A overview of what is currently known about biological sexual diversity. Basically, it's really complicated, we should trying to impose binaries on people and we should *especially* stop imposing "corrective" surgeries on infants who are too young to consent or express a gender identity.
"Last year, for example, surgeons reported that they had been operating on a hernia in a man, when they discovered that he had a womb. The man was 70, and had fathered four children."
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This is good
"After WWII, the U.S. military did studies on how many men would shoot at the enemy on their own accord. The results showed that only about 15 to 20 percent of men would voluntarily fire upon the enemy. The rest just would not fire unless an officer was present and specifically ordering them to do so."
>>><<<
"“Nobody can control me! I do what I want!”
To which my friends responded:
…and you know what? You’re white, so it makes complete sense that you’d feel that way." Everyday Feminism
>>><<<
Gladwell doesn't play up the racial element of this, but it's surely worth thinking about. Italian American gangsters largely got away with distributing illegal drugs and so on, and were able to propel their children and grandchildren into the respectable middle classes. African American gangsters are subject to the most tenacious and sophisticated law enforcement apparatus in the history of the world, and tend to either be killed or spend most of their lives in prison
>>><<<
"But there is nothing funny about political behaviour on this issue. They think it fine to smoke a few spliffs as students, then go on to uphold outdated laws that ensure others who are less fortunate, less wealthy or less white end up with a criminal conviction for doing the same thing. More than 25,000 people annually receive a criminal conviction for cannabis offences, each one seeing career and travel prospects blighted." Independent
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"Like a very stark relief in a painting, the book shows that these black inmates were deliberately, as a matter of tradition and policy, denied adequate medical staffing, hospital facilities and medical supplies.... Until recently some Afrikaners in South Africa claimed a sole martyrdom, arising from the terrible deaths of 26,370 Afrikaner women and children in the concentration camps. Kessler’s book shows that view of the past to have been too narrow. He documents the deaths of more than 21,000 black men, women and children in the camps established by the British in South Africa. There was a shared martyrdom between black and white and the suffering in the camps was something that united black and white." BD Live
>>><<<
I'm posting this as an example of what really shitty left-identifying politics can look like. Framing the issue as "Well there's a few sex workers in this camp and there's a few sex workers in that camp" is so misleading as to be kind of Orwellian. In fact kind of like the Cosby tactic Lewis herself cites of identifying *some* right wing black person as a means to derail clear collective demands. There are literally hundreds of thousands of sex workers represented in various organisations globally who are collectively organising for decrim (http://www.nswp.org/members), and that demand is framed pretty much entirely in terms of labour and human rights, not about having "positive experiences" of their work. In fact, sex worker led orgs are typically the ones helping people in coercive situations when the cops either don't give a shit or think abusing sex workers is a more fun and lucrative use of their time.
This article is also a really good example of how the language of "identity politics" is used to shut down the voices of marginalised groups who are actually speaking quite coherently and collectively on an issue. Lewis would do well to remember that women in left wing circles have been accused of "identity politics" when they get quite rightfully pissed off about the way they have been treated by male "comrades".
>>><<<
This piece does oversimplify some issues, but I think it's accurate in the broad strokes. We're now living in a monetary and policy regime that promotes the interests of asset owners over those of wage earners.
"If they wanted to drive down rents, government could fund the construction of public housing, as they did during the Golden Age. More quality housing would increase its stock, and with supply rising to meet demand, prices would fall. This would be great for young renters, bad for middle-aged property owners, bad for banks. Thus it is not likely to happen. Property prices, at an all time high, are not likely to fall, and if they do, expect the government to put a floor under them.
During the Golden Age, affluence flowed toward labor. Today it flows toward asset owners. I think my retirement is safe. I’m not so sure about my children’s work prospects."
>>><<<
"Hurting immigrants is obviously the most important goal in the world, much more important than upholding human rights, common sense or basic human decency. So if the only way to hurt immigrants is by hurting UK citizens too, then by golly, that's just what we'll have to do!" Basically Tory policy right now
>>><<<
Yes! Amnesty meeting votes for sex work decriminalisation! Sex workers' rights are human rights
>>><<<
"the rise of social has flipped the old writer/reader balance, restoring power to the reader. On social media, you share an article because you agree with the take, sure, but also because it says something about you, whether that fact is that you're angry about a political issue, or that you like cute bunnies, or that you love Back to the Future. Your social media feed is a curation of things you want people to know about you. Inconvenient truths, negative views, or anything too dark will be pushed aside." Vox
>>><<<
"From the perspective of the boss, replacing a worker with a machine will be more appealing to the degree that the machine is (1) cheaper than the human worker and (2) more convenient and easier to control than the human worker. This implies that if workers win higher wages and more control over their working conditions, their jobs are more likely to be automated...
I regard such warnings not as arguments against higher wages, but arguments for them. Workers, in the course of fighting for their interests, drive the dialectic that forces capitalists to find less labor-intensive ways of producing. The next political task, then, is to make sure that the benefits of such innovation accrue to the masses, and not to a small class of robot owners." Jacobin
>>><<<
"“The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all”, goes the old adage from Joan Robinson. Then again, says Marx, “to be a productive laborer is not a piece of luck, but a misfortune. In the short run, labor complementary technology may employ more people, which is better than them not being exploited at all. But in the long run, the jobs thus created tend to be terrible, and our real goal ought to be to channel technical change toward labor saving innovation." Peter Frase
"Last year, for example, surgeons reported that they had been operating on a hernia in a man, when they discovered that he had a womb. The man was 70, and had fathered four children."
