Middle Finger
It's the USâs Competitive Advantage. One of the things that the US still has over, letâs say, a competitor like China is that we tolerate the middle finger. itâs really important to start respecting our marginal citizens of greatest ability, and looking for the unusual personality types that are irreverent and committed enough to making things happen and really do things.
References:
On X
Interesting to see who paints @joerogan as dumb. His charlatans & dullards include me. Fair. But other losers include Sir Roger Penrose, @seanmcarroll, @HeatherEHeying, @BretWeinstein, @SamHarrisOrg, @sapinker, @DrDebraSoh.
So tell us: which podcasts have the smart good people?
Fascinating analysis here of the @joerogan show with these gems of writing: https://slate.com/culture/2019/03/joe-rogans-podcast-is-an-essential-platform-for-freethinkers-who-hate-the-left.html
Canât stand the heat, Eric? Good lord you put yourself out there, you get critiqued. It does not call you a dullard, although who cares if it did.
Ha! Thatâs not it all Kara.
But you bring up an interesting point. Most all of the amazing people I know âcanât stand the heatâ (deliberate attacks, threats against family and smearing of their reputation) so they âget out of the kitchenâ (retreat from public life and service).
What weâre left with is those who thrive in the heat. This is pure adverse selection with the extremophiles who prefer more heat than light deciding that the public sphere is theirs alone. Well..screw that. I donât enjoy my stalkers and these hit pieces paint bullseyes with hate.
Read it again. Itâs mildly critical and has some cogent points. You donât have to agree but it is hardly stalker or hate.
Okay. Iâll do as you suggest. Hang on...
Okay. I re-read it. Here is my take:
A) The piece on its own is not the issue. Itâs part of a growing literature that lives to paint heterodox dissenting center-Left voices as dreaded gateways to the âalt-rightâ.
B) Youâre right about âdullardâ. Itâs annoying ... but so what.
Can we not do this here right now? Kara is engaging and Iâm appreciating that. Thanks. đ
C) Because the piece is âno differentâ than a million other MSM articles, it seeks to create a perception of truth by perseveration. That is, I introduced the IDW, so I know what it is & there isnât a real Trump supporter in it. Yet our echo chamber repeats it into âtruthâ. Why?
Thanks. Since you donât follow me I canât contact you without going through our mutual friends. May I ask you to DM me your email or mobile? Iâll be happy to send you mine.
D) There are a lot of proximity attacks. Alex Jones belongs in one of Joeâs buckets of guests. But Roger Penrose is in a *totally* different bucket. As was Tulsi Gabbard. Or Bari Weiss. I mean the whole đ goes through that studio yet the MSM fixates on âOMG! He Talked to Milo!!â
Agree w/ you both. I actually want some Overton window. But if I canât even discuss the *reasonable* reasons on MSM why 1/2 the US is so pissed off that it sent a wild âcan you hear me nowâ message in 2016, weâre going to get another larger middle finger in 2020. We need to talk.
E) Lastly, as Joeâs guest, I get to discuss paying women more for kin work, North Indian classical music, sexual mimicry in cephalopods, gauge theory, cross-harp blues harmonica & a world of topics no one gets to touch!
Kara I reread. Can you watch this: https://t.co/D5YdHy0ddP?
Kara? Any reaction?
Will get back to you on dm or in person. Coffee on me
@jerrylieb12 Nah. Not a cop out. Iâm a fan of coffee first. Iâm not out to fight Kara for anyoneâs amusement. I want to figure out if we even disagree first, and if so, on what issues. I have no need to nurse my grounds for a grudge with anyone.
Thanks Kara. Hope youâve been well.
Just jammed. Will ping you when I am back in SF mid month
Looking forward to it.
I canât repeat this enough: The sacred Middle Finger remains the soul of the US research enterprise.
Our institutions have become lame. They are there to be opposed by individuals. They are led by the timid & their breakable rules are our opportunity set:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-delays.html
Kai Lenny is in the process of turning the worldâs largest surfable wave into a private skatepark.
The soul of America remains the graceful middle finger pointed at the impossible.
This is hard to keep saying: almost everything we think about STEM is wrong.
A) We the US are GREAT at science.
B) Workers are mislabeled as students/trainees.
C) We underfund research.
D) China sends workers valued by Unis as they not as free or expensive as our own people.
Are you suggesting that US universities should have had fewer STEM doctoral candidates in total, or that they should have excluded foreign nationals, or only foreign nationals from a country with an âincompatible form of government?â 1/x
Think of it as âIntellectual Munchausen By Proxyâ where the leadership of STEM at @NSF and @theNASciences have historically made up stories about how their own children (US STEM) are too sickly/greedy/unruly to do research. But our pliant temp visa holders are obedient wiz-kids.
The US STEM complex is induced to murder careers of our own people because we are not trained to be obedient workers. We use freedom & irreverence based education. Our edge is our middle finger and US STEM folks rightly demand market level US salaries to power our market economy.
So hereâs our choice.
Either:
A) Stop whining and pay US STEM costs for some of the best and most irreverent mavericks in the world.
B) Shut down the programs that canât compete.
C) Prepare to have PRC work its way into every corner of US R&D by supplying our workforce.
đ
Itâs *imperative* in the midst of a public health crisis that we able to question and CONTRADICT âAuthoritative Sourcesâ like the WHO when they appear to be lying to us or covering for endangering the public. Google, Facebook & Twitter are expendable.
Freedom & science are not.
There are other countries who believe in obedience. The United States is not one of them. And the technology used to build YouTube did not arise in those countries because it could not. Google is a product and beneficiary of the American middle finger to âAuthoritative Sourcesâ.
Word to executives at Tech Companies: Donât even think about silencing responsible dissent. Put it out of your mind. Stop fantasizing about being N Korean. The WHO, CDC & Surgeon General have an obvious truthfulness problem (e.g. PPE). Pretending otherwise is evil. Donât be evil.
And as far as the WHO is concerned I actually agree with them on many things. But they are not above science, scrutiny and common sense. Stop pretending you are in a position as a platform to act as a publisher. Maybe listen to The Who:
#MeetTheNewBoss #JustTheSameAsTheOldBoss
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