RationalWiki talk:What is going on in the blogosphere?/Archive7

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[edit] rational vs superficial

Forgive me if I am being a bit dense, but when has rationality ever been about over coming superficiality? Can you not be rational and superficial? AMassiveGay (talk) 22:18, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Wouldn't that be like a stereotype that happens to correspond to actual trends? Like being afraid of a particular ethnicity because a slightly larger small proportion of their group commit crimes. There's some rationality to it, but it's pretty superficial and, when talking about specific people, just wrong.
I think rationality is more useful for overcoming lazy thinking which is a subset of superficiality, a subset that occasionally includes me. MarmotHead (talk) 22:24, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
Superficiality is authoritarian. Eventually, you can't talk to people who have been ideologized, and who inhabit a closed world in which every problem has its simple and obvious solution in the invocation of the correct slogan. Recognize this and save yourself the trouble. - Smerdis of Tlön, for the defense. 04:56, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
I think that it's not a direct and absolutely contrary thing, but taking a superficial approach to just about anything is typically a good way to fail to understand that thing. It isn't always the case, and, in addition, you could be right for the wrong reasons, but focusing on the front-facing superficial elements isn't rational in-and-of itself. Ikanreed (talk) 05:11, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
True, true. Once you start thinking properly, reading and understanding good research, and knowing the golden standards of critical thinking, the superficiality gets replaced by an informed mind. Also, bringing up common sense, which is sometimes the excuse for superficial beliefs , a lot of science confirms what we call common sense, but it explains it so much better. And then we have science that disconfirms common sense. LEFTYGREENMARIO 19:00, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

[edit] Racist Scientist

I'm a bit confused. Is he actively going around and making racist comments, or did somebody have to probe him in an interview to get him to reveal his thoughts? If it's the former, then I would certainly understand and even support a harsh backlash, but if someone asked his opinion and he said it and that was it, then he's not really hurting anyone, he's just an old man from a different era whose simply deluded in one respect. Like I said though it depends on which of the two scenarios is the case. Does anyone know?TheriziπosaurusG (talk) 01:22, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

From what I understand it was a quite a number. You can't force companies to hire him if they don't like what he has said in 1 interview, 50 interviews, or is shouting it from a bullhorn in front of the building. I can understand it if he wished to do research, as these ingrained stereotypes are not letting him approach genetic research with any sort of open mind, as well as making statements about scientific findings that didn't exist. EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 01:36, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
He's spouted blatant racism repeatedly and consistently in interviews, so people don't want to talk to him any more - David Gerard (talk) 10:57, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

[edit] Chart Brut

I've noticed this trend too: something about loosely linking two pieces of visual information with lines just really appeals to peoples' inner conspiracist. So the question is, should we have an article on it? If there's something fundamentally cranklike about that kind of communication, it falls dead center for being on-mission. Ikanreed (talk) 14:46, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Red lines drawn in MS Paint? I only really noticed it big-time in Gamergate, though it's a thing that was done before that. Mayyyybe, if you think you have material for a good one - David Gerard (talk) 14:53, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
Well that's a valid question. Gamergate definitely shoved that variety of crazy to the forefront. Is it an artifact of imageboards and reddit, and how they frame discussions around images? Will it persist in the future? I wish I could do some first-hand research at pro-crazy subreddits to see what I can find, but I can't. Ikanreed (talk) 15:02, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems like a case of drawing connections where they don't exist. But it would make for a nice extension on the article on that, I'm assuming. If I'm misunderstanding this, then disregard my comment. ^^' LEFTYGREENMARIO 18:53, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
Maybe not exclusively "where they don't exist" but stretching tenuous connection from tenuous connection to reach an implausible conclusion, and using a visual medium to try to push people to making those connections "themselves." Ikanreed (talk) 19:46, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
Sounds like a kind variant of it. We have an article about the action of making vacuous connections, no? But yeah, this kind of crap deserves a spot somewhere here. LEFTYGREENMARIO 20:05, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
Actually, this has been a common way of mapping out connections on 4chans for as long as I've gone there (~8 years). It is used to show thread progressions, connections between threads, and connections with outside events. There are a couple image macros of things like when the Nebraska Mall Shooter posted about it on 4chan the night before or when they found where a dead woman was buried. Identifying similar parts of different images is also quite common. I'm not sure why this is such a big deal now. AyzmoCheers 04:32, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
Gamergate popularised the format, looks like - David Gerard (talk) 10:43, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
"Connecting the dots" is both a popular activity and a popular phrase among conspiracists. This is just a visual manifestation of it.--ZooGuard (talk) 18:42, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
It's not merely about connecting dots, but ignoring closer dots that go against your preconceived position. SophieWilderModerator 18:55, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
Well, yes, I didn't say that they do it well. ;) They just have a fetish for it.--ZooGuard (talk) 19:03, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

[edit] Cracked on racism

The point of the Cracked article - as I read it - was not that "racists are still doing their thing" but that "we're all guilty of subconscious racism. In the first section they suggest playing an on-line game which exposes the racism one may not be aware of. The rest of the article is pretty much along the same lines.

