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.

Trump is not an excuse

This article in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates is typical of democratic-party-think: "Donald is a true white supremacist, and all he does is to elevate white supremacy."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/

It’s true in some basic ways – certainly he does openly flout many white supremacist notions and say many blatantly racist things. He is without a doubt an openly bigoted, misogynist, and racist man.

But the agenda of democrats & so-called “liberal media” is to amplify all of that into some sort of super-villain, some evil aberration who is simultaneously a mastermind of white supremacy and also a bungling idiot and also a Russian agent provocateur and also an incompetent man-baby.

Trump is a PoS of a human being. On that I agree wholeheartedly with democrats and progressives and sundry other leftists and independents.

But this attempt to make him out as being an aberration in terms of his white supremacy, and thereby to normalize the quiet acceptance of white supremacy of his predecessors –

I have deep misgivings with that. It is fundamental to what neoliberalism is, and how it maintains its stranglehold on American politics. It willfully misunderstands racism and white supremacy and our national character and the social fight we’re all currently engaged in. It eliminates from our entire conversation ownership of our collective participation in our collective ongoing systematic racism - especially including school-to-prison pipelines, criminalization of the poor, legalized murder of black and poor folks by the police.

Pieces such as this serve no useful purpose, as far as I can tell. Folks who read The Atlantic and articles like this – are democrats. They are the “true believers” in this narrative, and reading this is just joining into a massive circle with all of their peers – a kind of national prayer – going to the same church together to “pray on it.”

It doesn’t help elucidate anyone who goes. It doesn’t take responsibility for how we got to this sordid juncture in history. It doesn’t offer a way forward. It just reinforces everyone’s false-belief that they are good people, that Trump is bad people, that democrats are trying to do right in the world, that republicans are the evil slime blocking their good intentions.

That’s a road to nowhere. It’s where we’ve been stuck as a nation since at least Ronny-Ray-gun, and we’ve been digging this collective hole we’re all standing in deeper and deeper – with Congress becoming more partisan and acrimonious for decades.

And then the media plays up this rift – giving excuse to democratic representatives and senators – “oh, they couldn’t do [anything good] because those mean old evil republicans.”

And the democratic faithful rend their clothes and gnash their teeth and wail at the sky and do absolutely nothing. Understand absolutely nothing. Take responsibility for – nor demand their congress people take responsibility for – absolutely nothing.

Which is how this game is really being played.

Democrats always manage to pass the budget including a massive hand-out to all of their favorite donors – including war-industry, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, and so on; while claiming that they can’t get anything that we-the-people want accomplished – often in numbers like 83% across both republicans and democrats – saying that “the other party makes it impossible.”

Democrats always manage to "do the patriotic thing" and vote for wars, and war-spending, and war-power.

Democrats always manage to "protect the homeland" and pass police-surveillance, fund new and existing intelligence agencies, rescind their duty to act as a check and balance to the president's power by authorizing (or not authorizing) wars.

Democrats always manage to ignore Flint, MI, and the leaded and contaminated water issue there. Or the crime problems in Chicago. Or the overall movement of money from the lower and middle class to the ultra-few-elite-wealthy. Or to ignore the vast inflation of health care in favor of their wealthy donors who own insurance co's, pharmaceutical co's, or etc.

Democrats always manage to pass bills that favor the wealthy, but can never manage anything that even upwards of 83% of all Americans want.

So the narrative given by this Atlantic article does nothing more than reinforce this useless and largely untrue narrative that keeps everyone stuck and useless while the domestic greedy and global war profiteers continue to have their way in the world.

So – please don’t think I am offering succor to Trump or his bigotry or his mismanagement or the myriad ways he embodies the inner asshole of the entire Human race.

However – he is merely a symptom of a larger cancer of our national character – one that this narrative only helps to hide while growing in plain sight.

Sex vs. Gender

Let us start with some simple truths:

A woman is not a man, and a man is not a woman.

Let me state for the record that I am a man - both biologically and in gender-identity.  I have not lived a woman's life experiences, and similarly, a woman hasn't lived a man's life experiences.  Nor have either lived a Trans-man nor Trans-woman's life experiences.  All four categories are distinct because society treats us differently.  This is inescapably true.

As a male identifying man, I have most definitely lived a man's privileges and perspectives.  My expectations and other's expectations of me are largely related to their perception of me as being a male.  I am given male clothes, expected to behave in male-conforming ways, and I am given various latitudes and priorities in all sorts of social situations where males are deferred to as the norm.

To pretend that others' perceptions of my gender are irrelevant is literally self-deceptive and disingenuous. To pretend that my lived experiences encompases other folks lived experiences when I identify as male and have a male conforming body would be just incredibly disrespectful to others - such as women, or trans folks.

