An OLD Kind of Dumb

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

First of all, sorry this is so late. Yes, yes, I am still fighting the clanker. DEAL.

I’ve changed the cover of No Man’s Land, but I’m still not happy. To be fair, it’s a big ask for the thing to produce Ellyans. But…. well, I wish I were a little less autistic about it, okay? Or obsessive. This might just be “obsessive.”

Anyway I’ve been staying up late and beating on the clanker, and I’m cranky and a bit out of it. I need to write — for my own sanity — and haven’t been able to.

All of which makes me unreasonably cranky. Those of you in the back row who just rubbed your hands together and giggled should be ashamed of themselves! And sit up straight. And no, don’t put in orders for popcorn.

That said, yesterday, on Twitex — stop giggling — I ran across a particularly old and pernicious form of idiocy.

The context was of course the idiots who seem to believe no one can change cultures, and acculturation is utterly impossible. Look, I’m not saying acculturation is easy and yeah, mass migration curtails it by immersing people in their culture of origin and therefore making it impossible.

Also, this “acceptance” and “diversity is our strength” bullshit curtails acculturation because frankly humans don’t change unless they’re uncomfortable. Make them comfortable with their old culture in the new environment, tell them they’re special and bring wonderful things to these heathens they’re now living among, and they’ll not only never change, but view it as a terrible imposition to accommodate their hosts in anything. (Which is why you get these ridiculous entitled illegals flying the flag of their homeland and acting like we should all bow.)

Those are absolutely true. But it is equally true that humans are adaptable. The oldest saga of mankind, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is a story of acculturation, of bringing the “wild man” in to civilization.

The story of MANKIND is one of acculturation. Humans move to a new climate and adapt. Humans move to a different society and “go native.” We wouldn’t even have that phrase if this weren’t true and a known effect.

Sociologists — who say a lot of nonsense — call humans the animal who domesticated themselves. And supposedly domestication comes with physical changes, yeah, but you know I question the extent of those and the rapidity of those. Yes, I know, the Russian Foxes. But as far as I know that experiment hasn’t been replicated and Soviet Science should be printed in the same roll to disbelieve library as English High Cuisine.

But one thing is absolutely true: We don’t live the same way our ancestors lived in the fertile crescent or the Neolithic. Pretty much anywhere over the world. Yes, some societies seem more barbaric than those were, but if you study history, they’re really not. In some ways they’re far more barbaric because only people who have civilized and then rebarbarized can be that appalling. In others they are a vast improvement over, yes, even Ur of the Chaldees.

And besides, most of us, even in the “single origin” (AH!) nations of Europe, have blood from many other places. In fact, that is the “normal.” And in the US? We’re the original, spicy blended flavor. Not that diversity is our strength, but that bringing in many potentialities and forcing people to keep only constructive ones does improve the country. (This assumes we bring in the best, not whoever can walk across the border with their flag and a grievance.)

People adapt. They shed languages, habits, ways of being.

I was mentioning to Dan only the other day that The Three Guys are gone from Portugal. No, this is not a burger chain. It used to be you couldn’t walk outside anywhere in Portugal without three guys leaning on a wall looking at you appraisingly. And if you were a woman alone between eight and eighty, no matter how obviously “above their touch” they saw it as their sworn duty to shout graphic remarks of sexual things they’d like you to do to them.

I’m sure this was a survival of Arabic culture, where a woman alone is assumed to be a whore, but it persisted through all the centuries of Christendom. And while they didn’t dare attack you or touch you, it put a definite pall into such excursions as going out for groceries on your own, or even walking to class.

They’re gone. Completely vanished. And it’s one of the things I’ll praise the EU for. Of course, it’s partly the EU and their feminism, and partly the fact that Portugal’s primary industry is now tourism. I’m sure the police cracked pretty heartily on those more enterprising souls who shouted suggestions in bad English or bad French. And from that, they likely expanded to everyone doing that, in case some tourists spoke Portuguese or enough Spanish to understand the disgusting drivel.

And no, it’s not because they all died. They were around 20 years ago, and some where 20 years old. But they’ve adapted because being harassed back by the police was not to their taste.

Dogs, old and new, learn new tricks. They simply have to be taught.

Anyway, the conversation on twitter devolved to someone saying that he was descended from people on the Mayflower (my husband, not being a show off is descended from people on the next boat) and one of these new deep thinkers telling that was impossible since his profile says he’s Catholic and the pilgrims, of course, being all Protestant.