>>><<<
This is good
"After WWII, the U.S. military did studies on how many men would shoot at the enemy on their own accord. The results showed that only about 15 to 20 percent of men would voluntarily fire upon the enemy. The rest just would not fire unless an officer was present and specifically ordering them to do so."
>>><<<
"“Nobody can control me! I do what I want!”
To which my friends responded:
…and you know what? You’re white, so it makes complete sense that you’d feel that way." Everyday Feminism
>>><<<
Gladwell doesn't play up the racial element of this, but it's surely worth thinking about. Italian American gangsters largely got away with distributing illegal drugs and so on, and were able to propel their children and grandchildren into the respectable middle classes. African American gangsters are subject to the most tenacious and sophisticated law enforcement apparatus in the history of the world, and tend to either be killed or spend most of their lives in prison
>>><<<
"But there is nothing funny about political behaviour on this issue. They think it fine to smoke a few spliffs as students, then go on to uphold outdated laws that ensure others who are less fortunate, less wealthy or less white end up with a criminal conviction for doing the same thing. More than 25,000 people annually receive a criminal conviction for cannabis offences, each one seeing career and travel prospects blighted." Independent
>>><<<
"Like a very stark relief in a painting, the book shows that these black inmates were deliberately, as a matter of tradition and policy, denied adequate medical staffing, hospital facilities and medical supplies.... Until recently some Afrikaners in South Africa claimed a sole martyrdom, arising from the terrible deaths of 26,370 Afrikaner women and children in the concentration camps. Kessler’s book shows that view of the past to have been too narrow. He documents the deaths of more than 21,000 black men, women and children in the camps established by the British in South Africa. There was a shared martyrdom between black and white and the suffering in the camps was something that united black and white." BD Live
>>><<<
I'm posting this as an example of what really shitty left-identifying politics can look like. Framing the issue as "Well there's a few sex workers in this camp and there's a few sex workers in that camp" is so misleading as to be kind of Orwellian. In fact kind of like the Cosby tactic Lewis herself cites of identifying *some* right wing black person as a means to derail clear collective demands. There are literally hundreds of thousands of sex workers represented in various organisations globally who are collectively organising for decrim (http://www.nswp.org/members), and that demand is framed pretty much entirely in terms of labour and human rights, not about having "positive experiences" of their work. In fact, sex worker led orgs are typically the ones helping people in coercive situations when the cops either don't give a shit or think abusing sex workers is a more fun and lucrative use of their time.
This article is also a really good example of how the language of "identity politics" is used to shut down the voices of marginalised groups who are actually speaking quite coherently and collectively on an issue. Lewis would do well to remember that women in left wing circles have been accused of "identity politics" when they get quite rightfully pissed off about the way they have been treated by male "comrades".
>>><<<
This piece does oversimplify some issues, but I think it's accurate in the broad strokes. We're now living in a monetary and policy regime that promotes the interests of asset owners over those of wage earners.
"If they wanted to drive down rents, government could fund the construction of public housing, as they did during the Golden Age. More quality housing would increase its stock, and with supply rising to meet demand, prices would fall. This would be great for young renters, bad for middle-aged property owners, bad for banks. Thus it is not likely to happen. Property prices, at an all time high, are not likely to fall, and if they do, expect the government to put a floor under them.
During the Golden Age, affluence flowed toward labor. Today it flows toward asset owners. I think my retirement is safe. I’m not so sure about my children’s work prospects."
>>><<<
"Hurting immigrants is obviously the most important goal in the world, much more important than upholding human rights, common sense or basic human decency. So if the only way to hurt immigrants is by hurting UK citizens too, then by golly, that's just what we'll have to do!" Basically Tory policy right now
>>><<<
Yes! Amnesty meeting votes for sex work decriminalisation! Sex workers' rights are human rights
>>><<<
"the rise of social has flipped the old writer/reader balance, restoring power to the reader. On social media, you share an article because you agree with the take, sure, but also because it says something about you, whether that fact is that you're angry about a political issue, or that you like cute bunnies, or that you love Back to the Future. Your social media feed is a curation of things you want people to know about you. Inconvenient truths, negative views, or anything too dark will be pushed aside." Vox
>>><<<
"From the perspective of the boss, replacing a worker with a machine will be more appealing to the degree that the machine is (1) cheaper than the human worker and (2) more convenient and easier to control than the human worker. This implies that if workers win higher wages and more control over their working conditions, their jobs are more likely to be automated...
I regard such warnings not as arguments against higher wages, but arguments for them. Workers, in the course of fighting for their interests, drive the dialectic that forces capitalists to find less labor-intensive ways of producing. The next political task, then, is to make sure that the benefits of such innovation accrue to the masses, and not to a small class of robot owners." Jacobin
>>><<<
"“The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all”, goes the old adage from Joan Robinson. Then again, says Marx, “to be a productive laborer is not a piece of luck, but a misfortune. In the short run, labor complementary technology may employ more people, which is better than them not being exploited at all. But in the long run, the jobs thus created tend to be terrible, and our real goal ought to be to channel technical change toward labor saving innovation." Peter Frase
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