Their experiences are undoubtedly different.  I haven't had the same confusion or fears over choosing a bathroom, or clothes, or friendships, or sexual partners, or self identity.  Those are all struggles that are a part of being a trans person that - to pretend I know them from my lived experiences as a male, would be truly disrespectful and dishonest.

So let's stop pretending that trans people's lived experiences encompass anyone else's lived experiences when it comes to how society treats you due to your apparent sex.

Males, Females, Trans-women, and Trans-men all have different lived experiences.

So, if we can agree to something this obvious, this fundamental, this self-explanatory, then we're off to a good start on solid footing.

Unfortunately, so-called "trans-theory" or, as it's often known in academia as "queer-theory", attempts to obfuscate this self-evident truth: that we all have different lived experiences because of other's perceptions of us and society's norms for how it treats men, women, and trans-people.

Queer-theory obscures it, associate it with hate-crimes, denounces anyone who would point out such self-supporting truths in an effort to obscure this conversation so that they can enable trans folks - primarily trans-women, who are natal-men, to then claim to be allowed to define womanhood and erase any meaningful or commonsense definitions of what it is to be a woman living in our sexist, patriarchal, misogynist world.

And that's messed up.  It's wrong. It acts as a cloak for unscrupulous actors and predators.  It erases women as a distinct, identifiable class of people who need common sense protections. It destroys hard-won protections for women and girls - because it redefines such things to be whatever some males claim they are!

Women's sports becomes a joke.  Some unscrupulous men simply identify as women and compete against actual women, with their male bodies.  Not that most transwomen are the kind of folks who are looking to cheat or rob women of anything!  In fact, in my personal experiences with trans folks, they're quite genuine in their desire to be a woman or to be a man - to present as such, and to be treated as such, and are not looking to use this to take rights or protections from anyone else.  However, there is a significant minority who are and would happily twist things to their unethical advantage.  This subset is often predatory in nature, and must be addressed.

I know it is upsetting to consider - but just as with natal men - there is an unscrupulous subset of males who are quite eager to abuse others and to use their physical size or social standing to abuse and exploit others.  Sexual predators is a real phenomenon of human beings.  Just because you may think it is upsetting - and that "not all men!" - doesn't release you and I and everyone of our responsibilities to protect our fellow sisters and mothers and daughters from such people!

Women's scholarships or other attempts to create encouragement for women to enter various underrepresented fields becomes a lie - a farce! Some unscrupulous males will simply change their claim of identity and get to claim those incentives, literally taking women's things for themselves.

Academic scholarships are threatened, as are safe spaces for showering, dressing rooms, political and academic positions intended for females (such as head of Women's Studies or Feminism), rape crisis centers, women's prisons, and probably quite a few more if one considers everything that is sex segregated (and considers for half of one second that they're sex segregated for a reason - usually hard-won against male patriarchal opposition to allowing women to have those safe spaces in the first place - for example: Women's bathrooms are relatively new only being about a hundred years old in Europe and America, previously having forced women to stay home or be unsafe in male places with high rates of harassment and even rape).

If there is truly any doubt in your mind at this point - and if you're new to this conversation, then there probably is - you might want to consider the following:

• Opposing trans-theory / queer-theory is not about attacking trans people!
  It is about protecting women and girls!
  Trans people can live and let live without annihilating any meaningful distinction between men and women.
• Trans folks protections should not come at the expense of women's and girl's protections.
  We can and should protect both classes of people.
• Trans folks should not be trying to redefine "woman" for homo sapiens.
  Sex is a category that is a biological truth across all sexually reproducing animals, Humans included.
• Nor should anyone be policing language at all! 
  In a free society that values freedom-of-speech, everyone is free not to listen to a given point of view, but everyone has the right - must have the right - to their freedom of speech!
• Crying "hate-speech" for the perceived misuse of ordinary words like "female" and "woman" is a quick slide to thought policing and totalitarianism.
  Please see links below for some heinous results that are already emerging from this misuse of power to silence other views and even normal human interactions around queer-theory.
• Gender isn't only about what an individual wants to project!
  It is also about what others' perceive.
  This is fundamental and indelible.
  Self-identity is a only one piece of a much larger and more complex puzzle with wide-ranging impacts upon all of our lives!

I do not believe that many men are necessarily rushing out to identify as women in order to acquire the "privileges" of women.  Most people who transition or who present as another gender simply wish to be identified with the gender of their choice, and to live their lives that way, for their own personal reasons.  However, trans-theory goes well beyond simply supporting folks to adopt a new gender-identity and instead races into the realm of policing speech and erasing women and girls protections.

