The hardest thing to overcome in students isn’t even the woke sloganeering but the general ultra-liberal sensibility. I gently and patiently steer them away from believing that:

– immigration is always the best thing a person can do. It has no negative consequences, and every obstacle to it should be removed

– making any efforts to preserve a marriage is wrong. People should be completely free to abandon any relationship the moment it becomes uncomfortable

– it’s best to be single and never seek permanent relationships because then you can travel a lot*

And so on.

How does all this come up? you’ll ask. I supervise student research projects, and students endlessly try to massage a work of literature into confirming these bizarre beliefs. Even when a work of literature says the exact opposite, young people’s need to disgorge yet another neoliberal platitude is too strong for them to notice it.

This isn’t something that can be reversed through administrative decisions. Somebody has got to talk to these young people and help them out of this maze of self-defeating beliefs. We let them be consumed by propaganda, and now it will not be easy to bring them back.

* This and the previous point always come from young women. I never had a male student say anything like it. But who’s going to suffer more as a result of adopting this worldview? Obviously, women.

And the title of the idiot of the week goes to John Kerry. Here’s what he came up with on the subject of the most destructive war in Europe since 1945:

“I believe that Russia has the ability to be able to make enormous changes if it really wanted to,” Kerry continued. “I mean, if Russia has the ability to wage a war illegally and invade another country, they ought to be able to find the effort to be responsible on the climate issue.” 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/this-may-be-the-dumbest-thing-john-kerry-has-ever-said/

How did it happen that we put so many unintelligent, incoherent people in positions of power?

I think I figured out how to get professional photos that fully reveal my grumpy and unapproachable personality instead of trying to make me more “personable” and “upbeat”. I asked a student who works as a photographer to do it. I haven’t seen the final version yet but the initial stage photos are good. They look like me and not some hopped-up mental patient who only cares when the next meal will be served.

This is the size hail we had today:

I’m not sure I want to know what this bastard did to my roof.

I have nothing against the ban but it’s like fighting smoking by banning Camels and leaving the rest of the brands easily available. “Son, you are only 12, and I can’t have you smoking. This is terrible for your health. So no Camels from now on. Marlboros and Newports, on the other hand, go at it, little dude.”

Take Snapchat, for instance. It’s terrible for kids. Really bad. Take kids off TikTok, they’ll go on Snap. And what have we gained?

I’m leaving aside the part about “Chinese propaganda” on TikTok because it’s an argument of such extraordinary stupidity that I’m not going to address it beyond saying that we don’t need China’s help to develop the most successful propagandistic regime in history, and people who haven’t noticed that the source of the worst propaganda isn’t China are dense.

Let’s definitely ban TikTok but we have a much bigger problem. It will not be solved by government bans because there is no longer a government strong enough, not even in China. People will solve it (or not) as they see fit and can manage. Those who solve it for themselves and their children will be the cognitive elite. Those who don’t will be screwed.

It’s a very complex high-stakes project that will require a lot of individual effort over a long period of time, and most people won’t be bothered. That’s the stark reality we are hiding from amongst these boring debates about TikTok bans.

I know a professor who constantly complains that her students cheat. It’s a big obsession with her. Curiously, she’s one of the most dishonest people I’ve ever met.

Another professor complains that students are bored, unenthusiastic and have zero interest in learning. He’s ready to retire and says he struggles to find anything that would interest him.

My students are all very enthusiastic and happy but I wonder if that, too, is simply my reflection that I’m seeing in them like in a mirror.

Yes, Musk is a moron. But he gave us a great platform so he’s a useful idiot in a literal sense.

P.S.  And he hired Don Lemon? To achieve greater diversity? OK, I rest my case now.

Two hundred years of feminism led us to a place where some pissy dude teaches us how to be female, and we must shut up to avoid hurting his feelings.

The message is: if you are not this kind of woman, then you are not a woman at all. And since no actual women are like that, the only real women are men.

At least FtM trans people don’t mock manhood in these insulting ways.

Folks, did you see this?

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has implemented a new response policy. Beginning March 11, officers will only respond to calls of in-progress emergencies, WPXI reported.

The policy is part of Chief Larry Scirotto’s efforts to reduce the bureau’s call volume from about 200,000 calls to about 50,000 calls this year, according to the report. Calls for criminal mischief, theft, harassment and many others will be handled by the telephone reporting unit or by online reporting.

https://www.police1.com/911/pittsburgh-police-will-only-respond-to-calls-of-in-progress-emergencies-as-part-of-new-staffing-plan

If you are a victim of theft, burglary or a slew of other crimes, you won’t get police officers to come out and help you. Instead, you’ll get a link to a website to “report” the crime. After which obviously nothing will happen, encouraging more criminals to act with a justified expectation of impunity.

Another innovation in Pittsburgh is that police precincts will be left unmanned and closed at night:

The bureau … will remove desk officers from precincts between the hours of 3 a.m.-7 a.m., and reduce the number of officers on overnight shifts.

Remember how I’ve been telling you for yeears that police is one of the main forms of welfare in a nation-state? Once the nation-state withers away, there’s no more reason for governments to provide this or other forms of welfare.

A scared populace that’s besieged by criminals and is afraid for its safety on a daily basis is easy to despoil. Once the nation-state is gone, there’s no need for a middle class. One of the ways of pauperizing the middle class is forcing it to bear the financial burden of providing itself with basic safety.

The reason why we hear so much about the threat of authoritarianism is precisely because the actual danger is the exact opposite. It’s anarchy in the streets and oblivious citizens who are concentrated on policing their own thoughts while losing the actual and precious guarantee of crime policing.