Writing in the Journal Experimental Social Psychology, Dr Michael Inzlicht said he believed people are born with a tendency to group with others on how like themselves they are. He has tested the brains of several people, he says.
Tripe. This research doesn't suggest that racism is in any way genetic or hard-wired or natural or inevitable or in any other sense a practical, necessary aspect of human perception. And anyone spinning it that way is merely indulging in wishful thinking.
It merely records how a brain works now, in response to a series of contemporary stimuli,with all the cultural baggage it carries. And after centuries of systemic racism, the fact that some people's brains have learned racist responses is hardly surprising.
During Apartheid, little children were subjected to sustained aversion therapy to the colour black, and to thick lips and frizzy hair.
It worked fine, as all conditioning does.
If the brains of the adults those children grew up to be were tested in the same way, they would undoubtedly produce the same results.
4/29/2010
TinTin In The Congo Banned Again
Would the publishers of this sad racist trash be prepared to include a preface briefly outlining the genocidal Belgian exploitation of the Congo for its rubber by King Leopold the Demented?
What's that you say? Too political? No place for such a thing in children's literature? Kids should be protected from these unpalatable truths?
But I thought that was good for them...
The fact is that kids do get their preconceptions from fiction, far more so than from the newspapers or Newsnight.. Many have grown up to kill and be killed in Afghanistan as a result.
What's that you say? Too political? No place for such a thing in children's literature? Kids should be protected from these unpalatable truths?
But I thought that was good for them...
The fact is that kids do get their preconceptions from fiction, far more so than from the newspapers or Newsnight.. Many have grown up to kill and be killed in Afghanistan as a result.
Botox Politics
BIGOT-GATE
The most disappointing aspect of all was probably the fact that the Guardian, of all outlets, chose to run the apparently damning image of Brown with his head in his hand, listening to the playback on the Jeremy Vine show for the BBC.
Anyone who actually watched and listened to the footage from which this was decontextualised will know that in fact, Brown leant forward before the tape started playing. He was adopting a fairly standard position many people use when concentrating on anything, and one which seems characteristic of him. He was not collapsed in despair at his gaff as he hadn't yet heard it.
In fact, I seem to remember similar frozen footage from earlier in the campaign, and that was also briefly spun against him.
Appearance is now much more important than reality. Every single frame from a video can now be used at print resolution, which increases the ability to lie by a factor of 125 frames per second. Which means that no politician will be able to be a normal human being again. Every second of footage will be scrutinised for the killer moneyshot of him gurning, sneering, squinting or drooling. If we wanted a generation of Botox politics, that's what we've got.
The most disappointing aspect of all was probably the fact that the Guardian, of all outlets, chose to run the apparently damning image of Brown with his head in his hand, listening to the playback on the Jeremy Vine show for the BBC.
Anyone who actually watched and listened to the footage from which this was decontextualised will know that in fact, Brown leant forward before the tape started playing. He was adopting a fairly standard position many people use when concentrating on anything, and one which seems characteristic of him. He was not collapsed in despair at his gaff as he hadn't yet heard it.
In fact, I seem to remember similar frozen footage from earlier in the campaign, and that was also briefly spun against him.
Appearance is now much more important than reality. Every single frame from a video can now be used at print resolution, which increases the ability to lie by a factor of 125 frames per second. Which means that no politician will be able to be a normal human being again. Every second of footage will be scrutinised for the killer moneyshot of him gurning, sneering, squinting or drooling. If we wanted a generation of Botox politics, that's what we've got.
4/28/2010
Bye Bye Gordon
You simply can't insult little old ladies and win elections. It doesn't matter if they are bigots, you have to schmooze them til it hurts, and remember to turn your mike off.
So that's the end of that chapter. It means a Cameron government of some sort, and a hung parliament is a lot less likely now.
The only interesting question left is who makes the most from this? Clegg or Cameron?
How exactly will the tory and libdem party machines cash in on Brown's disaster?
The overriding lesson to all members of double acts is, don't try the solo career. It never works. It means the boarding house in Rhyl for you. And as for the straight stage - only if you want to play a tragic clown to patronising reviews. And that this massive flop should happen in Rochdale, as in the Rochdale Pioneers, the Godfathers of the English co-operative movement, is surely some sort of revenge by the gods of socialism at Brown's heresies. His presence there was a little like flaunting the Golden Calf at the foot of Mt Sinai.
As far as tomorrow night's planned appearance in Leaders Got Talent, he might as well turn up drunk and punch out cameron's lights on national TV. That would get him more votes than anything else which might happen. And would be much more fun for everyone, except toryboy, of course.
But he'll have a new trainset to play with in a couple of weeks.
We will all have to be very understanding about the massive tax hikes he is forced to introduce by the back door, as Thatcher and Major both did as soon as they took office. After all. We're all in this together, y'know. Rich and Poor in patriotic union. Dunkirk Spirit and all that.
Sun headline tomorrow?
GOTCHA!
So that's the end of that chapter. It means a Cameron government of some sort, and a hung parliament is a lot less likely now.
The only interesting question left is who makes the most from this? Clegg or Cameron?
How exactly will the tory and libdem party machines cash in on Brown's disaster?
The overriding lesson to all members of double acts is, don't try the solo career. It never works. It means the boarding house in Rhyl for you. And as for the straight stage - only if you want to play a tragic clown to patronising reviews. And that this massive flop should happen in Rochdale, as in the Rochdale Pioneers, the Godfathers of the English co-operative movement, is surely some sort of revenge by the gods of socialism at Brown's heresies. His presence there was a little like flaunting the Golden Calf at the foot of Mt Sinai.
As far as tomorrow night's planned appearance in Leaders Got Talent, he might as well turn up drunk and punch out cameron's lights on national TV. That would get him more votes than anything else which might happen. And would be much more fun for everyone, except toryboy, of course.
But he'll have a new trainset to play with in a couple of weeks.
We will all have to be very understanding about the massive tax hikes he is forced to introduce by the back door, as Thatcher and Major both did as soon as they took office. After all. We're all in this together, y'know. Rich and Poor in patriotic union. Dunkirk Spirit and all that.
Sun headline tomorrow?
GOTCHA!
4/23/2010
The Triangle of Talent. Round 2
Last night was Spudface Cameron's best chance to tickle all the core tory nerve centres. The war, immigration, europe... And he blew it. He still has all the charisma of a John McCain who's had an accident in his pants.
Brown was obviously on Garland-strength doses of benzedrine, until he met Gracie, when he slowed down to carehome speed.
And Clegg didn't implode, and even consolidated LibDem occupation of the soft-left vote, shielding Labour from any of the traditional bogeyman attacks.
This idiotic Talentshow, however superficial and bogus, has at least bypassed 50 years of newspaper-manipulated democracy. But from now on, any political party hoping to get elected will have to choose the sort of leader who will perform best in the triangular TV bearpit.
That is the real legacy of this experiment, not the rise of the LibDems as a credible political force.
Brown was obviously on Garland-strength doses of benzedrine, until he met Gracie, when he slowed down to carehome speed.
And Clegg didn't implode, and even consolidated LibDem occupation of the soft-left vote, shielding Labour from any of the traditional bogeyman attacks.
This idiotic Talentshow, however superficial and bogus, has at least bypassed 50 years of newspaper-manipulated democracy. But from now on, any political party hoping to get elected will have to choose the sort of leader who will perform best in the triangular TV bearpit.
That is the real legacy of this experiment, not the rise of the LibDems as a credible political force.
Humiliated and Embarrassed
For decades The Sun has paid its rent by demonising the unemployed. Whenever it feels the need, it labels them as layabouts, scroungers, and generally does what it can to ensure that anyone not in work feels humiliated and embarrassed by their misfortune.