This is important because I know that I like to think that I'm a pretty OK sort of guy with a modern, liberal, inclusive attitude but I'm self aware enough to know that I make massive - and invalid - assumptions based on skin tone. Doxys Midnight Runner (talk) 09:43, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

I've taken a lot of psych classes, including several social psych classes. We've covered racism so many times I can't count. It is usually divided into implicit versus explicit. Implicit is that unconscious prejudice that makes you cross the street or lock your car doors. Explicit is when you refuse to hire someone. Explicit racism is higher, statistically, in people who self-identify as conservative. Implicit racism is higher in people who self-identify as liberal.
But you're right, we all have prejudiced views we're probably not aware of. I've also taken a lot of those psych tests. I'm part of the like 1% that associate guns with white men more than black men. However, I apparently do have a tendency towards gender roles (odd since I'm gay?). There are a lot of more disturbing ones like this that involve kids. They are more likely to pick a white doll, call the black doll ugly, etc. Really messed up stuff. Makes me sad sometimes. AyzmoCheers 14:38, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Right, and rather than just political identification causing racism or vice versa, there's an underlying set of personality traits that pushes some people towards both racism and conservatism to a greater degree than typical. These traits can crop up in more left-leaning political parties, but tend to be accompanied by social conservatism, regardless. Ikanreed (talk) 15:13, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
If there is an underlying personality dimension to racism, and these personality traits are (as every parent knows) mostly fixed at birth, to me this suggests that there is a certain level of racism that will just have to be lived with. Since race is a social construction, it might be possible to swap in some other factor as the division between Us and Them, and to persuade people to make their social divisions along different lines. (I understand the US military does well with this task. Soldiers in my unit belong to my tribe regardless of their skin color.) But since these authoritarian personalities need clearly defined lines of Us vs. Them, even if we persuade them that race is a granfalloon they'll just light on something else to make that the dividing line. - Smerdis of Tlön, for the defense. 04:53, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
It seems to me that swapping has already happened - race was swapped for nationality (a somewhat malleable division) in most discrimination. With racism you'd have blacks go to blacks lobby at an airport, and with nationalism you have foreigners (most aren't even coming into the country, they got a connecting flight) go into a special room where they sit for hours missing their flights, plaintively asking in broken English if the airline would let them fly on the next flight (which may be the next day). Then there's 'they took our jerbs' thing. Basically some % of people want politicians to be good guys who do the right thing because they care for the needs of human beings, and a similar % of people have this infantile fantasy of having an awesome psycho vampire father figure that would love you and care for you at the expense of everyone else. So the politicians who don't give a * about the needs of the voters instead fill this shoe with 'expense of everyone else' part. Dmytry (talk) 05:40, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
Be careful, Smerdis, arguments to biology are never quite so clear cut. Having, say, a demonstrable genetic predilection to violence wouldn't justify murder, and given that culture influences authoritarian beliefs to a great deal, just letting it go isn't necessarily a healthy approach. We have to accept that there will be neo-nazis. We don't have to accept neo-nazism. Genetic determinism and faulty conclusions coming from it are going to be a big thing in the next few decades, and I wouldn't want to end up on the side that judges too quickly. And besides, authoritarian follower traits specifically haven't been scientifically demonstrated to be heritable. Ikanreed (talk) 23:34, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
If we're dealing with a set of personality traits that a relatively constant percentage of the population will have -- however that comes about -- you can either find some kind of role for these people in your society, or you can decide that they have none. - Smerdis of Tlön, for the defense. 06:19, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
Yeah, that's true, but if you read Altemeyer's full paper, he actually talks about what does predict authoritarian personalities, from what he's studied. How children are raised is a big factor. If the personality type is harmful(and I allege it is), there may be social intervention that reduces its prevalence. Ikanreed (talk) 15:29, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