The consequences of annihilating the meaning of the words "woman" "man" "female" and "male" have profound deleterious consequences that favor patriarchy and misogyny and the erasure of women's and girl's protections. This is a terrible, retrograde idea that is not grounded in liberation or sexual or social empowerment at all - but rather in controlling women and society through sexuality and a sick and twisted regressive theory of gender conformity!

No concessions: the five letters in sequence "woman" or "women" must not be applied to males ever, because all such roads lead right back to where we are. Further, there is nothing offensive about calling a man a man.

— Jenn Smith (@JennSmith64) February 6, 2018

Please keep in mind: this is not about opposing trans people's rights to be trans people!  I, and every feminist I know, is a staunch supporter of an individual's right to present as they wish while being treated with respect and decency.

Everyone has the right - or should have the right - to be treated with basic respect, common decency, and have all of the rights to pursue happiness and self expression so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others.

Queer theory / trans theory absolutely impinges upon all of our rights, erases hard-won protections, and is a bludgeon of gender-conformity and regressive thinking.

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There are a great many good resources to help you explore this topic.  I've assembled a few here, to help get you started:

TERF is really a hate-label:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/29/how-terf-works/
https://twitter.com/terfisaslur?lang=en

Miranda Yardley (An honest-to-goodness feminist who happens to be a trans-woman):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyUNuD8WUSY
http://mirandayardley.com/en/

Great primer on Sex and Gender!
https://sexandgenderintro.com/

Born in the right body (a mom and daughter's odyssey):

https://4thwavenow.com/2017/10/25/born-in-the-right-body-introducing-4thwavenows-new-spokesperson-mom-of-a-teen-desister/

One of the best essays I've read to-date:
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3108929-a-letter-to-the-woman-who-called-me-a-terf

One critique of gender-spectrum theory:
https://rebeccarc.com/2016/01/06/gender-is-not-a-binary/

Brilliant rebuttal against Canadian trans-theory bill C-16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgOLs_cEKi0

Brilliant Reflections by Camille Paglia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8BRdwgPChQ

Brilliant Gender-Critical Series:
https://auticulture.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/the-rise-of-the-dream-state1/

For the Marxist minded, this is brilliant:
https://medium.com/@zacharygeorgenajariannajafi/misogyny-is-revisionism-part-1-on-the-lefts-woman-problem-22984b49675b

On cultural-appropriation and blatant ignorance from trans-activists around indigenous peoples of the Americas:
https://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/toward-an-end-to-appropriation-of-indigenous-two-spirit-people-in-trans-politics-the-relationship-between-third-gender-roles-and-patriarchy/

Who is funding this anti-science bizarro-world newspeak:
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/20/rich-white-men-institutionalizing-transgender-ideology/#.Wow7W_wn1Dg.twitter

Another excellent piece on following the money:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/01/03/considering-rapid-rise-trans-ideology-academia-follow-money/

A "Master Post" of violence in the name of "protecting trans people" effected upon other people (because nothing says "I'm all about protecting transgender people from harm" like harming another human being over disagreeable words)
https://bannedbytrans.wordpress.com/masterpost/

An honest and learned review of "I am Jazz"
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21220/

A reflection of the violence directed at women by the trans-cult:
https://medium.com/@julian.vigo/violence-against-gender-critical-women-from-hyde-park-corner-to-the-anarchist-bookfair-e42bcf028415

Gender-Inclusion Policy and Increased Sexual Violence
http://womanmeanssomething.com/1034-2/

An analysis on why trans-cult will harm homosexual rights
http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/02/trans-activists-will-destroy-homosexual-rights/

Similarities between synanon brainwashing and the trans-cult
https://transanityca.wordpress.com/2017/08/13/synanon-the-brainwashing-game-and-modern-transgender-activism-the-orwellian-implications-of-transgender-politics-by-jenn-smith/

Autogynephilia
https://autogynephiliatruth.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/the-faces-of-autogynephilia/

Connection between trans-cult and neutering children
http://theconversation.com/eugenics-and-the-practice-of-transgendering-children-3838

Ludicrous deflections around the implications of trans-cult activism in refugee camps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKBEpngVLz8&feature=youtu.be

Can has science?
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/is-science-offensive-the-blurry-line-between-transgender-athlete-and-cheating/

More violence from trans-cultists against women:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/02/02/trans-identified-male-verbally-attacks-rose-mcgowan-barnes-noble-talk/

We're not actually against each other - seriously:
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15919299.Fighting_each_other_over_gender_is_getting_us_nowhere/?ref=twtrec

Actual consequences of pretending men are women in our prison systems:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/01/marie-dean-story-shows-there-s-no-simple-answer-how-we-treat-transgender

We register people as they identify (consequences of sex-as-identity on sports)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/apr/9/boston-marathons-transgender-policy-sparks-fairnes/



Many thanks to the many folks who helped me to understand this issue when I first encountered it, and to Julianne Jazz and many others for assembling and sharing some of these resources to help shine a light on this dark and foolish corner of human socialization.

"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling

"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling.

I'm not shaming anyone - not in the sense you probably think I am.

I don't require anyone feel bad more than they already do (this is push back I get from conservatives especially - "you want to feel ashamed of your (country/race)!")

Naming racism is about naming racism - its reality - its effects - its interwoven nature - just as classism is.

You have been lied to your entire life to believe that "racism" means "racial bigotry."

That's not actually what racism means - and before we get into a long drawn out argument over word definitions - we're not going to agree on - just cut to the chase and agree that there is such a thing as systemic racism - and that - like classism - it is pervasive and doesn't need your conscious effort to remain in place and controlling our lives.

Taking responsibility for a thing is necessary.  It's about having heart, and growing up and becoming a mature person.

Denying responsibility because it "feels bad" (or you don't want to "feel ashamed") is about shirking responsibility - about remaining a small child and refusing to take on adult responsibility in life.

Americans are mostly stunted people.  They - white Americans in particular - are used to be molly coddled and catered to - so that they don't have to experience much that makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe and unsure of themselves in the world.

That is not true for almost anyone else.

Asking white Americans to have to suffer some discomfort in order to understand that they are participating in a racist system - should not be an impassable obstacle for anyone who is genuinely interested in being an adult - a humanitarian - a genuine equal in all things - including in bearing the burdens of helping to fix the world.

Saying "whites are mostly racists" is exactly like saying "most whites are classists" - they didn't create the system - but they're a part of it - and it is not more or less pejorative except in their own minds - and only because they've been duped into identifying with racism and "whiteness" and hence feel a need to defend it ('cause they believe attacks on it are attacks on their identity).

That is what I've been trying to tell you:

>>> This is all about identity. <<<

People identify as White - not just their skin color - but all of the baggage that "White" carries with it - including "racism".

It's time for folks to let go of allowing "White" to include "tacit racism" and start to mean something else (or stop with separating into "White" at all - just be "People").

And that can't happen while folks remain staunchly opposed to realizing that these ideas are connected - and that this realization and recogning has to happen.

It's not just  a "political goal" - it's also a profound and necessary personal journey.

For me to treat a "black person" as my true equal - I have to understand how that I have been conditioned to think of myself as more - I'm "white" so I'm "safe" and I'm "respected" and "I'm the default in everything".

And that this awareness - this "whiteness" - forces me to think of "them" as less - even if I consciously avow "them" to be my equal.

It's not enough.

We have to look at the systems that are in place - and at the programming that is underneath our consciousness - that enables and continues this sick cycle.

I have to grow up.

You have to grow up.

We all do!

Or we are going to die as a species in misery and depravity.

Merely sidestepping racism in favor of "focusing on classism" means that racism remains in place for another generation - and any attempts we make to address economic issues will inevitably carry with them the foundation of racism should we fail to address them.

So - to actually move forward - we must jettison not only classism, but racism as well (and sexism!)

Equality demands True Equality - not "partial" equality - that's not equal - that's un equal.

There is no way around this but to own it wholly, and work with it as an interconnected piece that cannot be isolated neatly and some parts ignored in favor of other parts (that are less threatening to whites).

Culpability shouldn't be a sticking point

I see racism through the same prism that I see colonialism (aka globalism).

We cannot claim not to be colonialist. Just because we didn't set up this system of exploitation doesn't mean we're not participating in it every single day.

Just because we didn't create globalism doesn't mean we didn't - and aren't continuing to - profit by it.

And to the degree that we participate in, and worse, actively encourage such systems, we have some real, honest measure of culpability.

---

I guess that for some folks they need to believe themselves to be pure victims. That they had no hand in anything and are not responsible for anything that has happened to them or to others in their lifetimes. They're pure white snow, unblemished, not-responsible.

---

For me, I see that as a cop-out - a lie. You are responsible for everything you are and have done and will do, even as I know that nobody has pure choice and liberty to just unilaterally decide to go off the grid and not be racist and not benefit and not have a job...

Most of us have little to no control over our lives in any practical sense - i.e. we could choose not to participate should we be resigned to homelessness and begging...

But if we have kids or spouses or even aging parents or even self-love and wish to care for ourselves and minimize our own suffering - then we are beholden to participate in this nation's economy - which by definition makes us complicit participants in its colonialism, its racism, its imperialism, its patriarchy.

These things are inseparable.

That doesn't mean you get to do that and still claim zero responsibility. Not in my book!

Sure, I have compassion for you and the tough choices you face - just as I have self-compassion for the tough choices I face.

