The thing that bothers me most in this still-ongoing Mark Cuban/DEI saga is that rather than picking a particular principle or premise to defend (even a bad one), he just keeps moving the goalposts. I've seen him argue all of the following four points (see next tweet):
1. DEI doesn't lead to discrimination; it just expands the applicant pool 2. Private companies can do what they want, so it's ok if they favor certain groups 3. DEI isn't in conflict with merit-based hiring 4. Hiring is *always* subjective; who's to say what merit even means?
Feb 2, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Apparently the ADL has cycled through three definitions of "racism" on its website recently, and the current definition is listed as an "interim definition." This is seriously like a Monty Python sketch.
Source for the first two:
I think I'm going to do a thread on a certain question I sometimes see posed that's relevant to my Twitter account:
"Why do so many 'centrist' accounts that only seem to criticize the left? Are they just conservatives who are embarrassed to admit it? What's their deal?"
I'm only speaking for myself here, but I think I feel more comfortable criticizing the left for the same reason someone would feel more comfortable criticizing their own culture than other people's. "White PMC liberalism" or whatever is pretty much the "culture" I was raised in.
Jan 20, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
🧵 of thoughts on progressive political rhetoric:
Politically, the left likes to paint itself as driven by empathy and a desire to help people. In contrast, they say the right is characterized by selfishness, fear of beneficial change, and a "fuck you, I got mine" attitude.
You can see where this is coming from in some ways, but I also think you can't claim the mantle of "caring about people" the most when you appear to have utter contempt for the average person and see them as incapable of figuring out what's best for them without your paternalism.
Jan 19, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I just had a thought about why so many exhortations to "trust experts" ring so hollow: the term "expert" itself is most often used to apply to less verifiable, "softer" forms of expertise. For example, you'd never see a headline like "Physics experts discover new particle."
"Mathematics experts discover new prime number!" Nope, it's just mathematicians. I feel like it's people in softer fields that feel the need to emphasize their expertise by explicitly labeling themselves experts.
Jan 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I share this frustration AND I still think the vaccines "work" because they reduce death. Just sell them that way. We need to accept that there's no viable top-down way of "stopping the spread," promote vaccines as making illness less severe, and work on other pharma treatments.
No more disruptive, non-pharma interventions to stop the spread. No "real lockdowns/mask mandates have never been tried." Anyone still living in fear of "long Covid" or w/e is welcome to lock themselves down and mask forever if they want. Just don't force it on the rest of us.
Source for the first two:
