We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day It is not obviously progressive to insist that equal numbers of men and women work eighty-hour weeks in a corporate law firm or leave their families for months at a time to dodge steel pipes on a frigid oil platform. And it is grotesque to demand (as advocates of gender parity did in the pages of Science) that more young women “be conditioned to choose engineering,” as if they were rats in a Skinner box.
– Steven Pinker
I found it here. He found it here. He read it here. Go manlinking!
More recently, see also Pinker‘s remarkable Galapagos photos.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Defunding the Equalities and Human Rights industry would be a great step in the direction back to normality and sanity.
Who is insisting that women do 80 hour weeks at the office or work on oil rigs doing the heavy work?
Feminists certainly aren’t.
They only want equality for amenable jobs like presenting at the BBC for a vast wage.
I think that is the point isn’t it? The equality that they appear to be demanding is nothing of the sort, they still want men to carry on doing the dangerous and dirty jobs.
It is obviously progressive to ignore reality and insist there is no difference between men and women. There are obvious differences in wight, height, muscle power and a few other attributes.
Vive la petite difference!
Good post – and good comments.
Equality before the law (and equality of the soul – the idea that all people are equally individuals, free will beings) is NOT “sameness” – people can be equal (equal in moral value) and DIFFERENT.
Men and women are different – and it is not some sort of crime to say so. The left refuse to understand this.
Quite Right, Paul! Next time some Feminist starts preaching about men being unfairly advantaged, just remind her that women are STILL living longer than men, on average. Then give her a cyanide capsule, or a large dose of sleeping pills, and suggest that if she really wants equality, she can self-euthanize when she reaches the male average age. I wonder how many women will take up this practical example of equality?
You are giving the left too much credit. They understand this perfectly well. Their pretense of not understanding it is a tactic to make policy gains without the bothersomeness of actual debate, or more generally to assume a stance of moral superiority for political advantage.
It’s worse than that. It’s Havel’s Greengrocer. The point is to force you to admit your own powerlessness by regurgitating things everybody knows are false. The more obvious the falsehood the more helpless and demoralized you’ll feel being forced to repeat it.
Men and women are different – and it is not some sort of crime to say so.
Try saying ‘women don’t have penises’ in Liverpool and see where that gets you.
Philip Scott Thomas beat me to it (at August 21, 2018 at 9:02 am). Between cringing to islam and cringing to any man who tells her “I’m as good a woman as you”, modern feminists must need to get a lot of consolation from dumping on straight white cis males, the only group they’re allowed to target. In this respect, it does seem to me that women are indeed oppressed: in the PC pecking order, they have a marked tendency to come last, just above the deplorables.
“as if they were rats in a Skinner box.”
In the eyes of the left, we are all just rats in their Skinner boxes.
“You are giving the left too much credit. They understand this perfectly well.”
This.
One aspect of career inequality is the hypothesis that men do not consider jobs that are traditionally dominated by women, like teaching (primary in particular), healthcare, childcare, HR, social services, domestic work, etc. Not that these jobs are seen as “easy” or “feminine” or “lower status”, they are not even badly paid considering all the requirements and options/perks, only that they have a lot of women working in them (presumably because they are more flexible and attract women).
Consequently men are self-restricting to jobs that then become male dominated as a result, and the solution would actually be to encourage more men to take the women dominated roles rather than the other way around. But unfortunately the knee-jerk leftist twitterati never think outside the box and always go for the seemingly obvious “soviet” solution – just force people to do what you want.
Good comments – I have taken on board what people here have said.
1. Women are every bit as good as men are at everything. (Except for those circumstances where they are better than men.)
2. Women should be at general population parity with men in every profession, every position, and every pay level. (Except for those circumstances where they are better paid and valued than men, and those jobs and professions that the given speaker thinks are icky or dangerous.)
3. Since women and men are interchangeable, just interchange them. Have your equality commissioner juggle librarians, roofers, maids, teachers, and so forth until the numbers are right.
4. Glass Coffin: http://takimag.com/article/smashing_through_the_glass_coffin_jim_goad/#axzz5P0ApztDY
5. Cue Steven Pinker “Sexism is a pervasive wrong that hurts women all over the world in every society. We should struggle to eradicate it at every chance. I believe that all women should be free to do whatever men can do, and encouraged to succeed especially in STEM fields. I apologise for having said anything which sexists will take as approving of their outlook and behaviour and encouraging it.”