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Post by michaelw on Jun 30, 2021 18:13:03 GMT -5
To be clear, his tweets aren't really a big deal, and his not the only person with a PhD on twitter to post meandering, pedantic hot takes about a wide range of issues. I find them more groan-worthy than anything else. Fair enough. I think I just get irked--possibly too much--by pronouncements that such and such person is irrelevant, has nothing to offer, etc, based on a handful of posts on Twitter. In the context of Twitter, it's probably true, but then again, it's probably true for almost everyone on Twitter. (Heck, I bet that none of us sound nearly as smart as we think we do when posting on social media. ) Personally, I like Tyson's books and lectures, though if others don't, that's fair enough. (OTOH, I can't say the same about Thomas Friedman, LOL.)
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Post by michaelw on Jun 30, 2021 8:30:32 GMT -5
Disagree. Multiple tweets can be making multiple points. Nah, I don't think that's really a point of disagreement. I agree. I'm just noting where I think all this stuff came from, initially. Tyson's always been really into aliens. And as I noted, there had been a lot of alien stuff in the news recently. If not for that, I am not sure we'd be seeing any of these particular tweets. So to me, it's just a physicist talking about aliens. (And some of it is kind of sophomoric, I agree.) Now, that whole thing about Dawkins and Kafka, that was some pretty hilarious epistemic trespassing, IMO.
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Post by michaelw on Jun 30, 2021 8:01:20 GMT -5
Not sure about that. It seemed like the tweets above were taken from a much larger string of tweets, all mentioning aliens in some way, but not all of them necessarily about human nature or not getting along. I took the thread as a whole to be a response to the recent UFO report from the Pentagon, which a lot of people seem to be making a big deal out of lately.
Take this, for example...
To me, that seems like a valid point. (Though I guess the conspiracy theorists out there might not like it too much.)
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Post by michaelw on Jun 29, 2021 23:40:22 GMT -5
Yeah, he seems to be falling a bit into the same trap of " epistemic tresspassing" that a lot of "public intellekshuals" do, where they start to believe that expertise in one thing makes them an expert in understanding everything. I dunno, I think the tweets are kind of dumb, but he's talking about aliens, mathematics, and daylight savings time. And he's an astrophysicist, right? Doesn't really strike me as a very strong example of epistemic trespassing.
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Post by michaelw on Jun 26, 2021 21:01:44 GMT -5
It's just an ultra-elite snobbery that's all-white because all the traditional wealthy families in the area are white. But their top university is called Brown, so surely that must count for something, right?
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Post by michaelw on Jun 24, 2021 17:58:42 GMT -5
Sure, but my point is that his responses are, well, stupid. They reflect a complete lack of political acumen, imo. Oh yeah, I agree. I'm not that surprised he's been winning elections. Just being an incumbent Democrat in Rhode Island is a big advantage in the GEs. I guess in theory the primary might be trickier, but it looks like when he ran in the original primary, he was running against a bunch of nobodies that nobody ever heard of (whereas he had been the Attorney General)... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_United_States_Senate_election_in_Rhode_Island#Candidates
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Post by michaelw on Jun 24, 2021 17:16:23 GMT -5
How was this guy ever elected to anything? Well, Rhode Island is like 80 percent white. That probably didn't hurt.
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Post by michaelw on Jun 24, 2021 1:44:09 GMT -5
Voters vote for and turn on candidates for the dumbest reasons sometimes. Yeah, I think that's pretty hard to argue with. Haha, that's right! Classic Hillary.
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Post by michaelw on Jun 23, 2021 18:29:54 GMT -5
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Post by michaelw on Jun 23, 2021 1:49:51 GMT -5
"It's a long tradition in Rhode Island."
Holy shit, WTF kind of answer is that???
(On the plus side, maybe this could make great material for an episode of Family Guy.)
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Post by michaelw on Jun 8, 2021 18:27:53 GMT -5
I see that GME just hit $300. LOL.
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Post by michaelw on Jun 5, 2021 18:20:22 GMT -5
I've never once heard anyone refer to The Metamorphosis as science fiction. I'm not bothered though if he doesn't care for it. Kafka's not for everyone, IMO. ETA: Now I'm just picturing Dawkins angrily reacting to the opening line in The Metamorphosis. ("FFS, that's not how evolution works at all!")
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Post by michaelw on Jun 5, 2021 1:35:00 GMT -5
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Post by michaelw on Jun 4, 2021 19:27:15 GMT -5
As to her mental health claims, again the solution would always have been to take time off, as opposed to continuing to play knowing that one would purposefully break rules/contracts. The latter is a stupid approach and screams--imo--bullshit excuse. I think I can agree that taking time off would've been one possible solution, but I don't think it was "the" solution. I wanted to revisit this, so I can link to an article that I found useful on this point about solutions... www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/naomi-osaka-should-be-a-strong-ada-reminder-for-employers.htmlThe author discusses a few alternative solutions, which I'll mention below: Personally, I think 1-3 all sound pretty reasonable. And they strike me as better not just for Osaka but probably for everyone involved who has some particular interest at stake. (Because, if we accept the proposition that skipping a media session deprives certain parties of benefits X, Y, and Z, then Osaka sitting at home would probably do the same thing, IMO.)
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Post by michaelw on Jun 4, 2021 18:30:36 GMT -5
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