But I want to hold you accountable for what is real. For the degree to which you are making a choice - even if you refuse to see it, I cannot unsee it.

I hold myself accountable for the real choices I am making as well, even as I struggle with all of the implications.

---

Many people, in my experience, look at all of this and decide either:

A) If I'm evil then fuck it all I don't have to worry about it because we're all evil so it's all meaningless and I can be without guilt as I take every advantage of others that I can to be selfish and ignore other's plight in life.

-or-

B) I am in no way responsible for any of this so you cannot hold me responsible for any of this whatsoever. So I am pure and not-a-racist and not-a-colonialist and not-a-capitalist and not-a-classist and not-a-sexist etc. I am truly blameless (yet I hold all of a certain group responsible and blame them for all evil things but only them).

Both of those positions are disingenuous.

I see it as

C) I am not an evil person by nature - almost nobody is - but I am - due to no fault inherent in me - born into a very mixed system full of its evils - that I have personally benefitted by - my parents benefitted and I - the opportunities I had - the resources I had - all derive from all of the history of exploitation and slavery and capitalism and colonialism and native genocide. But because I don't wish any of that on anyone - because I have the personal desire to be a better person - to do right by my brothers and sisters on planet Earth - because I wish to leave this place better than I found - I will hold myself accountable for my choices - I will offer myself and others compassion for our crazy fucked up situation - but I will not pretend that hard realities don't exist just to soothe my ego - so that I can claim innocence, nor will I cave to the evils of the world and become a willing enthusiastic narcissist myself.

One does not simply "get over it"

Tigranes Utidjian:

As far as I can tell the attempts, till now, to acknowledge crimes, have been along the lines of: everybody was doing it; it wasn't that bad, some masters were good to their slaves; in the New York times recently: "We were building a great nation" we had to break a few eggs.

Steve Wolf:

Exactly. The messages I've gotten my entire life are:

So, America did bad things - in the past.

There's nothing we can do about the entire history of the world. Can't worry about what you can't change (and besides, what - are you going to give up your house? are you going to give away all of your money?)

So just "make peace with it."

Learn to move on. Do what you can now, and accept that things are the way that they are.  Humans are greedy and terrible and war-like and cruel.  Just the way we *all* are.

---

I don't want to make my peace with being a people who committed genocide and "just get on with it" without actually owning up to the fact that:

WE'RE A PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED GENOCIDE and ALL WE OWN IS FROM MASSIVE THEFT!

I'm fine if we want to talk about reparations, apologies, real attempts to heal the wounds, and learn to all live together as TRUE EQUALS.

---

But that's not what white Americans want.

They want whites to forget all this stuff - ignore it all - and just continue pretending these crimes are only in the past and there's nothing to be done now.

They want whites to keep pretending that we're all equals now - that things are fair now, despite overwhelming endless EVIDENCE that they are NOT EQUAL now.

RACISM is HERE and NOW and CONTINUES every day.

:'(

---

I want my white brethren to stop FUCKING LYING to themselves, and be HONEST for just ONE FUCKING SECOND in their STOLEN lives.

And admit it - just fucking admit it.

Your WEALTH (whatever degree you have) is a goddamn WAR CRIME against HUMANITY.

And - if you don't like that reality...

Then fuckiing step up and participate in how to fix it...

So that we really can move forward as actual honest-to-goodness equals...

Instead of liars, thieves, and gaslighters.

Community isn't a dirty word

The need to be a part of a community, and share the rewards of our combined efforts, is inherent to all social orders.

How fairly or unfairly we distribute the rewards vs. the hardships - that's the real question.

Americans have been made fools.

We've been led to believe that Capitalism - "Free Markets" - are able to reward the self-disciplined and useful, while penalizing the lazy and unhelpful.

That's pure-as-new-blown-snow bullshit. But Americans eat it like it's freaking sugar!

Only in some western style societies are people actually so duped by the bling of media and propaganda that they actually think that they're benefitting greatly from a system that is slowly but surely taking away their freedoms[1], their money[2], and their safety[3].

[1] Our ability to elect anyone fairly has been nullified. Our ability to communicate with one another without the government or corporations storing and possibly using that information against us has been annihilated. Our laws protecting whistleblowers who do the patriotic thing have been nullified. Our protections for Journalists have been replaced with the arbitrary imprisonment of Journalists in the name of "Freedom." Our separation of powers has been eroded. Our 3-part government has had much of its power concentrated in the executive branch. Our congress has abdicated its power and check/balance power wrt wars. Our judiciary has been stuffed with highly inappropriate and ideologically minded thugs. Our Police have been militarized - with massive amounts of "military surplus" going to local law enforcement agencies who've seen their mandates change from "serve and protect" to "enforce the will of the rich upperclass - with free reign to murder in broad daylight minorities."