Because, y’all, religion is inherited. Other things I’ve found are inherited (And this was from the left, trying to slam my kids into Spanish — SPANISH! — language only classes) is language, way of dressing, propensity to crime, etc. etc. ad most definitely nauseum. (And how. I need anti-nausea medication at that drivel.)

No one — NO ONE — denies some tendencies are hereditary. I grew up in a village — channels Miss Marple — and you get to see this play out over generations, because your grandmother likely knows the grandparents of your school friends, and her mom knew the grandparents’ parents. And even with influx from outside — by my time quite common — it’s amazing how consistent some lines are. Grandma’s had a tendency to be flaky depressive story tellers. Fortunately I got none of–

Stop laughing. It’s rude.

Dad’s father’s line was known for its steady application to everything, its detailed intelligence and its taking on of very difficult professions. (Going way back a tendency to law, engineering and doctoring.)

On my mother’s side, they’re brilliant and crazy, but tend to dull the first and heighten the second with alcohol. That particular curse passed me by. They did however give me the berserker and an inability to keep my mouth shut when something pisses me off. (And my fondness for knives and axes. Not that I make use of them. But they’re ready, in case an opportunity should arise.)

Going into school we were known quantities. The teachers knew they could expect flakiness on schedule and keeping track of our possessions, great ability of memorization, a fondness for languages, history and math, that our lowest level of achievement would be a B for all academics, and that our gym performance would suck. No, listen… suck on ice. We’re a family mostly known for tripping over both feet while standing still.

But even in that limited gene pool those are TENDENCIES not genetic imperatives. My dad excelled at soccer, my brother in handball. Dad and his brothers were all natural sharpshooters. None of them could ride a bicycle, not even with the help of all the angels and saints, so they walked everywhere. And that I know of none of us, ever, could jump a rope. I remember mom trying to teach my brother and I by demonstrating it and being utterly puzzled it unobtanium to us.

What I’m trying to say is yes, some characteristics are inherited, but they they’re either way more granular than you can apply even to the inhabitants of a largely inbred village — or family — like, being unable to ride a bicycle or jump a rope, but great at soccer or, contrary to family history, sucking at geography, but excelling at everything else — or they’re far more general and frankly overcomable. (Totally a word. Deal.)

Look, yes, my tendency to depression is inherited. As is the ADD. I cope with both as best I can. I have a tendency to excessive amiability and conflict avoidance — stop laughing. To the extent I can do this it’s because I’ve acculturated — because of being raised as a woman in Portugal in the sixties and seventies.

But culture can influence you to a level that overcomes whatever you were born with. And I do actually have proof in myself. Until my fifties I did NOT have the slightest clue I was an introvert, much less an extreme introvert. In fact, most of you who’ve met me will refuse to believe that.

And yet I am. As I found out accidentally while reading that introversion makes you exhausted after being with people.

So, how come I didn’t know it? Because introversion as is possible in the US was simply not allowed. Portugal as a culture lives in each other’s pockets all the time. The extended family and the friends who are like family are in your face all the time twenty four seven. You can’t tell them to go away. That’s unthinkable. And my habit of locking myself in my room so I could read in peace made mom try to drag me to a psychiatrist.

I was trained, before I was even verbal, to be able to put on a front and act extroverted, even though all my instincts are to introversion.

I’ve been slowly becoming more myself in a culture that allows introversion — and it’s a relief — but it took almost thirty years to even realize my natural inclination.

People change. People adapt. People even civilize.

The people who believe otherwise, or pretend to (I suppose that was the snide intent of the guy who came over to tell me Portugal was so backward and why had I come here) are dirty, evil eugenicists who want the right to kill everyone who doesn’t conform to their version of what an American should be.

And you know that once it starts going down that path no one is safe. Absolutely no one. Because you might be Catholic or able to tan (despite ancestors going back to the revolution) or even — gasp — have a thought they didn’t approve of.

I recommend the insane eugenicists move to tribal Africa. It’s the only place the majority absolutely agrees with them that every aspect of behavior is inherited. I’ll even chip in for the spray-on-tan.

The fact that we don’t demand assimilation and adaptation to our culture has been pushing everyone, newcomers and old residents, in the other direction. Barbarism has advantages when you can act “natural” (Jean Jacques Rousseau must die) and get rewarded and treated as a victim.

Humans don’t change unless they have to. Once they have to, though, the changes will astonish you.

It’s time to start demanding changes of newcomers and old. Adherence to our founding documents, civic behavior of free citizens who are responsible for themselves, eschewing criminality and taking your hands off other people’s taxes.

It’s time to start demanding that people who come here and claim to want to join us speak English if not without an accent — listen, I’d get rid of it, if I could — at least fluently enough it doesn’t matter.

