Trouble with rasfc

[aquaeri]

Last night, I began three separate rants against David Friedman's racism, and gave up, because nearly every attempt would invoke Godwin's Law. But I mean, when someone thinks Larry Summers was on the money with his suspicion that the shortage of female engineers is an intrinsic biological problem, and James Watson was on the money with his

Comments

[oneironaut]

I hear you. The worst part of giving up on rasfc again was having my pleasure at having Zeborah and Catja on tap again cut short. The elljay is not the same.

[aquaeri]

I guess I'm doing all five stages of grief on top of each other.

[green_knight]

Thanks for the compliment!

It might not be the same, but I *do* talk about writing on my journal, and I also have beyond_elechan (which, as usual, is in need of an update) where I put more targetted essays.

[oneironaut]

I was going to say I didn't know you had a livejournal (I was thinking of Zeborah's), but I see you have a few people I know friended, so it's probably just that I was shy and then forgot. Now you've provoked me, though, so I have Catja on tap again. Excellent.

[aquaeri]

They certainly think they're smarter than the average person. There is a whole separate rant about that.

[green_knight]

I would say that on the whole that is probably the case - but the problem is that you only need a couple of guys with huge egos and a huge sense of entitlement to skew the average. And, of course, because they're so vocal and so persistent, they stand out a lot more.

[lcohen]

i will not go look.
i will not go look.
i will not go look.
i will not go look.
i will not go look.
i will not go look.

i wish i thought it might get better.

[aquaeri]

DF, I'm pretty certain, is incurable. Although I didn't realise he was quite as bigotted and racist as it appears he is (he tried to defend James Watson's racism! Argh boggle!).

I hold out some hope for Jonathan, but I'm not sure about Nicky.

[green_knight]

I'm surprised at Nicky's reaction, because she's generally good folk - I've known her for years, met her in person, and she writes about girls who can do just as much as the boys as a matter of course. She also usually has a low tolerance for bullshit.

I can understand that she got offensive when her kid was deemed to be homophobic (might have been thoughtless, but that doesn't make him homophobic - just a bad judge of words); but I don't understand why she's defending JLC and ripping into zeborahnzI concur on DF - he's in his sixties, in a position of priviledge, and all advice and requests to at least mend his manners even if he won't change his mind have perled off him in the past

[aquaeri]

The vibe I get from Nicky is "You don't know how good you've got it, now shut up". My problem is I grew up believing that, and now it's becoming clearer to me that although things are better, it's important not to shut up, because some of the stuff still out there is insidious, not really in consciousness, and it's nasty.

(I don't know what to think. I was pretty left-wing when I was younger, and was assured I'd get more conservative as I got older. This does not seem to be remotely what's going on for me.)

We're going to have to disagree about the homophobia thing. Yes, the kid is thoughtless, but that's exactly part of what makes the situation so homophobic to me.

DF is a crackpot. Now he is holding forth on IQ with The Bell Curve as his source of reference. If I was trying to parody him, I couldn't have come up with that. It does put his fondness for Larry Summers and James Watson into perspective

[green_knight]

For the moment, I am trying very hard to hang in, because I really care about that group.

[aquaeri]

I've implemented a new policy: I will try to post only about things that are actually writing related, and I will stop looking at DF's posts. You can also hope I get a job so I have less time for this crap.

[annafdd]

I've gone through this years ago. In some ways, I suppose I am lucky that I got major depression and didn't have the energy for rasfc anyway. :-(

[aquaeri]

It's a shame because it could be such a great, useful place. And I'm sure it is still, in many ways, useful. It's just a lot less useful when there's a group (who don't contribute all that much value to writing discussion) driving away people who do contribute to writing discussion, or in Alma's case, hamstring what she's willing to talk about. And cause the good people to have to take regular holidays rather than feel comfortable being there more regularly.

[heleninwales]

Oh, hi! I just found you via the discussion in lilairen's LJ.

I have dipped a toe into the rasfc waters again. Armed with kilfilles and lots of good intentions, I'll see if I can contribute something positive.

[aquaeri]

Hi! I should flist you too. There's so many good people around, which is heartening when all I can hear is the nonsense.