[2] Poor as a class is expanding steadily since the 1980s. Middle-class and upper middle-class have been shrinking. The dollar has massively lost value over that time span. Income levels have stagnated since the housing collapse in 2008, and had been exceedingly sluggish due to two prior recessions[4], none of which have we actually recovered from, except for the extremely wealthy.

[3] As America and much of NATO continues to splurge on machines of death and destruction, and their global policy is theft of resources and fomenting of social unrest anywhere that has resources of interest to American Empire, it has spawned massive numbers of hopeless and desperate and very angry people whose greatest aspirations in life are to blow up Americans and Westerners in as large a number as possible by any means possible.

[4] Our recessions are direct result of CAPITALISM. GREED. OVERREACH by the extremely wealthy. We the people pay for them in lost wages, lost retirement accounts, ruined housing values, lost jobs, lost benefits, while the rich simply profit or have a short break in their general massive trend towards profiting.

One could add that this "Land of Freedom" is the most violent and oppressive regime that the planet has ever known. Murdering folks every single day - in more wars than any other nation in history, continuing genocide on its own minorities and many abroad, aggressively fomenting civil unrest, funding terrorism, being the worlds largest arms dealer, using WMDs on a regular basis (white phosphor, depleted uranium, giant bombs, economic sanctions that amount to mass murder of the aged, the young, and the poor).

We actively oppose all democratically elected governments and actively rig other nations elections in favor of creating puppet states we can manipulate and steal resources from unhindered.

So you really want to change things for the better?

So you really want to change things for the better, and you want someone to tell you how?

Nobody knows how.

But hell - most don't even want to change anything at all - they spend a lot of time denying anything is wrong / justifying the way things are / telling everyone they're crazy for even questioning the way things are.

If you're at least aware that society is rigged in favor of the Hillary's and the Trumps against almost everyone else, and you don't want to defend that -- then you're on the right track.
A small number of people can't just decide to change it for the better for everyone - not as far as I'm aware. (the opposite is more possible - a few people can make things even worse - terrorism, for example).

For things to get better - folks have to come to accept that the way things are isn't even close to the best it can be - and isn't even acceptable... It's wrong, and inhumane, and unhealthy for all concerned - and with global warming - it's a terminal situation unless we radically change as a species.
Struggle of mass of people against the owner/ruler class is the only thing that has ever worked - and for that to happen - we need a ton of folks to be willing to risk joining together to demand something better.

So - all you can do - is to help your friends and family and community to be open to the idea that things are unacceptably unjust and suicidal the way they're currently going - and that it's possible to demand a fairer split of the world's resources - and a system that is in balance with the world's ability to process our waste. Accept that's it's okay to scale back to a sustainable lifestyle that can accommodate 7 billion and climbing, instead of this insane consumption marathon we're running - apparently hell bent on destroying and using up everything to force our extinction as quickly as possible.

But that also means America can't be on top anymore - we can't be using Indonesians and Afghanis and poor kids in Somalia as indentured servants and economic slaves. We can't be turning a blind eye to our military extortion complex which strong arms peoples and nations all over the globe to rob them of resources and labor. We all have to accept that fair means fair for all. There is no other kind of fair, or world worth living in. Justice for all is a beginning, not an end. It is not a utopia, it is the absolute minimum foundation upon which to begin building a sustainable world that can allow our species to truly blossom and become something amazing.

And nobody deserves more or better - we all deserve equality. Nor do some deserve less, or worse. You did not come by what you have purely by yourself - you are standing on the shoulders of past generations and community that made it possible, and that continue to make it possible. We owe one another our respect, our love, and our solidarity.

From there, you're doing something radical by just being that honest and compassionate in the world.
Eventually change happens - it always does - on its own time. But by doing your part, you're helping to moving it a tiny bit further along, a little closer to now.

Beyond that - well - anyone who tells you this is simple or can be done quickly or claims violence will solve our problems is not working for you or anyone but themselves - and using you as cannon fodder in the process.

Ultimately none of us has the ability to make all of the difference for anyone but themselves and those around them. You can't change the whole world, but you can be a helper or a leader who helps light the way to ending injustice and cruelty. I hope we can all learn to work together in prosperity and common decency.

Uhuru

On Personal Responsibility and Privilege

The ideal of personal responsibility is the only part of conservatism that holds any value or appeal for me. I do agree that there is a valuable truth there, that there is something deeply imbalanced placing all of the responsibility for inner-city problems on "society" and giving the gangstas, their parents, their community a free pass.