It’s time for Americans to be unapologetically American and make people fit in or fuck off.

Because humans are adaptable, and our culture is the best in the world and worth adapting to.

192 thoughts on “An OLD Kind of Dumb”

  1. “fondness for knives and axes”

    Have you had your eye on one such, but had to pass for something like a new automated litter box?

    I mentioned swords yesterday, but often those come with coordinating, if not matching, daggers …

    Liked by 1 person

    1. And I suspect the Scots will soon remember the civilizing effects of knives and axes.

      If Mayah Sommers isn’t her real name, it’ll do for now.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. …..

        I am avoiding a profane and obscene rant, on why a fourteen year old child had to stand off a mob of animals from molesting her twelve year old sister.

        In the apparent absence of any men.

        Any. Men.

        ……

        I once put a thug through the top glass of a pinball machine for far less.

        ……

        Now, hopefully, the whole thing isn’t a put-on of some sort. It’s a rare kid to haul around that much iron. Then again, I went to school on occasion with a handmade maple truncheon and/or a folded double dog chain leash. (The latter a surprisingly useful and easily concealed weapon. Practice on a heavy bag.)

        ….

        I am still raging on “Have all the Scots been gelded? Where are the men?”

        Save their asses from my Kraut kin, twice, for -this-?

        Really?

        …

        Clamp a belt sander in a vise, with the belt vertical and moving downward. Use 60 to 200 grit paper.

        holding the kitchen knife tightly point down and spine towards the belt, gently and slowly regrind the back half to be flat to the existing point, centerline on handle. Don’t go hotter while grinding than a wet rag slightly steams.

        Once you learn that, now learn to put a false edge at sixty degrees in same place. (Grind alternate left and right.

        Too much work? In a hurry? Anything sharp, stiff, and over 4″ long will do.

        you can make a fair sheath out of old belts, sew with dental floss or qrso with duct tape, or use folded cardboard and tape.

        Your ancestors knew what to do.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I’m not /that/ worried about the uselessness of the Welsh man, and am actually finding myself slightly more charitable to a lefty UK acquaintance of distant awareness.

          Because at some level, the UK academics know that they have screwed up, and are scared.

          We have guns, and that means that we feel confident in pushing back before we are angry enough to have lost the reset of our self-restraint, and civilized ways.

          African style decolonization of an entitled delusional academic elite might involve machetes.

          In America, we shoot people or we hang peopel, depending.

          Anyway, the magical inhabitants of British fairyland are human, and are not congenitally retarded, adn will prove inventive.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Alex the Chick on Twitter was expressing her distress at an absolutely foul post, apparently written by a middle, upper-middle or upper-class British woman, that boiled down to, “You have no idea how horrible those people are. There’s no depth of depravity those people will not plumb.” Speaking of the girl,not her stalkers. The mere fact she had access to weapons “proves,” she’s bottom-class, no account, filthy and probably asked for it. It was distressing to read.

          Liked by 4 people

          1. the reason the rape gangs continue is just that attitude. “}they’re just slags, council scum.” That is the ugly reality of British life and you have to live there to really understand how pervasive it is.

            Liked by 2 people

            1. At a previous job, I had a British co-worker who was concerned about Muslims. He once described to me how they would remain peaceful until they reached a large enough minority, whereupon a number of them would suddenly get more and more demanding and violent with the rest of whatever society they were living in.

              So, not a fan of them.

              I once asked him about Rothingham and Teleford. He blamed it equally on both the Muslim rape gangs, and on the racist underclass whites still living in those areas.

              I get the impression that culturally a lot of Brits just completely despise the underclass, and can’t see anything good coming from them. If something bad happens, then the underclass must have done something to deserve it.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It’s something Raymond Ibraham has touched on several times in his blogs on Islam and the West over on PJ Media. The things in Islam that are abhorrent to liberty, safety, the Constitution, and just getting along with each other are the very things that they refuse to give up, and anyone who does is branded an apostate and ripe for honor killing, stoning, beheading or any other kind of terminal treatment.

                Like

                1. He once described to me how [Muslims] would remain peaceful until they reached a large enough minority…

                  For what it’s worth:

                  Somewhere out there on the internet there’s a chart that ranks all the countries from lowest- to highest-percentage of Muslim populations. The 0-20% quintile has the most countries–I disremember exactly how many. The second-highest was the “top” 80-100% quintile.