[edit] Lesswrong and Harpers

Perhaps someone could explain this whole hing to real humans?? :puz:--Aloysius the Gaul (talk) 22:27, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

[edit] The Sound of Sodomy

This is why classic musicals shouldn't get gritty reboots. --User: PsychoGecko 21:55, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

how does this sound vary from that of ... well anything else ? I dont think I want to know, and would little kids even care ? never mind dinner time ! Hamster (talk) 23:56, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
I'm gonna just leave these here. Play both simultaneously. WèàšèìòìďWeaselly.jpgMethinks it is a Weasel 01:36, 8 January 2015 (UTC)


Should children be exposed to the sounds of sodomy? Well, I've never particularly disliked *band you don't like here*. (Agrajag (talk) 01:58, 8 January 2015 (UTC))
I'd have thought the sound of sodomy would be more like

. - Smerdis of Tlön, A ⇒ ¬A. 23:11, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

As someone from the South, I can confirm it's more like,

-User:PsychoGecko 00:02, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

I am yet find anyone who squeals like a pig, nor in deed made me squeal like pig, and I am most experienced and good at the things I do. Haven't been to the south though. AMassiveGay (talk) 00:14, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Discovery Channel

Read on Facebook: "Hitler documentaries will be moved to ESPN. (Entertainment and Sports Programs and Nazis!) Sports will join Wrestling on SyFy. Science fiction programming will merge with Lifetime which will become the Lyfetyme network. (Mecha-Lucci vs Kristi McNado!!) BBC America will begin mashups of Dr Who and Honey Boo Boo, (yes... Dr Boo Who!) FOXNews will continue to air racists spouting conspiracy theories." - some guy named Michael Styborski. --Gulik (talk) 06:18, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Complimentary Matters

I've read over the compliment agreement BuzzFeed article... and I think I might be missing something here. If someone tells a guy "Dude, you're so handsome/suave/swole/etc." and he responds with "Yeah, I totally am" or "I know, right?", doesn't that also make him appear completely full of himself? Granted, it is to a lesser extent with men than with women because of the whole all-attractive-women-are-self-absorbed stereotype, which is bad, but I'm not sure that automatically leads to "men believe only THEY can hand out the title of 'pretty'".

There's also the matter of how it's worded. (I mean, really. Who responds to a compliment with just 'yes'? "Heard you managed to finish the marathon in record time! Good job out there!" "Yes."). Agreeing with a compliment is one thing, but there's kind of a difference between, say, "I try to be!", "Thanks, I know!" and "Yep." Can someone clarify if I'm missing something? Noir LeSable (talk) 04:39, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Well, it's a rather silly social expectation for people to pretend to think less of themselves than they actually do. Also, the idea that someone hitting on you is a "compliment" & something you should thank them for is ridiculous. To me, a guy saying "wow baby, u hot, i bet u look naked" looks more completely full of himself than the girl responding "yeah that's right". ŴêâŝêîôîďWeaselly.jpgMethinks it is a Weasel 08:44, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
I'd say it's more of a matter of humbleness being considered a virtue. I did totally miss that all these examples were pretty much guys just hitting on women though, so you do have an excellent point (Whiiiiich is what I missed. Don't mind me; I don't have much of a romantic life to speak of, so cues like this fly over my head sometimes). Thanks. Noir LeSable (talk) 16:34, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
Some of the girls' answers might look oddly short or overconfident, but not to the point where it'd explain/justify all the guys going "Oh, what I said earlier was totally a lie. I don't think you're awesome/sexy/hot at all." Really, some people... >.> 141.134.75.236 (talk) 16:47, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
I think at least some of the responses to accepting the compliments were teasing honestly.TheriziπosaurusG (talk) 20:27, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
If you say "aw, thanks" or "thanks, you too" when someone compliments you, then that's fine. Pretty much anything other than that is self-absorbed, I don't care who's saying it. This whole thing seems overblown and frankly pretty silly. People just want something to be outraged over so that they can feel progressive without having to actually do anything. The scale and number of the implications that the author of the Buzzfeed article seems to think that this has is staggering. Though it should be said that this kind of thing is kind of common - people get outraged over some petty, inconsequential bs and say that it represents a much larger problem so that they don't have to feel bad about not normally giving a shit about said much larger problem.(Agrajag (talk) 23:59, 17 January 2015 (UTC))

[edit] Re: A week in the life...

