as identity-group after identity-group is attacked and throws themselves on their own swords and screams injustice and #NotAll and #Unfair and #WeDidntStartit and otherwise throwing hands around and kicking their feet and screaming that it is "anti-semitic" or "misanthropic" or "hating on good people" or whatever the particulars are to pretend that

IT IS TOO MUCH FOR THEM TO BEAR TO SEE THEIR IDENTITY-GROUP CHALLENGED ON ITS MISDEEDS AND OUTRIGHT EVIL HISTORY OR CURRENT ACTIVITIES.

Right now it's mostly #NotAllJews and "Criticisms of Israel are only encouraging anti-semitism and are veiled hate on all Jews"

Isn't it funny that it's #NotAllJews but all criticism of Israel - they insist - is somehow All Jews (even though - TTBOMK - the word "Israel" and the word "Jews" are only partially overlapping Venn circles).

But be it Israel committing genocide in Gaza (a former Manhattan that they've turned into their personal Soweto hell on earth open-air prison and gas chamber for what remains of the indigenous peoples of former Palestine), or Christians murdering blacks or homosexuals or other "undesirables", or Americans murdering thousands of Arabs and Muslims in the middle east, or funding and supplying arms and logistical aid to the Saudi princes in their genocide in Yemen - or American corporations destituting this nation's middle class and destruction of what remains of our common grounds for fun and profits; or whether it is along racial lines pointing out western white people's penchant for denying the existence of 400+ years of chattel racist slavery and utterly amoral theft of Humans and their families and their futures and an entire continent's culture and prospects for laughs, cruelty, and profits; or whether it is males and our penchant for rape and brutality whenever we seem to feel we can get away with it - using our social power to subjugate the women in our workplaces or those we are sworn to protect in the precincts we patrol or in our own homes with those took an oath to cherish, or our neighborhoods with those who are vulnerable and defenseless...

It matters not what Identity-Group is challenged.

They all scream like a stuck-pig - Gnashing their teeth - screaming that "I AM THE REAL VICTIM HERE!" and - your actions are cruel to us!!! And but #not#all and #not #I and you are only "Strengthening Our Enemies" and you are a "Traitor" to "Our People."

All who rush to defend perpetrators of Evil -

Should know who you are. Should know yourselves. Should honor your great sacrifices in running defense for others because you believe that your common connection - whatever that is - religion, birthplace, color of skin, sex - makes you a sort of kin - and that somewhere in your sick head - you believe that true love means not allow your brethren to face their demons and protecting them from looking in a mirror to see who and what they truly are.

Where did you learn this sick version of "love"?

Who taught you that love is keeping others from consciousness?

When did you decide that loving was keeping each other in the dark, in ignorance, enthralled to your most base natures and unable to change or learn or transform into something more beautiful?

I challenge your belief in what LOVE is.

I name your "love" SICKNESS and EVIL.

I dare you to GROW YOUR HEART THREE SIZES today, and hold YOURSELF and those around you ACCOUNTABLE.

Nobody is perfect. You cannot possibly be perfect.

But that is #NoExcuse to not try, and when you fail, to own your failure as proof of your humanity, common connection to all of us, and to get up and learn from your mistakes and DO BETTER NEXT TIME.

Jesus Fucking Christ. Is that REALLY too much to ask?

It takes a village

Gender Critical

I'm going to use "male" and "female" to denote "biological reality" - and never gender. I"ll use "masculine" and "feminine" to denote gender roles / attributes.

Males may well be somewhat predisposed to "masculine" attitudes or behaviors /on average/.

Females may well be somewhat predisposed to "feminine" attitudes or behaviors /on average/.

Maybe...

Hard to know since we're all raised in gender-role reinforced societies. The process of socialization into gender roles starts before birth - with parents wanting to know the sex, and then painting the room blue or pink, and buying cuddly things or more "manly" things, etc. Girls get frills, boys get simpler / plainer attire, etc.

In psych 200 or maybe it was developmental psych - one of the things that came up is that studies show that strangers who come upon a newborn - the very first thing they want to establish is "what is its sex" (most folks would use the term "gender" here - but I refuse to - sex is biology, gender is socialization).

But the point is - it is the FIRST and FOREMOST thing that nearly everyone - regardless of culture - wants to know about an infant (once children are older, sex is more obvious, so the need to ask or whatever is obviated by their ability to discern from external social cues - i.e. the child is almost certainly displaying gender-role appropriate garb to resolve that without asking).

The funny thing is - why?

Why in the 9-hells do we "need" to know the sex before we feel comfortable to interact with this newborn? (I think with some reflection you'll be able to answer that, gentle reader).