So it is hardly surprising that someone raised in that culture, and unable to find work, should feel like a worthless loser. Especially if they were a sensitive, intelligent young person who had worked hard at school, and who expected some return for that effort and commitment.
And today the Sun splashes that one young woman felt humiliated and embarrassed enough to kill herself. On the day after official figures report a rise in unemployment, which naturally makes the government look bad - in the middle of an election campaign which has seen the shine taken off the Sun's candidate.
So what looks like an expression of sympathy for a bereaved family is in fact nothing more than a cynical exploitation of her tragedy for political ends. 'Brainy girl' Vicky Harrison will not have died in vain if she can help get David Cameron elected. What parent could wish for a fitter memorial for their child?
It would be an interesting exercise to wade through the Sun's archive to find a similar report on one of the many suicides caused directly by Margaret Thatcher's sabotage of the mining industry. Or even among the 3 million dumped on the dole by her mad Utopian experiment. And especially today, it would be very interesting to have access to the Wapping darkroom store for images of the police thugs who killed Blair Peach.
Every government deserves a kicking for rises in unemployment. But the unemployed do not deserve to be made to feel like scum and blamed for economic forces beyond their control. This does not make them Get On Their Bikes, but it definitely drives some of them to kill themselves.
But this suits the Sun perfectly. It humiliates and embarrasses the unemployed and stigmatises unemployment itself as a personal failing. The Sun demonises the unemployed and benefits from every unemployed person it drives to suicide , just as it benefits from every gullible recruit to the army it kills by glorifying war.
It makes money from generating contempt, then is rewarded by the resulting tragic stories. And if those accounts can be used to further Rupert Murdoch's political ambitions, so much the better.
So it is hardly surprising that someone raised in that culture, and unable to find work, should feel like a worthless loser. Especially if they were a sensitive, intelligent young person who had worked hard at school, and who expected some return for that effort and commitment.
And today the Sun splashes that one young woman felt humiliated and embarrassed enough to kill herself. On the day after official figures report a rise in unemployment, which naturally makes the government look bad - in the middle of an election campaign which has seen the shine taken off the Sun's candidate.
So what looks like an expression of sympathy for a bereaved family is in fact nothing more than a cynical exploitation of her tragedy for political ends. 'Brainy girl' Vicky Harrison will not have died in vain if she can help get David Cameron elected. What parent could wish for a fitter memorial for their child?
It would be an interesting exercise to wade through the Sun's archive to find a similar report on one of the many suicides caused directly by Margaret Thatcher's sabotage of the mining industry. Or even among the 3 million dumped on the dole by her mad Utopian experiment. And especially today, it would be very interesting to have access to the Wapping darkroom store for images of the police thugs who killed Blair Peach.
Every government deserves a kicking for rises in unemployment. But the unemployed do not deserve to be made to feel like scum and blamed for economic forces beyond their control. This does not make them Get On Their Bikes, but it definitely drives some of them to kill themselves.
But this suits the Sun perfectly. It humiliates and embarrasses the unemployed and stigmatises unemployment itself as a personal failing. The Sun demonises the unemployed and benefits from every unemployed person it drives to suicide , just as it benefits from every gullible recruit to the army it kills by glorifying war.
It makes money from generating contempt, then is rewarded by the resulting tragic stories. And if those accounts can be used to further Rupert Murdoch's political ambitions, so much the better.
4/22/2010
NAZI CLEGG THIEF SWINDLER SHOCK TRICK SMEAR
The Telegraph jumped the gun a bit with this lame piece of muckraking. Not only is it completely harmless, but also exquisitely badly timed. Now Cameron looks like the pampered poodle of press bullyboys. Which is of course true.