So, I understand that Twitter is a cesspool, but how can some asshat tweet "RETWEET ME OR ELSE I WILL BOMB YOUR HOUSE AT NIGHT" and not get his account kickbanned for abuse? Cosmikdebris (talk) 23:52, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

They did. @NeoDanger777, as well as a number of the other death/rape threat tweet accounts, are pinging up "This account has been suspended" pages when I try to access them. Not entirely sure whether or not it was due in part to the callout in the post she made.
Bleh. One of the things I dislike about the internet is how cheap and easy it makes anonymous threats. I mean, FFS, I consider myself a pretty mild person, and I've gotten a death threat in the past for saying that I prefer using a typewriter for writing (Guy thought I was a hipster because of this, and apparently really hated hipsters). Noir LeSable (talk)
I've long decided hipsters, by and large, aren't nearly as bad people as people who hate hipsters. Ikanreed (talk) 19:02, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
We should write an article about hipsters with a subsection called "people who hate hipsters". ShabiDOO 08:51, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for that. The account wasn't booted when I wrote the above comment, so I assume it was suspended after being outed on the femfreq blog. Cosmikdebris (talk) 19:23, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
It's not like said asshat won't create a new account as soon as he's banned, though. If it wasn't a sockpuppet account to begin with. 141.134.75.236 (talk) 19:13, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
When I checked last evening, @NeoDanger777 had been quite active for at least a few months, so it appears he/she/it was not a sock. Cosmikdebris (talk) 19:23, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
It's almost more disturbing when you realize the awful, terrible people, who fail at basic decency are mostly just regular people going about their lives. It feels better to imagine them the 2% of people whose personality makes them tend to choose trolling as a way of engaging online, going everywhere, doing everything. Ikanreed (talk) 19:28, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Wesley Morganston

So someone put in the blogs section something that belongs in the clogs. Essentially a neoreactionary commentary making fun of "the Cathedral" - a conspiratorial catch-all term for everything modern, liberal, or even conservative that disagrees with their worldview - for using demonstrations and actual humanity to demand justice. It's basically one big fat "no u" while insisting that "modern" ways of life are vacuous. And then there's a section insisting that there's no such thing as secularism, by pointing out times when government and religion were intermingled like eggs in an omelet.

And the only reason I haven't snipped it is because you dumbasses keep upvoting it and I want to see how much critical examination of things you actually do. — Unsigned, by: 73.41.199.153 / talk / contribs

I notice it started at +10 and is now at +4. Well done, you put it in and got it Internet points, that'll definitely bring about the revolution - David Gerard (talk) 08:38, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Um, the link was added by another BoN.
As for "you dumbasses", the people who visit and vote on these pages are not necessarily the same as those who edit the wiki. There seems to be a lot of people who vote on links without reading them.--ZooGuard (talk) 11:11, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Neoreactionary/LessWrong Twitter has been circulating the link going "OH WOW NYDWRACU'S IN RW" like we're the big time - David Gerard (talk) 15:17, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Honestly, I just ignored it because "the problem with religion" is one of those complicated topics that I don't expect an article by that name to properly address in the first place. Ikanreed (talk) 15:36, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Well, RW knows who they are and said critical things...and they nothing better to do. There's only so many times you can heat up a cheese dip, watch weird youtube videos, or write senseless 30 page screeds. -EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 17:49, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
I didn't upvote it because I recognized the source, but I figure Nydwracu's words speak for themselves. I saw nothing particularly offensive there either, then again I'm not sensitive to that sort of thing either. The NR idea of the Cathedral is a bit off, but also interesting. People of all political persuasions tend to place various ideas on pedestals and react to challenges to these ideas badly. At least Nydracu's writing is a bit easier to take than Moldbug's. - Smerdis of Tlön, A ⇒ ¬A. 20:51, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Today I was reminded of Moldbug's ridiculous piece on Bitcoin. (My response.) That's him being relatively terse and direct, by the way - David Gerard (talk) 21:52, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Ok. I am the person who added Nort's post to this because it's actually very good, thoughtful, and contrary to what you people might assume, not NRx. But now I'm interested. Do you people actually have a proper argument for why you don't like it, or what? 74.14.21.198 (talk) 22:35, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