So, no, I don't believe that gender-roles are native to sex - but rather are native to culture - which has a complex relationship to biology and history - so there is *some* modicum of aggregate bias towards or predispositions towards certain gender-role-behavior-groupings. However - that relationship is - at most - mild predispositions and buried under mountains of social / cultural bullshit - which then becomes a straight-jacket for conformity.

And we all learn early that to buck those social normatives brings quick and egregious backlash from pretty much everyone - including our parents and other adults and children ("sissy" - "wimpy" - "pussy" for males, and "pushy" - "willful" - "aggressive" - "un-lady-like" for females).

So, for most of us, we learn to stifle those parts of ourselves that do not conform to other's beliefs about what our sex is allowed to be or behave as.

And THAT is gender - and THAT is too restrictive and arbitrary and leads to cruelty towards one

Knowing that a man has a penis, a woman a vagina, full stop; is simply reality and irrefutable*.

And the great thing about separating gender and sex is...

You can be yourself - in whatever array of beautiful being that is - without fear of being ostracized and humiliated - because we're no longer requiring you or anyone to only behave in socially-confirmative ways - but rather we're open to you being ... well, you, in all of your complexity and glory. <3 p="">
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* of course someone will quibble over intersex folks. But intersex folks are - drum roll.... intersex. Not really male, nor really female - but their own situation, and again - that's not my opinion, that's reality's "opinion". Take it up with mother nature.

I'm floored today thinking about "Disaster Capitalism"

I'm floored today thinking about "Disaster Capitalism"

Flint
Private Insurance
Opioid Epidemic
Haiti (and places like it where a "natural disaster" creates an opening for exploitation)
Ferguson (and places like it, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, etc)
CA fires

Literally - everything horrible that happens on a large scale - that requires a community or state or national effort to address - a coming together of the people...

Instead is meted out to the corporate for-profit interests who dismantle the previous community based solutions and legal protections (obstacles) to replace them with for-profit corporate based exploitative businesses that look to gentrify or industrialize or otherwise exploit the dire situation on the ground for personal profit off of the backs of desperate people, ensuring they become destitute and utterly powerless to resist further exploitation.

Many have warned what America routinely does to other nations would inevitably come home to roost here, too - creating a coup, then installing and exploiting banana republics leaving their citizens destitute and in horrific slave conditions and leaving the nation impoverished and ecologically ruined.

And it literally just dawned on me this morning:

It's here.

Sandy hook, Haiti, Flint, Ferguson, CA, the opioid epidemic - it's all here.

Even our government is being replaced with crony capitalists - even Gestapo (ahem! I mean CIA) agents. 25% of the dems running in the 2018 midterms have overt CIA connections. They're openly calling for war with Russia and Iran (pretty much synonymous).

This nation has gone through a coup to install Bush, and another to replace Trump's administration with CIA war hawks and deep state loyalist stooges.

We are any other banana republic being railroaded under disaster capitalism for war and hijinks to profit the very few at the expense of the lives and livelihoods of the great many.

We are finally coming home.

Power attracts dicks, total power attracts total dicks

For those who worship power - as governments - and those attracted to positions in government - and militaries especially - do -- For them there is only one possibility: Conquer or be conquered. Theirs is a paranoid world of will-to-power and selfish manifest destiny whose endless terror can only be violently grappled with in an effort to come out on top, using whatever skills and tricks one can devise to stay there as long as possible, king of the human pile for just that much longer... Life is a competition, hierarchy is the nature of existence, brutality is a necessary prerequisite to rising to the top. Were it in my power, I would elide such aggression from the gene pool and render Humanity far more cooperative in nature. I do not believe that this is an absolute truth - a necessary and inescapable, inevitable future that must be prepared for. Rather, this is the expression of a sick, paranoid culture that is unable to choose peace over strife. Theirs is the road to global death. It is the one we're currently on, and accelerating towards an armageddon that is indeed inevitable should we fail to mature past this arrested development outlook on life: this zero-sum-game. I am not especially hopeful, but I will never agree that theirs is an inevitable vision of Humanity, nor does it hold one ounce, one scrap of honor or virtue - it is simply mental and emotional illness and stupidity beating its own chest. Trump - is an excellent face of this vision, this philosophy. We can be better than this. But it is going to take many of us get on board with a better vision, to pursue cooperation, radical equality, and a healthy vision for humanity's future on this space-ball. I hope you'll all join me. For if we continue to let the sociopaths and militarists and deranged competitors rule, theirs will indeed be our only future. It may even be too late for our race of Homo Sapiens already. But if there is any chance, any chance at all, it is in many of us becoming the adults in the room and leading by example, changing the course of our future history, together, cooperatively.