I find it absolutely disgusting, vicious, vomit – producing and hateful that a huge army of pathetic losers is now crawling out of the woodwork to argue that Carly Fiorina’s achievements are not that great and she wasn’t even a real secretary anyway.
The only people who have the right to comment on Fiorina’s achievement are those who have achieved more. Everybody else sounds like a sore loser of massive proportions when he (it’s always some underemployed fellow who does it) begins to assign grades to people with hugely successful careers.
Clarissa's Blog 
This metric is strange. By that account I find myself unable to criticize President Bush (or Putin!) because I’m not the president of a country, or criticize Johnny Depp’s acting because I’m not a hollywood actor myself.
I’m sure there are misogynists that are reporting with glee that Fiorina was bad at business. That does mean that it can’t be true. I mean, she ran HP into the ground to the extent that it still hasn’t recovered. We’re talking about one of the biggest all-time fuckups. That is her legacy.
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Yeah, most of the articles I’ve read criticizing Fiorina are written by Democratic partisans (male and female) who see her as a potential political threat, and those attacks are clearly based on politics and not gender.
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The worst, most disgusting attacks on her that keep coming in my blogroll come from Trump supporter. Apparently, he dug out an interview with Fiorina’s ex-husband who said nasty things about her. Like there’s anybody on the planet whose ex doesn’t have anything negative to say about them.
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Also, I need to add this. Marco Rubio repeated the bit about his mother the bar – maid dozens of times on this campaign. And I’m yet to see any effort to rubbish him along the lines of whether she was the right kind of barmaid or who he had to sleep with to get ahead. (Which is what is being said about Fiorina.) So I wouldn’t say that sexism is not a factor here.
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Bush didn’t achieve anything. He had everything handed to him by his daddy.
I’m all for criticizing everybody and everything. But this isn’t about criticizing Fiorina for her bizarre statements or idiotic actions. I’m talking specifically about saying that becoming a CEO of a huge company, especially for a woman, is not that big of a deal. Yes, it is a very big deal. That needs to be recognized and respected. And after we do that, let’s feel very free to pick apart every idiotic thing she’s ever said.
It’s the same with Ayn Rand. It’s perfectly fine to say that her philosophy is vulgar and meaningless, etc. But it is absolutely not ok to say that it’s not an enormous achievement to become a bestselling author in a language that is not your own and that you forever speak with an accent.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to disagree with people, or even hate them, but at the same time be capable of recognizing their achievements.
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I don’t understand why it’s so hard to disagree with people, or even hate them, but at the same time be capable of recognizing their achievements.
Good point. I am no fan of Fiorina, but I thought that it was disgusting for Trump’s nonsense about her looks. She did manage to break through the glass ceiling, and that is something very positive to point out.
And I do have sympathy for her in regards to losing her stepdaughter to drug addiction. Even if I disagree with people, I would never, ever wish this on anyone. It is a horrible thing for a parent to lose a child in this manner.
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That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s possible to disagree with people without denying their basic humanity.
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Or take Stalin. He was the son of an illiterate alcoholic yet he managed to get himself to the state where he could read and even enjoy world’s greatest writers. That one thing he did deserves of enormous respect. In everything else, though, he was a genocidal maniac.
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“I’m talking specifically about saying that becoming a CEO of a huge company, especially for a woman, is not that big of a deal.”
Anyone who would say that isn’t living in reality.
I thought you were talking about criticizing her performance once she got to be CEO.
But then, stated that way, this argument becomes rather trite. Anyone in the public eye, by definition must’ve done something to have gotten that fame and/or fortune and thus deserves our respect.
Hitler, Stalin, corrupt politicians, wealthy criminals, Mike fucking Huckabee.
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“Anyone in the public eye, by definition must’ve done something to have gotten that fame and/or fortune and thus deserves our respect.”
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hateful that a huge army of pathetic losers is now crawling out of the woodwork to argue that Carly Fiorina’s achievements are not that great and she wasn’t even a real secretary anyway.
After the last year on the university-level tenure committee, I am no longer surprised by any expression of sexism, no matter how ridiculous and blatant.
There was this woman whom we were evaluating for tenure, and her record looked great: well-cited papers, grants, students. But then you read the external letters of evaluation and several people were saying things like “She’s not that original or creative, and these highly cited findings she has published, well it’s not to her credit, she must have stumbled upon those by accident.” I couldn’t believe it!
In contrast, another guy from the same department, who’s not nearly as well cited or having money, gets these glowing letters of evaluation saying that he’s just about to rock everyone’s world, it just hasn’t happened yet, but he’s so awesome and so worthy of promotion.
So, you have two people at the same stage of career in the same department (so reasonably close fields of work), one with obvious accomplishments who has each of the accomplishments downplayed, dissected, qualified, and ultimately ascribed to luck; and you have another, who does not have a strong record, but who gets hailed as the second coming based on the nebulous potential.
Some days I hate all my fellow humans.
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And then these very people go, “Who? Me?? Sexist??? Never!” They honestly are unaware that what they are doing is sexist as hell.
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I think the critics are correct that Carly was not a good CEO at HP. However, she does have business experience, and that makes her better than any career politician. This is why I favor Carly for president.
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According to your logic, a handyman would make the best dentist and a dentist would make the best baker. Do you routinely turn to plumbers or janitors to serve as your doctors? Or are you not only against logic but also against consistency?
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Your analogy is incorrect. Handymen, dentists, bankers, and whatnot do real work. Career politicians do not. What I am saying is someone who has tried and failed in business is going to better than any career politician because I have no regard for career politicians. My view is entirely consistent and rational.
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“It is because I said it is” is not rational. It’s childish, overwrought and pouty.
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