The problem I have with conservatives (and libertarians) emphasizing personal responsibility is the total lack of appreciation for the big picture, the context in which folks are failing to raise good kids, or kids are failing to become good citizens. By emphasizing personal responsibility over the reality of ghettos, of police crime & abuse, of joblessness, of systemic racism that makes it 3x more likely for a white to get the job over a black, that makes the loans 3x more expensive for a black, that makes the car 3x more expensive for the black, ... these things all matter. Not just a little. A freaking ton.

To me, I can't understand the lack of understanding of the set & setting (the context) except to frame it for myself as a matter of white privilege. Privilege is the ability to not-think about a lot of stuff - to take a lot of stuff for granted - and not even be aware of what you're not thinking about, not worried about, not concerned about, doesn't enter your thinking at all, because it is true for you, due to your privilege, and you're simply not aware of it at all because of your privilege.

So, a lot of people who experience life growing up in middle class or better families in America (sometimes regardless of skin color), believe with all their hearts that if the folks in the ghettos would just work as hard as they do, they would succeed. That their sense of personal responsibility and self-determination are what sets them apart. That life is hard, but if only these other folks would put their noses to the grindstone they'd have a solid chance to succeed, just as they themselves do.

This line of thinking - is so fundamentally intertwined with a world-view born of privilege. Of seeing things work out when they try hard. Of only having themselves to blame for things not working out. When they themselves are lazy, then things go badly. Or when a friend or class mate is lazy, they see the problems that flow from this. But even then, most times, such people can redeem themselves by learning their lesson and getting with the program.

But this whole world-view is one supported by having stable parents. By having only to worry about yourself, for the most part. By not worrying about whether you'll eat today. Whether your father will come home and beat you. Or some other man your mother just brought home desperate for love and attention, even if it means the kids getting beat up a bit. Or no parents around at all, and the responsibility of feeding your little siblings falls on your 10yr old ass. Or of being shot at on the way to school. Or pressured by your friends bigger brothers to run drugs for them - which would pay some bills, get you some standing (and you'd be "protected" by your gang), and so on.

I just... I cannot imagine living under those conditions and being expected to just "study harder". "Focus on school." And worst of all - "It's my own fault - my laziness - for not doing better under these circumstances". I just... I would be livid with fury if others who have "everything" came down to tell me I'm a moral failure for being unable to cope in the way they think I should be able to when they haven't lived this life for one friggin' second of their pampered-ass privileged-ass mutherfucking-lives!

Yes, responsibility has to also be shouldered by those who live in ghettos. I think there are many, many heroes who try to stand for justice and reason every day in such communities. But corruption, police-abuse, governmental incompetence, and outright hatred of blacks get in the way time and time again, and reinforce the social structures and patterns time and again, all the while some ass-hat at Fox is screaming about you having "a refrigerator!" - as if that is what marks living the easy life, or having privilege like they do!

And to sort of head-off a really common response by other whites and privileged folks I've had this conversation with -- whatever degree of "but I grew up poor / underprivileged / worked my ass off to make it where I am today / I struggle to make ends meet / I had less than perfect parents / I was abused as a kid / etc" -- sure, all of those things are true enough - but they're a pittance compared to what ghetto kids face. And you have every opportunity to change things for yourself. You can go get a job, and are 3x more likely than any black to get the same job you're both competing for. You very likely have family with some resources to help you out should your ship really tank. You can definitely go get public assistance, and you're very likely to face a streamlined process that doesn't immediately suspect you're cheating the system and you're a lazy bastard mooching off of society. You have resources you can fall back on, so you have a level of freedom to take chances in life because you freakin' know you'll likely be okay in the long run.

Ghetto folks do NOT have this same level of assurance of support. They have much worse chances for a good outcome in every possible direction they look. You're likely to get that job, not them. You're likely to be paid more when you land that job, because of the unwritten rules that indicate that a white person is worth more than a colored. You're likely to be trusted more, given more autonomy and respect in any position you hold. I'm not saying you're going to be treated wonderfully by everyone, but you're likely to be treated better in every single thing you do and try in life, as compared to a colored / immigrant. You don't have to worry about deportation, and you worry a shit ton less about police brutality or wrongful imprisonment!

I really don't think personal-responsibility is the primary issue here. It's important, for sure, but emphasizing it is exactly what every racist and privileged person does, and it only adds more weight to pushing down the exact folks you're thinking you'd like to see succeed.

On Gang Culture, Racism, Classism, and Radical Self Reliance

In response to the idea that inner city kids are a product of poor parenting...

I really doubt that this was due to the parenting - at least for most of these kids.

I would suggest that it is due to living in a world surrounded by people who shoot each other - the gangs. Why are there gangs? Because of a pervasive hopelessness. Because everywhere an inner city child looks, there is poverty and guns and killing and hopeless adults who aren't able to find jobs and pay the bills, and stressed out mothers who also can't find jobs, and schools where the teachers are freaking out because everyone is shooting each other and bringing guns and knives to school and on and on.

