tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post3365352809019639985..comments2023-12-23T16:22:22.290-05:00Comments on alicublog: PUT OUT MORE FLAGS.roy edrosohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15161980502027888634noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-1667893420023669052013-10-13T21:37:38.436-04:002013-10-13T21:37:38.436-04:00"Argument is what you do with telemarketers a..."Argument is what you do with telemarketers and if you concede a logcal point or admit an error you end up owning a timeshare." Perfect.reallyaimainoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-87829866859807052332013-10-13T18:48:45.164-04:002013-10-13T18:48:45.164-04:00I suppose the traditional expectation has been tha...I suppose the traditional expectation has been that critical reading and interpretation become skills that translate to other aspects of life. The problem, of course, is that no small number of students simply are not motivated to dig out the subtleties of <i>Great Expectations</i>, and therefore miss out on what it means to really think about what one is reading (or hearing, or seeing). <br /><br /><br /><br />That said, the problem with teaching media in public schools is that the heart of any such program would necessarily be the cultivation of skeptical inquiry, and that's ultimately damaging to the status quo. I suspect that most public school teachers assigned such a course would come to think of it as career assassination, because teaching people how to identify meaningless bullshit as meaningless bullshit, and challenging perceptions is precisely the sort of thing that gets the purveyors of meaningless bullshit riled up. At least tenure at the college level provides some marginal protection from attack (less so today than in the past, but, still...), which may be part of the reason why media courses exist now at the college level and not in the public schools. <br /><br /><br /><br />Still, I agree with you in principle. Had everyone been required to read and analyze, say, Rick MacArthur's <i>Second Front</i>, would there have been <i>any</i> support for a second Gulf War? Would the public have been more or less likely to recognize the propaganda techniques employed? I think they would have had a better chance to see a con job coming, at the very least.montag2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-31889850248520694152013-10-13T17:31:08.943-04:002013-10-13T17:31:08.943-04:00Was Niven always a wingnut, or did he just go insa...Was Niven always a wingnut, or did he just go insane in his later years like so many others?XeckyGilchristnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-38745344259310833832013-10-13T11:37:10.627-04:002013-10-13T11:37:10.627-04:00Oh for God's sake, shut up! They'll start...Oh for God's sake, shut up! They'll start on the organlegger stuff next (and since in <i>A Gift From Earth</i> it starts with the prison population of my home state, it makes me nervous).LittlePignoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-83253380252795550542013-10-13T11:33:33.416-04:002013-10-13T11:33:33.416-04:00That's no shit.That's no shit.M. Krebsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-30586098734927887232013-10-12T18:39:45.786-04:002013-10-12T18:39:45.786-04:00But thats because I don't think that critical ...But thats because I don't think that critical reading can be limited to a hermeneutical standpoint<br /><br />HOT.mdsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-25041013268021062372013-10-12T17:22:29.667-04:002013-10-12T17:22:29.667-04:00Do they know that Obama will never run for anythin...Do they know that Obama will never run for anything again? I imagine that he doesn't give a rat's ass how low his numbers go, it won't affect his pension.merl1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-7168985998132425062013-10-12T17:19:23.835-04:002013-10-12T17:19:23.835-04:00You'd also expect a law perfessor not to confu...You'd also expect a law perfessor not to confuse 'disinterested' with 'uninterested'.Smut Clydenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-87309683564203002182013-10-12T17:06:24.090-04:002013-10-12T17:06:24.090-04:00I'm not sure taht I agree. But thats because I...I'm not sure taht I agree. But thats because I don't think that critical reading can be limited to a hermeneutical standpoint--that is, I don't think the only kind of critical reading to be taught, or to be learned, is focused on the interior of the work. There is critical reading that takes place across genres and across historical periods, that is intertextual and references things outside the work. And it is that kind of critical reading that is necessary to combat propaganda and lazy acceptance of the obvious meanings of words/texts/political acts. You can't critique Sleeping Beauty from inside the text, but you can learn a lot from it as a genre work in fairy tales or in romances, when you read up, down, and across.reallyaimainoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-81788020167043974812013-10-12T16:43:07.977-04:002013-10-12T16:43:07.977-04:00Equally true is that shit is shit is shit. And no ...Equally true is that shit is shit is shit. And no amount of critical reading will make shit into not-shit. Applying to not-shit the critical reading methods for analyzing shit produces mostly shit. The critical reading skills for really getting not-shit, when applied to shit , will also produce, well, mostly shit. Any critical method or approach that can't meaningfully distinguish between Eugene Onegin and Star Trek may be be regarded as something less than indispensable. In the criticism of not- shit, method only gets you so far, and beyond that point is where all the interesting things are happening.kianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-65933347421877758132013-10-12T13:06:14.342-04:002013-10-12T13:06:14.342-04:00Yes, he seemed equally concerned about his cat and...Yes, he seemed equally concerned about his cat and I loved my cat at the time--whose name, oddly enough, was Herpes. Which just goes to show that people are weird all over.reallyaimainoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-44548817598459776932013-10-12T13:05:16.281-04:002013-10-12T13:05:16.281-04:00Critical reading is critical reading is critical r...Critical reading is critical reading is critical reading on some level.reallyaimainoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-34636535345046651312013-10-12T10:56:42.043-04:002013-10-12T10:56:42.043-04:00Good point, unfortunately. And to clarify, I wasn&...Good point, unfortunately. And to clarify, I wasn't suggesting we stop teaching Lit; I have a commercially useless degree in English myself, so I'm all for it.Grometnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-7821145515248978632013-10-12T07:01:56.076-04:002013-10-12T07:01:56.076-04:00All that is true--just as the popular notion of &q...All that is true--just as the popular notion of "theory" has come to be synonymous with "my opinion," the logical argument has become a thing of the past. I used to mock it, but I'm beginning to miss the times when debate was actually taught in most public school programs.<br /><br /><br />I would add, that I think a serious problem with these sorts of people being in positions of influence is that they conflate "understanding" with "agreement," and it goes both ways. That is, they refuse to understand (or admit they understand) anything they don't like because in their world that is defeat--you might as well admit the other guy is right, if you understand his motives.<br /><br />On the other hand, that is also why they are so desperate to be <i>understood</i> and fixate on <i>popularity</i>, because that means they must be Right.<br /><br />It is such a strange thing to see emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence become further and further removed from biological age in this country. I'd been taught the two weren't necessarily one and the same, but it is surprising to see it exposed so widely outside of a laboratory setting.Colenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-79148265326683548952013-10-12T05:34:57.899-04:002013-10-12T05:34:57.899-04:00Well, one of the benefits of Great expectations, o...Well, one of the benefits of Great expectations, or Anna Karenina, or The Dunciad, or the Essay on Criticism, or the Oresteia, is that these works prove the existence of intellectual activity that is not solely dedicated to selling shit to people. There have been communications courses in universities for decades, in which, presumably, media criticism is taught. What they seem to produce is armies of people who go into the propaganda industries--marketing etc. criticism of marketing and propaganda just produces more skilled or slick marketers and propagandists and there is always a market for those. kianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-53547908799797010122013-10-12T04:54:32.838-04:002013-10-12T04:54:32.838-04:00People always have a hard time grasping the existe...People always have a hard time grasping the existence of intellectual functions that they themselves don't use much. They think good manners means "acting high class" rather than carrying other people in your heart so you remember to consider their needs and desires along with your own.<br /><br />That is, it's a performance for effect, is their way of looking at it. Reasoning, the expectation of self-cosistency, the expectation that error will be abandoned, the idea that you are better off knowing you don't know than persisting inkianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-37093449696180337822013-10-12T01:05:43.100-04:002013-10-12T01:05:43.100-04:00Sooo.... Teenaged Smut liked teenaged smut?Sooo.... Teenaged Smut liked teenaged smut?Big_Bad_Bald_Bastardhttp://bigbadbaldbastard.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-135328440438209302013-10-12T00:55:25.024-04:002013-10-12T00:55:25.024-04:00An interesting observation, that. And it reinforce...An interesting observation, that. And it reinforces what I was saying about the ascendency of the irrational. We all have been forced into thinking in compartmentalized fashion--and one of those prominent compartments is Presidential terms, because it's a handy, if deeply flawed, means of comparison. <br /><br /><br /><br />If one, instead, thinks of the Reagan years as a time when certain policy regimens were set in motion that had lasting effects, almost all of them, coincidentally, deleterious to civil society here, the bloom does fade from the Reagan rose.<br /><br /><br />I think it was after his 1956 defeat that Adlai Stevenson observed that television would utterly transform politics in the U.S. Apart from the fact that Stevenson was even then underestimating its impact, he had no inkling of the coming of the most superficial aspects of Hollywood to the Presidency with Reagan's election, nor the ways in which everything would be stage-managed and orchestrated from then on. For many of those who remain nostalgic for the Reagan years, it's that `30s Hollywood musical atmosphere they remember--the bright, chirpy slogans, the eternally optimistic and smiling leading man beside his eternally optimistic and smiling leading lady, and even the dyed-black hair and Raggedy Andy make-up on Reagan reminded them that this was <i>Hollywood</i>, the place where make-believe is made real. Powerful stuff for the easily influenced.montag2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-25800271903625387502013-10-11T22:24:31.616-04:002013-10-11T22:24:31.616-04:00Bear Whiz Beer! It's in the water -- that'...Bear Whiz Beer! It's in the water -- that's why it's yellow!Tehanunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-29150450672572993422013-10-11T17:17:45.108-04:002013-10-11T17:17:45.108-04:00some crazy assed person started driving a lawnmowe...<i>some crazy assed person started driving a lawnmower around on public property and got kicked off by law enforcement?</i><br /><br />Life imitates <a href="http://www.larryniven.net/stories/cloak_of_anarchy.shtml" rel="nofollow">Larry Niven stories</a>.Smut Clydenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-55825305263046798872013-10-11T16:41:00.587-04:002013-10-11T16:41:00.587-04:00When the national parks are privatized, no one wil...When the national parks are privatized, no one will ever be denied access.<br />http://www.obatkuatku.us/<br />http://www.pemaintogel.info/<br />http://www.sacrewpon.comAbe Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-74733258766987330012013-10-11T16:21:12.878-04:002013-10-11T16:21:12.878-04:00Teenaged Smut wondered about the paedophilia aspec...Teenaged Smut wondered about the paedophilia aspect, but forgave Heinlein because of the goodthink he displayed on the subject of cats.Smut Clydenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-58569802171417887942013-10-11T16:09:28.961-04:002013-10-11T16:09:28.961-04:00because most of the meter maids - sorry, Parking E...because most of the meter maids - sorry, Parking Enforcement Officers - I know are women of color<br /><br /><br /><br />Something tells me the wingnuts have noticed these attributes, as well.LookWhosInTheFreezernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-18016232628570427092013-10-11T16:07:47.662-04:002013-10-11T16:07:47.662-04:00Perhaps you can shame tigrismus into blogging more...Perhaps you can shame tigrismus into blogging more often at <a href="eusa-riddled.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Riddled</a>.Smut Clydenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-25157382656433958152013-10-11T14:58:07.813-04:002013-10-11T14:58:07.813-04:00Yes to all the betrayal! The wingers I know would...Yes to all the betrayal! The wingers I know would counter <i>Wholesale deregulation would lead to a more self-disciplined marketplace</i> by saying But we didn't try it wholesale -- we did it partway, and that's why we experienced partial collapse. It never occurs to them that a wholesale program would have caused wholesale collapse. No, they say Of course the ice cracks when you inch out onto it in snowshoes -- what you gotta do is just let the snowmobile roar and jet you right across! Call it "Hold my beer and watch this" economics. Followed by accusations of "Well of course I almost drowned -- you didn't help me make the ramp bigger."Grometnoreply@blogger.com