lexcorvus

5 ms·

1.
by lexcorvus 9y ago
The views in the article represent the scientific consensus. Scott Alexander covers some of the most salient points here: http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/08/07/contra-grant-on-exagger... See Steven Pinker&#x27
2.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
I appreciate the thoughtful response. I understand the argument you're making about economic signaling, and indeed YC(b)'s milquetoast declaration of encouraging women and minority applicants would be a cheap sop to political corr
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Burke's an interesting case. Although revered by many contemporary American conservatives, he was a member of Britain's more left-wing political party, the Whigs (the counterpart to the more right-wing Tories). Like most Whigs, Bu
4.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
The ancien régime was deeply flawed, but don't forget that the winners write history. Indeed, we live inside the Revolution still, so you can trust barely anything you've ever read on the subject. If you'd like an alternate
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
I just found the obituary [1] and was considering replying with the "correct" quote, but did some more digging and discovered that you are absolutely correct [2]: the Times has, without notification, edited (some might say "a
6.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
"Group X tends to do Y." "How dishonest. You're saying all members of Group X do Y and should therefore be ignored." "I said none of those things. I said Group X tends to do Y, which implies that some members
7.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
They want to censor what might be called secular heresy —anything that questions the reigning "mainstream" (progressive) orthodoxy.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
ill-defined cohort The group I mentioned is precisely defined, and 100% opt-in—it's the set of all people who say "I'm only intolerant of intolerance." all members of the group are irrational and should be ignored Ar
9.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
It's also a lie. Try engaging the "I'm only intolerant of intolerance" crowd on, say, climate change, abortion, or the death penalty. It takes tortuous logical contortions to frame any of these issues in terms of "i
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
This is well-done, but I wish such treatments spent more effort establishing that climate change projections are (a) reliable and (b) catastrophic. Those two points are the essence of the case, and yet they're usually just assumed. (No
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Indeed, there's a lot of Schadenfreude going on here. The chickens are coming home to roost.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
It's not about politeness; it's about political power. In particular, the definition of "polite" is entirely asymmetric, with "marginalized groups" (basically, everyone but straight white males) given carte bl
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
I believe that many people genuinely feel unsafe when in the presence of someone whose political beliefs offend them. The problem arises when that person, or those beliefs, do not in fact represent a threat. In such a case, feeling unsafe i
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
It's disappointing to see a potentially valuable educational program frame its activities in terms of closing a diversity gap rather than simply helping people. Can you imagine a similar academy dedicated to closing the gap between whi
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Understanding Human History is one of my favorite books. I finished it and immediately reread it. This was especially instructive given that a decade ago I read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel twice as well, quite innocent o
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
accuse and manhandle vast numbers of innocent Americans of race A One doesn't need to advocate accusing and manhandling to think the police should use statistically valid inferences in the name of justice. I myself am a member of
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
I didn't say there are no valid examples of bias, just that many people assume unequal outcomes must result from unequal opportunity, ignoring the possibility of real group differences. Surely you know many real-life Alans who see bi
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Hey rewqfdsa, maybe shoot me an email some time. Address is in profile.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
could easily be either Or both. They're not mutually exclusive. Do Jamaican sprinters excel because they grow up around other sprinters or because they are blessed with natural ability? Yes. Simply put, or != xor .
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
A straightforward application of evolutionary biology to Homo sapiens yields group differences as the null hypothesis. You've done nothing but construct a ridiculous strawman to refute this. Moreover, discrimination and group differe
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Indeed. The problem is that people frequently infer unfair rules from unequal outcomes, without taking into account the possibility of systematic group differences. Alan: I believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Indeed, there's pretty much nothing bawdier in English literature than "The Miller's Tale" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miller%27s_Tale ). Some Shakespeare comes close, though. Which kind of p
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
sex outside marriage isn't so much taboo as explicitly ruled out by definition You're using different definitions. By "sex outside of marriage," the previous commenter means "two unmarried people having sex,"
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
It has one star on Yelp. At the time of writing, there are only two reviews total, one of them obviously post-Odom. just 12 of the state’s 16 counties Just? 12/16 = 75%. That's not "just." Who is editing this stuff?
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Indeed often true; I've noticed the same. In this case, there was a correct use of "it's", so I had to add an extra word to the substitution.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Everything I wrote is genuine and polite (perhaps even overly so). What you wrote is distinctly impolite. Is the irony lost on you? Think of that the next time you're tempted to call someone a nasty name.
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by lexcorvus 11y ago
Everything in my statement is genuine. What's more impolite, saying something, or letting someone continue to make a mistake? Like I said in my comment, it's a tough call. Implying someone is an asshole is always impolite. Take th
28.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
I always prefer to correct in private. Most people don't list email addresses in their profiles, so I didn't think to check. Next time I will. By the way, despite logic, "truly" doesn't contain the substring "t
29.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
Correcting grammar and spelling errors—especially in public—is always a tough call: upon judging that an error is systematic and not a simple typo, do you help the writer avoid the error in perpetuity—even if it embarrasses them a little, a
30.
by lexcorvus 11y ago
Brits are also less shocked by "fag" because of its use to mean "cigarette." In college I had a French teacher who scandalized her American class by casually dropping the word into conversation. Turns out she had learned

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