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Thomas Sowell interview

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Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#451

Post by googthrowaway42 »

jahaja wrote: post #450
googthrowaway42 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what kinds of housing are plentiful and what kinds of housing are not? Certain types of housing are plentiful and some are more scarce depending on what homebuyers want at some price and homebuilders can build at some price. > And what need kind of housing is needed to make sure people doesn't die of exposure, even the poor? Again even if you were able to determine that (which you aren't, given that most of the…

> how are you going to convince or force people to build these houses that you (Supreme Decider of America) In Sweden we had a government agency that both identified the need (not rocket science) and government building corporations that actually built the houses. > I'm actually making very pointed arguments that fundamentally invalidate your whole world view. It must be handy to be so ignorant and yet so cocksure. T…

Sweden is one of the last places on earth I would choose to live and probably in the next decade even you will see why. Eventually all of these socialist regimes collapse.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#452

Post by jahaja »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #451
jahaja wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how are you going to convince or force people to build these houses that you (Supreme Decider of America) In Sweden we had a government agency that both identified the need (not rocket science) and government building corporations that actually built the houses. > I'm actually making very pointed arguments that fundamentally invalidate your whole world view. It must be handy to be so ignorant and yet so cocksure. T…

Sweden is one of the last places on earth I would choose to live and probably in the next decade even you will see why. Eventually all of these socialist regimes collapse.

What a waste of time.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#453

Post by wutbrodo »

hedberg10 wrote: post #71
mc32 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish other writers would take this to heart. Reading The New Yorker it’s as if their language is a shibboleth and if they didn’t use it, it would alienate their audience for using average language, yet they are the same people who pontificate and pretend they advocate for the lower classes.

Let them. If you have the psychological need to constantly show how smart you are, your life will be very stressful indeed. You will want to manipulate others to get confirmation of your acrobatics and always be on the lookout for disproof. This will lead to you limiting your life severely for fear of actually finding it. -former smartness showoff who now acts betterer

I don't think they're signaling intelligence as much as they're signaling a specific subculture of East-Coast WASPy humanities-focused aristocrats that the most "prestigious" papers are steeped in. For example, the famous blind animus that that memeplex has towards tech certainly isn't rooted in looking down on the _intelligence_ of those steeped in Californian tech culture, but rather their will and ability to signal social class effectively.

It's a weird inversion, since the signals being defended are deeply illiberal: they exclude individualism, weirdness, inclusiveness, systems striving to be built on merit, etc etc.

I'm pretty familiar with this tendency because I come from a family who's pretty steeped in this kind of subculture. Growing up in CA and moving to the Bay as a teen, I absorbed the tech/Burning Man/CA memeplex of humanism and inherent equality and individualism way too deeply not to overwhelm my upbringing, but there are certain class markers I haven't shed, and un-self-conscious use of dense prose is one of them[1]. I actually did try to make my speech more casual when I became aware of these class markers during a period of teen rebellion, but changing how you communicate is a pretty complicated uphill battle, so I ended up with a weird hybrid of big words and idiomatic expressions (and lots of cursing, in verbal communication -_-)

[1] I want to emphasize again that this isn't quite an intelligence thing: my best friend is definitely smarter than me, and he speaks significantly more casually/colloquially than me because of his family's background.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#454

Post by Woberto »

tathougies wrote: post #376
RoboticWater wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, this just comes off as reactionary, as if saying "I believe in systemic racism" somehow secretly casts a vote for progressive policies behind your back. Is it really so hard to say "I believe that our institutions are systemically racist, and I believe that egalitarianism is best facilitated by the market"? It just seems strange to get caught up in the "culture war" notions that terms are getting co-opted for ag…

Words take on new meanings. Look... you're expecting me to continue to defend a man who has written dozens of full-length books explaining his positions. I'm not going to respond to your claims on charter schools because Sowell has just released a new book called 'charter schools and their enemies', which goes very in depth into his support of charter schools. I haven't read it yet, but I imagine it would contain his…

I think the previous poster is just interested in the discussion, not attacking Sowell. His comments have focused on the content, not the author.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#455

Post by Woberto »

JPKab wrote: post #416
RoboticWater wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physics is also a purposefully nebulous term used to capture and group a collection of specific issues that can be measured. God forbid people want to group together racial disparities caused by institutional practices under the term "systemic racism." We could call them "fiddledydoop" for all I care, but there is obviously a good reason to group these things together. Of course, you seem to be implying that people a…

Your analogy isn't correct. Physics isn't used as a catch-all to explain things that haven't been researched. And I never said the 10% delta wasn't awful. That is of course a horrific thing that must be addressed. It's also a specific issue that can be measured and solved. Systemic racism is used just like God was when I, growing up in the south, had to defend my belief in evolution. The favorite weapon of the biblic…

I think you make some good points toward the end, which is why I wanted to say that, as a member of the general public, I don't feel like activists manipulated me. They brought up the issue, and some of them may have more extreme views than I, but I think it's clear that some examples of police violence are unnecessary, regardless of whom they're perpetrated against.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#456

Post by loulou24 »

mcguire wrote: post #350
jrexilius wrote: post #233

His writings do exactly what he states: Sowell insists that his work “stands or falls on its own merits or applicability” and is not “enhanced or reduced by [his] personal life.”. And they will continue to stand, objectively, for a long time to come. But his life and character are inspirational examples of self-determination and leadership that we need far more of. It is a shame he is not more often cited as an examp…

"Even if 90 percent of all Muslims are fine people, and we admit 10,000 refugees from the Middle East, does that mean that we need not be concerned about adding a thousand potential terrorists — even after we have seen in San Bernardino what just two terrorists can do?*" Thomas Sowell, ladies and gentlemen. ( https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/12/1... )

The all too common argument that there's no problem since it's only a minute minority that is problematic is in contradiction with a huge chunk of human history.

On this particular topic, we in Europe are increasingly frequently getting a painful refresher.

Thanks for the link.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#457

Post by 082349872349872 »

ajuc wrote: post #217
altcognito wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I mean at that level what counts as a difference and what’s the measure of that distance. I like that this is an attempt to define it even if is isn’t op and we do t actually have any actual numbers, past or present for comparison.

Doesn't seem to be that hard. On abortion it would be 1 if you're in favor of total ban and 0 if you're in favor of no regulation whatsoever. On free healthcare it would be 0 if you want no state involvement whatsoever and 1 if you want free tax-payed healthcare for every citizen. Etc. It doesn't even matter which way the 0 and 1 are.

With enough issues, no one will be at the average, by the curse of dimensionality. On the other hand, making it obvious that we're all nonconformists (à la https://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php And Then There Were None?) might be an improvement.
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