All Clegg has to do is turn casually to Spudface, flicking a speck of dust from his immaculate cuffs, and ask:
As for the Mail conflating CLEGG and NAZI all over their front page, that is hardly surprising. In the dark columns patrolled by its hitmen, Clarkson and Littlejohn, almost everybody, including cyclists, vegetarians and council workers are routinely referred to as NAZIS. And now almost everyone loves Click. And if he's a nazi and they are nazis, someone is either lying about them and Clegg, or lying about the nazis. The trick was bound to backfire sometime, and this is probably it. It has confirmed everything Click has been saying about both tories and Labour, but Labour can sit in the shade again and let Cameron take the heat.
You have to say, well played Peter Mandelson. Hot favourite for the Bernard Ingham Spindoctor of The Year Award at this years' press bash.
Cleggmania aside, last week's show was dominated by Cameron's Deflation. He looked like a fretful Maris Piper most of the time. Like Wayne Rooney's bank-clerk older brother when opening his winter gasbill.. And by failing miserably to outperform the Ultra-Lite Clegg, he showed his true worth.
The fact that Click Negg beat Spudface in the beauty contest means that Brown won on the night. If Cameron was the tories' Great White Hope, he wouldn't have been outsmarted by the no-hoper. Gathered around their screen in the Carlton Club, tory grandees must have been crying in their Asti Spumante.
Tonight, the leader who manages to properly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull first will see his digital approval worm will hit the roof. And if Click gives it its new name - E15 - the Cleggometer will blow a fuse. Mt Stratford would be even better.
If the election is decided by this farce, there will be demands for proportional representation to replace the current system.
It won't make any difference. All we need is a fixed term, and a total ban on any electioneering during the month before the poll. In fact, all politicians should be locked into the Palace of Westminster, and the election fought purely on the basis of the real experience of the electorate during the term of office. That would make us pay attention a bit more. And not just for a week or two every four years.
The first 'debate' saw Clegg clouding the political sky, grounding Cameron Air, but leaving Gordon Brown sipping Pina Coladas on his Barbados holiday beach for an extra week.
What kind of freak political devastation we can expect out of tonight's Sky is still unclear. Something to do with helicopters, presumably.
All Clegg has to do is turn casually to Spudface, flicking a speck of dust from his immaculate cuffs, and ask:
'Is this the best your bosses can do to get you elected?'By launching this pathetic dirty Nick trick in a blatant attempt to scupper tonights debate, the Telegraph has panicked like Corporal Jones, and fired its musket long before it could see the whites of their eyes.
As for the Mail conflating CLEGG and NAZI all over their front page, that is hardly surprising. In the dark columns patrolled by its hitmen, Clarkson and Littlejohn, almost everybody, including cyclists, vegetarians and council workers are routinely referred to as NAZIS. And now almost everyone loves Click. And if he's a nazi and they are nazis, someone is either lying about them and Clegg, or lying about the nazis. The trick was bound to backfire sometime, and this is probably it. It has confirmed everything Click has been saying about both tories and Labour, but Labour can sit in the shade again and let Cameron take the heat.
You have to say, well played Peter Mandelson. Hot favourite for the Bernard Ingham Spindoctor of The Year Award at this years' press bash.
Cleggmania aside, last week's show was dominated by Cameron's Deflation. He looked like a fretful Maris Piper most of the time. Like Wayne Rooney's bank-clerk older brother when opening his winter gasbill.. And by failing miserably to outperform the Ultra-Lite Clegg, he showed his true worth.
The fact that Click Negg beat Spudface in the beauty contest means that Brown won on the night. If Cameron was the tories' Great White Hope, he wouldn't have been outsmarted by the no-hoper. Gathered around their screen in the Carlton Club, tory grandees must have been crying in their Asti Spumante.
Tonight, the leader who manages to properly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull first will see his digital approval worm will hit the roof. And if Click gives it its new name - E15 - the Cleggometer will blow a fuse. Mt Stratford would be even better.
If the election is decided by this farce, there will be demands for proportional representation to replace the current system.
