Clarissa's Blog

There are two general types of leftism:

1. The old-fashioned class consciousness / class solidarity leftism. The response to issues is based on asking, “Is there a class conflict here? Is anybody getting exploited?”

2. The consumerist leftism. The response to issues is based on asking, “Are any individual choices being thwarted here? Are any individuals prevented from doing what they want to do?” 

I’m obviously in group 1 and feel sad that it’s so successfully marginalized by group 2. 

Lord Christ, even the Spanish press is featuring stories about this Milo Shitopoulos or whatever he’s called. 

People are legitimately and apologetically nuts. 

A representative of Spain’s Podemos said, a propos surrogacy, “Not every desire should turn into a right.” I’m extremely impressed because that’s a direct challenge to consumerism. Will I live to see the day when a progressive party will arise here that will be ready to reject consumerism as an almost religious experience and the greatest good?

A debate is going on in Spain about legalizing surrogate motherhood. Shockingly, the leftist parties are not unanimously in favor of placing consumerism above all and legalizing it. This is a welcome surprise because here in the US I’ve never seen anybody on the Left with any interest in questioning consumerism as the highest good. 

As usual, I 😍 Spain.

N has left for a conference. As usual, his professional community is smarter than mine and is holding the conference on a beach in Florida. Academics are too mean-spirited to hold conferences anywhere where people might enjoy the sun and the ocean. People in the industry, on the other hand, don’t mind enjoying life and letting colleagues do the same. 

This is the first time I’m left to take care of Klara on my own. 

This is what I don’t get. How come I’m doing a lot more service – and I mean A LOT – now that I have tenure than while being on the tenure track? I’m drowning in service, it’s insane. 

Nobody is making me. I always got the highest marks for service even when I did very little. (I’m Soviet, I can bullshit like nobody’s business). I’m not going for an early Full Professorship  (for reasons of my own that I can reveal in a separate post). I’m not avoiding research because I’m writing an article and it’s going great. 

The only thing I can think of is that I’m overcompansating for having a baby. Which is dumb because nobody cares. And if they did, I’d never notice anyway. 

I need to stop this because it’s eating me alive. 

I don’t like this idea of “Impeach President Bannon.” It suggests that Trump’s ideas are somehow different and it’s only Bannon’s influence that is causing all the problems. 

Trump is not a good little boy who fell under the influence of bad company. His ideas are fully his and he’s fully responsible for them. 

Gosh, I hope this bill passes:

A bill in the Iowa Senate seeks to achieve greater political diversity among professors at the state’s Board of Regents universities. Senate File 288 would institute a hiring freeze until the number of registered Republicans and Democrats on the university faculty fall within 10 percent of each other.

When they are left without any professors at all, they’ll simply have to hire immigrants. 

With everything that’s going on, people believe it’s a good idea to waste their lives on parsing the dumb YouTube videos of some idol of the gerks with an unpronounceable Greek name. 

The idea that Trump has such sky-high approvals among Republicans are a result of protests, pussyhats, and “resistance” is ridiculous. Trump is giving Republican voters exactly what they want and is not doing anything they find objectionable. 

What is needed now is for this idea to sink in for the purposes of action and not finger-wagging. For instance, let’s stop wasting time on being outraged over Trump’s anti-media rants. For a variety of reasons, professional journalism in the US has gone to the dogs. Everybody knows this. There is no widespread outrage to be garnered about statements that insult these journalists.