                  It forms a classic “bathtub curve” that suggests that if your Muslim concentration exceeds 20%, your country “tips over” into the >80% zone. As if the two “attractors” were All Muslims or No Muslims; the intermediate range only had (IIRC) about 17 countries out of 190-some, according to the CIA Factbook.

                  Like

              3. Self-defense is a moral obligation. Crime is a moral anathema. The Left can excuse any crime, but cannot tolerate self-defence.

                Follow the logic. And speak loudly.

                Like

        3. Short version-England and Scotland have made any kind of self-defense outside of the properly trained authorities a criminal act and offense against culture and manners.

          Late ’80s, even where I went to school, what would usually happen if a bunch of guys tried to molest a 12-14 year old girl would probably be a beat-down by most of the boys in range, unless the guys were clearly armed. And this was in the heart of Blue California. Cops would probably roll slow, only break things up to avoid people getting killed, and the only people that would be arrested beating on the molesters would be the ones too stupid to get clear while the cops busted the molesters.

          Now? Assuming they didn’t get arrested, a mob action against the molesters would have a whole library thrown at them. Especially if the racial angle was right (“Latinx” or “Middle Eastern” vs “White”). The girls might sue…because why not? And all the right thinking people would clutch at their pearls about how horrible the West is.

          If I have any hope, it is the simple fact that this story IS trending on Twitter and it’s not being stopped means that the signal is getting out. And I hope the next “Asian” (i.e. Middle Eastern or Pakistani) bunch of molesters get a proper stomping by everyone.

          Like

        4. The fact that she was carrying that in the first place indicates that they know just how dangerous it is in that area, who the enemy is, AND that the authorities are also the enemy and won’t do anything to protect them.

          Once things get to that point, the only solution is to remove the law enforcers, replace them with your own militia types, and then exterminate the criminal elements. Let’s see if the Scottish have any real highlanders left besides this girl. Unfortunately, I’m not real hopeful.

          Like

          1. Women must not -display- or -brandish-. Losing strategy.

            Note how once she threatened the animal, he then used the whole State to disarm and in effect r### her for him. Yes, they did. “cavity search” by force and in front of multiple others.

            They wont show you mercy. None. Don’t show them any.

            If you pull that thing out, cut him down. Stab him down. Hack and stab the life out of the sumbitch. Go berzerk and scream banshee the whole time. (give real men a chance to come assist. But also just shock the marrow of the animal.)

            Otherwise he will likely take that thing away form you, and use it on you. Or worse. far worse. Face a mob? OK. Go berzerk Tazmanian Devil on em. Dont stop until they are running and screaming faster than you.

            -Then- get away. And go clean up and say nothing.

            Liked by 2 people

            1. Hmm. There are two (or three) plausible versions of this one stinking up the twit-o-sphere. Both Left and Right have glommed onto whichever version of this half-the-story incident most warms their hearts/confirms their biases. Each side fires its trademark ad hominem (“Islamophobe!” “Classist!”) at whomever questions its preferred spin.

              1) There are “groom-y” Muslim men pouring into the UK/EU, and credible stories of them homing in on adolescent girls. I adore the “Baby Boudicca won!” story, and wish I believed it. The PTB over there don’t want that idea to circulate, and they prosecute people for saying it in public.

              2) There are “wannabe-gangsta” adolescents (of both sexes); there are more of them in the “Working Class” neighborhoods; they do do stupid things for stupid reasons, and hassling a married couple of legal Bulgarian immigrants–apparently not siblings, as one version has it–would be light-years short of the stupidest. The Daily Wail ran with this one, as did the Scottish cops. I wish I could reject it outright.

              Children and the Of Color tend to get judicial wrist-slaps for their crimes these days, and both groups know it. Their “demand” for such behavior rises when the “price” falls.

              My first thought on this one was (and still is) “Wait, what? Where did a tiny kid in tight-ish clothes hide all that cutlery? …and for how long? In a country full of Karens who would race to be the first to rat her out if they saw anything? This fails the scratch’n’sniff!” So:

              3) There are rage-bait hoaxes spread thru the internet. So when the outrage rises, add skepticism.

              Such stories get new lurid details with each retelling. The Cavity Search, for instance. (That’s the first time I’ve heard that one. Citation?) If the kid really did get arrested, a few police matrons probably did take her to That Little Room. A talented storyteller can–“by force and in front of multiple others”–evoke an image of her being pantsed and probed right there in the park, with no need for a whole-cloth lie.

              As far as not Brandishing/Displaying goes–Amen! It ISN’T a game; DON’T “play fair” by warning him. In an Ugly Scene like that, Plan A should always be “Bug out!” Failing that, Plan B must be “kill him RIGHT NOW!!!” Don’t do–or say, or “brandish”–anything that will make that harder to do.