What? The word 'Cathedral' appears once on the entire first page. Also it's almost certainly not kantbot, but whoever it is doesn't understand that different words have different meanings to different audiences so I hope he stops doing that. --Oldenglishword (talk) 07:11, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Indeed, Wes. But these people are well aware of exosemantics. 74.14.21.198 (talk) 07:46, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
"exosemantics" being a word he's most of the top 10 Google hits for. 'Cos we really needed a neologism for "connotations". I blame LessWrong's encouragement of gratuitous neologism, as always - David Gerard (talk) 11:43, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Just how uneducated they must be not to know words like this in their own native language... geez. Dmytry (talk) 21:50, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
Apparently Wesley denies he's NRx but none of his friends believe it. (indulgent twitter thread). Someone also said Mr. 74 is @kantbot2000, though I can't find that tweet now - David Gerard (talk) 22:47, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
For more proof, check out this twitter conversation. Does he ever betray a NRx viewpoint (pro-tech, singularitarian) 74.14.21.198 (talk) 02:42, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
*psst* that conversation makes no point to anyone not already steeped in the NRx memetic swamp - David Gerard (talk) 11:44, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
More proof on his writings for Theden. 74.14.21.198 (talk) 03:40, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

[edit] From "Blogs run by RationalWikians" down

Should this stuff be merged with RationalWiki:Blogroll, or does it serve some special purpose here? Sir ℱ℧ℤℤϒℂᗩℑᑭƠℑᗩℑƠ (talk/stalk) 23:56, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

*cough* Sir ℱ℧ℤℤϒℂᗩℑᑭƠℑᗩℑƠ (talk/stalk) 18:21, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

[edit] What's the skeptic stance on 'pedo'-detectors?

The cracked article talks about the studies purportedly showing that up to 50% of men are pedophiles, using some ridiculous looking penis movement recorder... what is the skeptic stance on that sort of stuff? It seems completely nuts (pun intended) - surely some pedos will not get a boner, and non-pedos may move around uncomfortably, mechanically causing false positives. Dmytry (talk) 18:23, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

I have a vague memory of someone mentioning "tumescence detectors", but I'm not sure if it was here or somewhere else. Check out User:Nebuchadnezzar, he's the psychology and neuroscience guy here, though he's not very active lately.--ZooGuard (talk) 18:32, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
Sorry, I was misremembering the term - the penile plethysmograph is mentioned in Pseudopsychology and has an entry on the Skeptic's Dictionary, but the Pedophilia article reports results from plethysmography studies without caveats. That article deserves attention, BTW, as its current incarnation is mostly the creation of User:Landmartian, who is a bit odd.--ZooGuard (talk) 18:40, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
"It has even been given to children as young as 10 who had abused other children. The latter was done in Phoenix, Arizona..." WTF?! Seriously, WTF?! Dmytry (talk) 21:47, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
I don't know, "has predictive value" is a pretty big deal for me as far as the pseudoscience divide goes: Discriminative and Predictive Validity of the Penile Plethysmograph in Adolescent Sex Offenders. The reasoning for calling it pseudoscience on both rationalwiki and skepdic was its deep ties to both lie detection and aversion therapy. The big risk is that people treat it like a smoking gun, when it's just a moderate correlation. Ikanreed (talk) 20:42, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
Well, a lot of things correlate with general re-offending. Age, income, IQ, race... nobody's calling a skin albedo measurement device a detector of criminality yet it would actually work pretty well in the US. Dmytry (talk) 23:44, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
Except that's exactly what I'm saying. That it has meaning, but using it as a tool for calling someone a criminal is dumb. The risk isn't that it's pseudoscience, it's that it's misapplied science. Ikanreed (talk) 23:54, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
Ahh. No, my WTF was about the fact that using this test on a 10yo itself constitutes sexual abuse of a minor. As for pseudoscience, Cracked's claim should qualify, no? You can't use a weak correlate to establish a % of paedophiles among men. It trivializes paedophilia. Dmytry (talk) 04:45, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Is it me or Cracked's been sort of good lately?

The trans man article warmed me up to the site again. It was even gasp funny!

Only complaint about the article was the "Straight men, on the other hand, also won't touch you because you're too assertive, with probably a fair amount of homophobia thrown in for good measure" bit. That's probably because straight dudes aren't into dudes. |₹Λ¥$€₦₦ Red rose 02.svg Now I'm not tense anymore, I'm just miserable. Hooray! 19:14, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