It won't make any difference. All we need is a fixed term, and a total ban on any electioneering during the month before the poll. In fact, all politicians should be locked into the Palace of Westminster, and the election fought purely on the basis of the real experience of the electorate during the term of office. That would make us pay attention a bit more. And not just for a week or two every four years.
The first 'debate' saw Clegg clouding the political sky, grounding Cameron Air, but leaving Gordon Brown sipping Pina Coladas on his Barbados holiday beach for an extra week.
What kind of freak political devastation we can expect out of tonight's Sky is still unclear. Something to do with helicopters, presumably.
4/21/2010
Pope Adolf on Ashmageddon
While we're blaming people, where was His Holiness during the current Armageddon?
Preparing?
You'd have thought that this would have been a golden opportunity to show a bit of something. To show what religion and all that is meant to be good at.
Maybe he was pre-occupied or something. Maybe He's learned that Silence is Golden. That feudal superstition should keep itself to itself and not try to set up global corporations designed to make money and force people to live their lives in imitation of the C13th.
Meanwhile, thousands - if not millions - can breathe a sigh of relief. Eyjafjallajökull has been renamed E15.
Preparing?
You'd have thought that this would have been a golden opportunity to show a bit of something. To show what religion and all that is meant to be good at.
Maybe he was pre-occupied or something. Maybe He's learned that Silence is Golden. That feudal superstition should keep itself to itself and not try to set up global corporations designed to make money and force people to live their lives in imitation of the C13th.
Meanwhile, thousands - if not millions - can breathe a sigh of relief. Eyjafjallajökull has been renamed E15.
4/20/2010
How Will the Ash Cloud of Death Effect the Election?
How will the Ash Cloud of Death Effect the Election? Because it will.
What could the killer volcano question be on Thursday night's debate?
'Can you name the volcano?' That would be a start for Foreign Affairs Nite.
The first to competently pronounce Eyjafjallajökull will gain enormous respect. I suppose they're all practising in front of mirrors now, otherwise the massed Simon Cowells beyond the cameras will shake their heads in tired old-pro resignation, and call:
'Next!'
It might be tempting for the deflated Spudface Cameron to appeal to the Old Duffer vote, who have been ranting online in the last few days about how the country has no guts, and how it's all a sinister conspiracy by the Elf'n'Safety Brigade of the Nanny State.
In the good old days when men were men they'd have just fixed a pair of stout military tights (W.A.A.Fs for the use of) over the engine intakes and barrelled that kite over the White Cliffs of Dover like a partridge in season.
Dammit, all of civilisation runs on someone's blood. Without 1,000s of road deaths a year, there would be no supermarkets, and riots in the streets. And the Nanny State worries about a few hundred possible deaths in the air. This isn't the spirit which beat the Frogs at Waterloo or the krauts on the beaches of Normandy.
etc etc etc.
The professional hacks have moved in on the game, spewing out doublethink by the yard, all amounting to the samne thing. It's the Millenium Bug all over again!
A load of namby-pamby stuff and nonsense. In their day they would have donned their goggles and white scarves and ploughed intrepidly through the bit of dust, while others quivered like white mice in their shadow. Mercenary Onanism of the highest order.
Rightist Nutter extraordinaire Alain de Botton has naturally joined in:
Gimme a break please. Romancifiers like Botton never miss a chance to stuff their version of the past down the throat of the present.
If he were to seriously apply his imagination more to a future without Consumerist Free Market Worship, then he would be doing his job as a philosopher. But as a devotee of the free market, this would make his head explode. Just as it did to those who always condemned powered flight as blasphemous. Botton would have been one of the loudest crying: 'If God had meant us to fly he would have given us wings.'
Ultimately, what he might as well say is 'imagine a world without the vote, where sage old men who had proved themselves in battle, took all the major decisions on behalf of everyone, who were then 'liberated' to enjoy their lives.' Ultimately, like Rabid Littlejohn yesterday, he can go Eyjafjallajökull himself.
Brown, of course, just has to play a straight hand, and he's almost home to a famous draw.
