I’ve noticed this phenomenon, too: the moment you give up on something and just go with the flow, it starts functioning. The phenomenon must have a psychological explanation but I don’t know it yet.
A really brilliant post in Russian about the myth of Ukraine being split into Eastern and Western parts. I agree with the blogger completely, there is no such split.
Let’s continue our explorations of projection. Here is a very interesting case of somebody who obviously despises women and tries (not very successfully) to attribute this passionate hatred to “society.” Absolutely textbook.
A great blogger I just discovered shares the story of his political views: “The Democrats’ feeble, ineffectual nature is easy to see in this year’s midterm election, where they stand to lose to a party that has gone insane. The answer is simple: the Democrats are so tied to their rich donors that they can’t reach out and do the types of things that will make their base happy. Without having a reason to vote other than “the other guys are evil,” it’s no wonder that many registered Democrats will be staying home this November.” All true.
Spring is here! And do you know what that means? BABY TURTLES. Brace yourself for incredible cuteness at the link.
Latvia disconnects Russian TV.
Research proving that “Childhood trauma was very common, even in employed white middle-class, college-educated people with great health insurance; There was a direct link between childhood trauma and adult onset of chronic disease, as well as depression, suicide, being violent and a victim of violence.” Of course, people who are terrified of questioning parental authority will continue chirping about chemical imbalances in their brains.
Very important insights about academic writing: “I really do believe that your authentic voice, whether in speech or writing, is the way your words sound when you are speaking your mind, i.e., telling the truth. This is why I emphasize that when you do your academic writing you should remember that knowledge is justified, true belief. You should train yourself to write down the things you believe, not just things that are conveniently true.”
And an article everybody needs to read: “Russia is remaking itself as the leader of the anti-Western world.”
Absolutely appalling things are happening in Brisbane. Hey, Australia, are you still considering yourself a civilized country? Because the poster in the linked article is disgusting.
A blog reader writes to a blogger: “I am a 3rd year medical student, and for the purposes of this question, let’s assume I have equal interest and ability in the various medical specialties. In order to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people through my work in medicine (i.e., the highest return to society), what specialty should I pursue?” The answer is clear: psychiatry. And pursue it as a patient, not a doctor.
“Senior administrative salaries increased by 2.4 percent overall in the past year, outpacing the gains seen by other college staff, including those who actually teach in classrooms.” And the saddest thing is that nobody is doing anything to keep these useless parasites off campuses.
Twitter politics is all we have left. Sad but true.
“Russia’s invasion — which Putin justifies by saying he needs to protect Russian speakers — has fueled a surge of patriotism among a great many Ukrainians, whatever their language.” All true. Russian-speakers in Ukraine are renouncing Russian and switching to Ukrainian. People who never had any interest in Ukrainian culture are starting to believe that if Putin is so afraid of it, it might be worth checking out.
And the post of the week: choice feminism as a way to gain the approval of the patriarchal father figure. Brilliant.
Clarissa's Blog 
What’s happening to web pages? Am I mistaken or are more and more of them morphing into large smartphone displays?
The link about teenage girls was unreadable for me because of the godawful format. There were other pages with similar problems but that was the worst (followed closely by the comments at the link about Ukrainian rising patriotism/consciousness).
Please never do anything like that to your blog.
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I agree. I couldn’t even decide what I thought about the “teenage girl” post because the formatting was so horrible. I guess its a tumblr? But why would someone choose that awful display instead of something nice and organized and easy to read like a wordpress blog? I think you are right and it has to do with smart phone displays. But yes: I was deeply offended by the formatting. 😉
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Formatting in it is bad and the grammar, too. But I liked it, and yes I do think all those messages are beamed at girls, and and wouldn’t say it is all coming from the mother, if that is what you mean by projection. I have heard almost all of the sentences she quotes and they have come from multiple sources.
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“I have heard almost all of the sentences she quotes and they have come from multiple sources.”
– I don’t know if the author of that post is a mother or not. But if she is, she is causing enormous and unforgivable damage to the miserable child who is unlucky enough to be condemned to spending time with her. A mother who says directly, “Women are garbage” at least leaves the poor child an option to find a therapist and repair the damage. The message in this post, however, is much more insidious. “No, it’s not me. I’m just repeating things that other, bad people say. I don’t believe anything of the kind.”
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I read all these articles in my Feedly, and a huge benefit of Feedly is that it removes all of the formatting and gives me a regular, black-on-white text. I have now tried reading the link and discovered the horrible formatting. I have no idea why it is that way but I apologize for inflicting it on people!
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Something happened when I was writing here. So I am starting again.
It’s great that Clarissa is commenting on the disgusting state of Brisbane’s politically disturbed culture. That isn’t normal at all. There are a lot of abnormal people and things happening over there.
Anyway: as regards Western feminism, it is worth disregarding for the most part, just because people of a middle class and higher bent require that no psychological anguish of an ongoing or warlike sort should be required, in operations against oneself, to rid oneself over time of the patriarchal lurgy. They walk around condescending and lecturing to others because this is simply easier than looking at a very ugly thing and seeing the tentacles of it inside themselves.
Some cretin lectured me tonight about the basics of structuralist thinking and how masculinity is a construct, which, they assert, is based on hostility to women. It can be so and it often is — but it is an amateur’s mistake in thinking to maintain that something is always and necessarily so. It’s also absurd to lecture me with the assumption that I don’t know what I’m talking about. An aging aunt or priestly fellow might do that.
Also if one has already done the gruesome work of extracting patriarchy, then why would one submit to a maiden aunt just because she began yelling? The assumption about moral laziness is extremely insulting.
I think that when Western feminists start to pay close attention to what I am really saying, rather than what they think I am saying, they will have reached a turning point where they are just beginning to reach the point where they can treat women as people. But the ability to listen to the actual content and not to disregard it as mere ideology, takes an intense degree of intellectual rigor and moral courage. Don’t expect it from those who embrace an ideology of feminism because they want to make their lives easier by appealing to an ideology
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If people are unable to accept my critique, but reflexively downvote it, they completely prove my point about their narrow-minded assumptiveness and unwillingness to communicate on a complex level.
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Hey, thanks for the link to my thing on the Democrats.
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I have been reading up my blogroll today. Have you seen that post on Free Range Kids about trigger warnings from the beginning of march and the article it links to? I found it very interesting to read:
http://www.freerangekids.com/trigger-warnings-and-the-assumption-of-fragility/
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Also this:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/trigger-warnings-the-latest-threat-to-academic-freedom/article17835103/?cmpid=rss1
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