The very conservative (and libertarian) idea that this is a product of a moral failure to raise children well is .. as far as I can tell, naive.

I'm not trying to say that culture isn't important... at this late date, there is a strong element of gang-worship, of bling mentality, of live fast because living for the long run ain't worth it.

But that just underscores the liberal point: there is no real evidence that if you're a black kid in an inner city that you have any rational reason to think that you will be better off if you study and work towards a long stable life of fitting into the larger world.

The reality is that our prisons are full of black inner city folk. The big majority are the people from their neighborhoods - their fathers, their uncles, their mothers, their brothers, and so on.

And I don't know how that anyone can honestly believe that human beings are born equal yet turn into such horrible people unless you're implying that there is a strong element of genetic predisposition to moral failing.

And there are many studies that show if you take an inner city child and raise him or her up in a suburban home, they're likely to have white people attitudes. You're saying it's entirely what their mother & father said to them that makes that difference?! Or maybe it is seeing everyone around them preparing for a life of paying the bills and being a citizen? And critically: seeing that they're succeeding.

Watching those who struggle to do right fail in the face of overwhelming poverty and racism - with the police attacking you or your friends or your parents or your neighbors; you're just not going to get the sense that you're on the same side with the cops, or with society as a whole. You're clearly the wrong color, coming from the wrong side of the tracks, and unless you're a basketball / football star, your prospects are shit, is going to give you a very different view of your potential futures and what strategies might be sensibly applied to your life.

Seriously! Parental upbringing is the problem?! That's flat-out vastly insufficient to explain the phenomenons of inner cities, and would fit well with every racist group on the planet: the Jews are garbage. The Spics, the Beaners, the whatever. Their culture is to blame. Their upbringing. There is something fundamentally wrong with them.

No, there is something fundamentally unfair about the world, and kids aren't stupid. They get it by the time they're about 10 yrs old. This shit is rigged, they're on the losing team, and any attempt to change teams will be met with fierce opposition by both sides. They're fucked up, down and sideways. So, if they're fucked, then there's nothing for it but to get what you can before you're shot. To do your best for your tribe. There's honor in that, clearly. Fuck the man.

"Liberal"

For those who are still confused by the vitriol aimed at "liberals" and "liberalism"

I'm far from the first to point any of this out, but it seems to me that many continue to be baffled by why "liberal" is a dirty word in my book:

Basically, American "liberals" (self-identified) are better referred to as "neoliberals" or "bourgeois liberals" - liberals of middle and upper classes who wish for personal freedoms and ignore the suffering imposed by liberal capitalist markets at home and abroad.

Certainly that is the core of my criticism - "liberals" in American common parlance - i.e. as most Americans understand the term (i.e. those on the "opposite" side of the political aisle from "conservatives/republicans")...

That sort of liberal is happy to be ignorant or self-deluded about the evils perpetrated in the name of America and Capitalism and Globalism to untold billions of suffering fellow human beings who are effectively made to live in slave labor in nations which are themselves enslaved to America or its western allies.

It robs people of their autonomy, dignity, self direction, local accountability, right up to and including death by near starvation wages and inhuman working conditions.

This is not a happenstance or a fringe effect of American style capitalism - but rather a direct desired result to grease the wheels of resource extraction - whether it be raw materials robbed from the ground, water, wildlife, or vegetation; or human labor robbed from the populace...

Rather, this outcome is intentional and deliberate and orchestrated with the use of propaganda and terror viz the CIA and black ops and outright military intervention and color revolutions and bribery of local officials. This terrorism includes the funding of local (or even non-local) violent groups - who are often trained, armed, and aided by the US in order to carry out attacks against any who oppose our enslavement - most often targeting the civilian populations in order to murder and instill fears or mislead them into believing that they're actually being attacked by another group and should help the American agenda for their own good.

American "liberals" claim to be the dictionary definition - accepting, loving, compassionate, open to change, etc., while absolutely turning a blind eye and deaf ear to all of the above - denying its existence - insisting it is all propaganda - siding with the USA's doctrine of "Exceptionalism" to "justify" the rape and pillaging of most of the planet so that they get the material benefits of a bourgeois lifestyle.

It's a quid-pro-quo arrangement: I, the American Liberal, will turn a blind eye to the evils you perpetrate and not agitate politically for reform as long your evils keep me relatively well off.

That's the core of "American Exceptionalism" - we can do what ever we wish to the planet and are above international law or even the most basic levels of human decency because we're full of "exceptional" people who deserve only the very best at any conceivable cost...