Meanwhile, the conspiracies run to fantasy. The eruption is Iceland's Revenge for losing the credit war. The Icelandic PM on Newsnight was like having a visit from The Boys.
So will that be the tactics of the Browneron on thursday? Blame it on the boy. They could do worse. It won't be the worst joke we hear all campaign, it's just a matter of who gets in first.
Watch this space.
What could the killer volcano question be on Thursday night's debate?
'Can you name the volcano?' That would be a start for Foreign Affairs Nite.
The first to competently pronounce Eyjafjallajökull will gain enormous respect. I suppose they're all practising in front of mirrors now, otherwise the massed Simon Cowells beyond the cameras will shake their heads in tired old-pro resignation, and call:
'Next!'
It might be tempting for the deflated Spudface Cameron to appeal to the Old Duffer vote, who have been ranting online in the last few days about how the country has no guts, and how it's all a sinister conspiracy by the Elf'n'Safety Brigade of the Nanny State.
In the good old days when men were men they'd have just fixed a pair of stout military tights (W.A.A.Fs for the use of) over the engine intakes and barrelled that kite over the White Cliffs of Dover like a partridge in season.
Dammit, all of civilisation runs on someone's blood. Without 1,000s of road deaths a year, there would be no supermarkets, and riots in the streets. And the Nanny State worries about a few hundred possible deaths in the air. This isn't the spirit which beat the Frogs at Waterloo or the krauts on the beaches of Normandy.
etc etc etc.
The professional hacks have moved in on the game, spewing out doublethink by the yard, all amounting to the samne thing. It's the Millenium Bug all over again!
A load of namby-pamby stuff and nonsense. In their day they would have donned their goggles and white scarves and ploughed intrepidly through the bit of dust, while others quivered like white mice in their shadow. Mercenary Onanism of the highest order.
Rightist Nutter extraordinaire Alain de Botton has naturally joined in:
"In a future world without aeroplanes, children would gather at the feet of old men and hear tales of strange flying machines..."and hear tales of Noggin the Nog, and his heroic deeds in the land of the far north.
Gimme a break please. Romancifiers like Botton never miss a chance to stuff their version of the past down the throat of the present.
If he were to seriously apply his imagination more to a future without Consumerist Free Market Worship, then he would be doing his job as a philosopher. But as a devotee of the free market, this would make his head explode. Just as it did to those who always condemned powered flight as blasphemous. Botton would have been one of the loudest crying: 'If God had meant us to fly he would have given us wings.'
Ultimately, what he might as well say is 'imagine a world without the vote, where sage old men who had proved themselves in battle, took all the major decisions on behalf of everyone, who were then 'liberated' to enjoy their lives.' Ultimately, like Rabid Littlejohn yesterday, he can go Eyjafjallajökull himself.
Brown, of course, just has to play a straight hand, and he's almost home to a famous draw.
Meanwhile, the conspiracies run to fantasy. The eruption is Iceland's Revenge for losing the credit war. The Icelandic PM on Newsnight was like having a visit from The Boys.
"Now about our little arrangement over the banks. You have a very nice civil flight industry. Shame if it were to get all clogged up and grounded. Clogged up with - ooThey've never got over losing (or winning) the Cod War. Either way, they want to make us pay for making them pay back what they owe your local council, and the rest of us are left praying to Woden or Odin or Wotan to not plunge us back into recession. I blame that Click Negg. Until he opened his mouth everything was fine. The gods were offended by his overturning the political applecart.
Now can you think of anywhere that might cause that kind of trouble?... If you can, let us know and we'll do our best to see that any problems go away. If you're reasonable about our credit arrangement...." I dunno - some kind of ASH. Maybe even VOLCANIC ash, blown thousands of feet into the air by some huge natural force.
So will that be the tactics of the Browneron on thursday? Blame it on the boy. They could do worse. It won't be the worst joke we hear all campaign, it's just a matter of who gets in first.
Watch this space.
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