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The March of Dimes Syndrome

city-journal.org

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Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#21

Post by api »

quantified wrote: post #3

The thesis more or less works for any institution. It doesn't work outside of those bounds, like for MeToo and BLM. It's interesting how it's somehow a progressive issue. "Why have reports of “hate groups” risen during the same decades that racial prejudice has been plummeting?" Perhaps because expectations have risen, and perhaps because there was no one to report to earlier that would listen. Anyone who thinks raci…

Isn’t the right wing think tank and activism industry just as vulnerable to this self licking ice cream cone phenomenon as things on the left?

Also witness the alt-right edgelords who made a name for themselves in the mid 20-teens Pepe the frog era try to stay relevant.

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#22

Post by lupire »

Aloha wrote: post #10
quantified wrote: post #3

The thesis more or less works for any institution. It doesn't work outside of those bounds, like for MeToo and BLM. It's interesting how it's somehow a progressive issue. "Why have reports of “hate groups” risen during the same decades that racial prejudice has been plummeting?" Perhaps because expectations have risen, and perhaps because there was no one to report to earlier that would listen. Anyone who thinks raci…

I mean its a conservative one too - look at the moving goalposts to the right on Abortion, the right keeps demanding more and more stringent controls, gun rights too. Its an activist problem more than anything else.

It's not the same problem, or any problem. The OP is a reactionary grasping at straws.

Anti racism activists want to end racism, not reduce it.

Anti abortion people want to end abortion, not reduce it.

It's different from March of Dimes people stuck looking for something new to do when no one has polio anymore.

The complaint that progressives move one to a new issue once they solve (or obsolete) one issue isn't some sort of weird disorder, it's reflecting the reality that one person can't solve every problem at the same time.

Also, "March of Dimes Syndrome" was invented by the Federalist, a zero credibility rag.

https://thefederalist.com/2016/09/21/social-justice-warriors...

This OP is reactionary regressive grossness, trying to smear people who are trying to solve problems.

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#23

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

The publication seems to be Pink Slime.

It's a facade for a conservative think-tank, started by William Casey, CIA director under Ronald Reagan.

The name and format are designed to mimic local journalism.

John Marion Tierney is an American journalist and a contributing editor to City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's quarterly publication.

City Journal is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tierney_(journalist)

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Journal

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#24

Post by _carbyau_ »

"So activists have moved the goalposts once again. It is no longer enough for conservative Christians to tolerate same-sex marriage—now they must be legally required to bake cakes and design web pages for the weddings."

The article lost me here. I mean, I'd love to say I took the above quote out of a surrounding context that explains it more fully and sheds more light but I can't. Instead I find more exasperation that treating some humans like other humans is somehow going beyond the pale.

To address this point in particular, conservative christians are not "legally required" to support same-sex. They are "legally required" to treat some people like all the other people their business supports in public - to do otherwise is the definition of segregation.

The article posits that people and organisations go from one cause to another cause after success. Uh, yeah. That's what people trying to make life better do. Do they always get it right? Hell no. But I'm glad someone is trying.

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#26

Post by waldothedog »

twojobsoneboss wrote: post #18
Aloha wrote: post #16

This at its core is the problem with activism , be it left or right - what do you do once you 'solve' the cause you set out to solve? The answer is very rarely "ride off into the sunset" - often its moving goalposts.

Put more charitably, there are always problems facing society

And: people want things to keep improving, for themselves and others.

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#27

Post by ggm »

dfc wrote: post #11
ggm wrote: post #2

I work in the not for profit internet governance space, and we frequently discuss the "shirky principle" -Because we see signs of it all the time.

What a blast from the oast. I have not heard Clay Shirky in a long time. Did he stop writing?

He moved into the Uni sector, according to Wiki.

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#28

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #23

The publication seems to be Pink Slime. It's a facade for a conservative think-tank, started by William Casey, CIA director under Ronald Reagan. The name and format are designed to mimic local journalism. John Marion Tierney is an American journalist and a contributing editor to City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's quarterly publication. City Journal is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conser…

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is an American conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs. It was established in Manhattan in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey.

William Joseph Casey was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy...

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Casey

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#29

Post by lovidico »

The author of this article evidently is ignorant to the current state of the world. Simply having the existence of a group become no longer illegal doesn't mean that rights are guaranteed at all. Groups advocating for women's and LGBTQI rights have continued to exist despite advances because groups working to undo everything they have achieved also continue to exist. There is obvious evidence of this - women's and LGBTQIA rights have gone backwards definitively both in the US and UK and are unambiguously in a much worse state than they were 10 years ago.

This is quasi-intellectual bullshit written by a contrarian who fails to identify that social systems are dynamic, and evidently has a bias informing this (cough cough, certain pejorative terms throughout). This is spun as some sort of centrist triumph, but this is really the true voice of regression - if we stop advocating for the rights of groups who actively have their rights under attack by others, they will simply lose whatever has been achieved.

It is a somewhat interesting point w.r.t. the Dimes syndrome itself in whatever limited cases it might actually apply, however I would argue that this article is working overtime to misappropriate the term to advocate for silencing progress (while not ever implying that anti-rights groups should be seen the same).

Re: The March of Dimes Syndrome

#30

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

lovidico wrote: post #29

The author of this article evidently is ignorant to the current state of the world. Simply having the existence of a group become no longer illegal doesn't mean that rights are guaranteed at all. Groups advocating for women's and LGBTQI rights have continued to exist despite advances because groups working to undo everything they have achieved also continue to exist. There is obvious evidence of this - women's and LG…

    The author of the article is writing this 

    for a conservative think tank

    started by a CIA director.
ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40712550#40713116
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