That's from the interviews series, which is just amazingly good in general - David Gerard (talk) 20:15, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
Some trans men can still look kinda female according to societal standards, so it's not physically impossible for a guy who identifies as straight to have a relationship with a trans man. Not that it'd likely be a healthy relationship if it's founded on the straight guy not knowing/denying the other's gender identity. 141.134.75.236 (talk) 20:30, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
Since having a little girl what I'm noticing is that everyone's gender steamrolled from their very birth, starting with pink vs any non-link colours (literally turning women into people of colour lol). The toys are gendered. Imagine if the toys were raced instead, as in, rappers and gangsters in the black kid isle, other toys in white and asian kid isle. Imagine that a black kid who's playing with technical legos or merely not being into rappers gets told he's not a real black kid at every point by the society and the well meaning people of all races, perhaps he's a white guy trapped in a black guy's body? The problems that trans people experience undoubtedly stem from this utterly extreme sexism. Dmytry (talk) 08:52, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
This'll probably be solved if gendered toys stop selling. But stuff like Max Steel, Transformers, TMNT, Barbie, Polly Pocket, and My Little Pony keeps making mad bank (admittedly, Max Steel is awesome). |₹Λ¥$€₦₦ Red rose 02.svg Kyubey stares into your soul. /人◕‿‿◕人\\ 01:35, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
It's even worse with legos and everything else now than with barbies and transformers. You need to go look in a toy store. Not only are almost all toys sold in gender specific manner (more moving parts / more colours / more complex assembly in the boys section), they propagandise gender roles (all scientist and engineer characters in lego are male for example, girl sets have girls take care of the house and water flowers, etc etc). The toys relating to occupations are sorted into boy/girl toys, one could go over the average salaries of the occupations represented by said toys for a kick. Or count the moving parts as a proxy for educational value, or assembly steps. The toys that you think are gender neutral are in boy section. And while as a parent you could of course ignore all that, the kindergarten, school, friends, etc will not. Dmytry (talk) 02:44, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
It's tragic that Lego has actually taken steps backwards over the last few decades in that regard. There was a fuss recently that got a scientific women set released, and I understand that it's now going to become a regular part of the range rather than a limited edition set, but you look at Lego adverts from yesteryear and it's abundantly clear that some effort was taken to avoid any gender stereotyping. Somewhere along the line it was lost.Queexchthonic murmurings 10:56, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Lesbians and doctor

In honesty, the child is probably better off not going to that doctor, as it appears they're an alt med pusher. "She took a holistic approach to treating children. She used natural oils and probiotics". Compro01 (talk) 19:59, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

While I don't know why the natural oils thing was even a consideration, I don't see how suggesting a holistic approach to treating an infection is evidence of "alt medicine pushing." The USA Today article is far too vague about the doctor's approach for anyone reading it to glean that they prefer alternative medicine to standard medicine. I think it's a bit rash to rush to conclusions about this physician's approach to medicine based on this single article from USA Today, whose journalistic integrity isn't exactly "blemish-free." Mondedge (talk) 20:20, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

[edit] That tumblr thingy with -20 points

Since it was added by that troll, and it's about as coherent as that troll, shouldn't it be removed? Narky SawtoothNarky.png (Nyar~) 13:25, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Nah, let's rub it in his face that his trolling has failed spectacularly. BicyclewheelModerator 14:37, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
Stuff tends not to get removed from WIGO unless it's really old or should be moved to a different WIGO - downvoting into oblivion is just fine - David Gerard (talk) 15:15, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
Downvoted it for your guys' pleasure. :) LEFTYGREENMARIO 07:44, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

[edit] That weak Guardian article on Militant atheism

The gist seems to be that militant atheists are largely liberal, and they think that all cultures will naturally evolve to their viewpoint. It seems like an insipid straw-man argument to me, especially considering that liberal atheists can retort that they don't expect all societies will adopt liberalism as a matter of course. — Unsigned, by: Hotwateramericano / talk / contribs

Not going to argue with that characterization. But I do think that at least for certain liberals, there is the expectation that liberalism will inevitably triumph. Its opponents stand in the way of Progress, and Progress is inevitable. (And so, standing in the way of Progress makes you a Villain.) Been this way since the days of the ancient Whigs. At any rate, I thought the editorial was not crazy enough for the clogs and fairly obviously missional. The author, John Gray[wp], probably deserves an article. - Smerdis of Tlön, A ⇒ ¬A. 04:39, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Davis Aurini and Jordan Owen have broken up

Is the skinny guy wearing the fedora ironically, have these losers "reclaimed" it from ridicule, a la lesbnians reclaiming the word "dyke," or does he actually think it makes him look cool? Peace. AgingHippie (talk) 03:38, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Maybe he's reclaiming the fedora's ironic coolness. FüzzyCätPötätö (talk/stalk) 03:51, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
I thought the hat was actually the most amicable element in that picture. 141.134.75.236 (talk) 07:22, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
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