              Like

              2. If you go to prison, you will be cavity searched.

                If that young lady is convicted on weapons charges, a “violent felony” that is what she will experience inprocessing.

                Like

              3. The Daily Mail omitted what can be clearly seen from the video: he came closer after she threatened with a weapon. Apparently you spin that by pretending it didn’t happen.

                Like

                1. I don’t know how you read that as me “spinning” the story “by pretending” that anything in it definitively convicted OR exonerated either of them. My writing must not be anywhere near as clear as I thought. TL;DR?

                  I explicitly said that if she got arrested, she’d have been searched. It’s too easy to “spin” that fact to make it sound as if they did it in front of a growing crowd of passers-by.

                  My point was that neither story–pervy foreigner or extortionate chav–is implausible on its face; that every retelling spins harder Left or Right; that we can’t trust ANYONE to tell the whole truth, so we all should get more skeptical as we get more outraged. (It’s also worth mentioning, on a writer-rich blog, that Hero vs Villain clashes are usual in fiction; in real life, bet on Jerk vs Jerk.)

                  I still say the big, BS-smelling plot hole in this story is: where were those blades one minute BEFORE the show started?

                  Like

                    1. Sorry. I’ve been on the giving end of that one myself, offending someone by writing “you do such-and-such” because “one does” sounds pretentious to my American ear.

                      Yeah, the Daily Fail’s photo–huge featureless beige rectangles in her hands while clearly showing her face–gives THEIR game away.

                      Like

                    2. Sorry for taking it personally. I too have offended unintentionally by writing “you do” because “one does” sounds pretentious to me.

                      (Sorry too if this is a redundant post. WP ate the first one. I bet it barfs it back up, but not until this one posts.)

                      Liked by 1 person

        5. Sarah wrote “A Few Good Men” set in the far future. Methinks there is a ripe opportunity for a parallel novel “A Few Good Women” for today’s U.K.

          Like

        6. I am avoiding a profane and obscene rant, on why a fourteen year old child had to stand off a mob of animals from molesting her twelve year old sister.

          In the apparent absence of any men.

          Any. Men.

          A couple of points here.

          First it seems like it was not a mob. It was two. And it looks to me like the male member of the two deliberately baited the girls into attack.

          RUMINT has it that he is known for this kind of behavior and quite possibly more and worse

          Second. Why no men? because when the men do stand up, they get arrested for racist attacks on migrants.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. From TwittX … https://x.com/Anc_Aesthetics/status/1960815792712507904

        There were 3 girls who were there who were accosted and attacked by the migrants.

        Lola – Lola is the hero from the video. She’s the one with the axe defending her sister from the migrant attackers

        Ruby – Lola’s older sister who was attacked and hospitalized

        Mayah – Ruby’s best friend who was with them and went to call the police after Ruby was attacked by the migrants

        Like

        1. Contrary to some reports, the men were not arrested, and the coppers — asking people to not spread misinformation.

          Like

          1. I saw a report this morning (can’t recall where) saying that after the uproar, the police did arrest the guy. No further details, and I assume he’ll be out long before the girl is.

            First they took the guns, then the knives. TPTB’s sense of honor left long before that.

            Like

      3. I haven’t seen last names. What I have seen is there were 3 girls

        Lola – 12 our dual wielder

        Ruby – Older sister of Lola

        Mayah – Lola’s friend likely 12-13 no age mentioned

        The girls are walking along when a much older “foreign” man shows up (with sister) and starts coming on to all three though Lola in particular. Ruby tells the man to leave them alone. This abuse continues again Ruby tells the man to leave them alone. Man and sister start hitting Ruby knock her down. Ruby ends up with concussion and several large (tennis ball) size contusions. At this point Lola whips out her iron mongery (a beat up santoku looking knife and a hatchet. Mayah heads off to get the police. Police and Mayah return to find Lola standing guard over her sister like a mama cat. Police proceed to arrest Lola for posession of edged weapons.

        Honestly the Nearest US Consulate should offer Lola and Mayas family sanctuary and asylum in the US and provide transport to the US embassy or nearest US extraterritorial area. Starmer and his ilk poked their probosces into our business by sending over folks to support and throw in for Kamala in the run up to the election last year. This should also be done for others such as Lucy Conolly or others who have been jailed for tweets especially about the grooming issues or trying to preach at Speakers Corner. Make it clear we believe natural rights apply to ALL people and that we will help the British people. Mr Starmer needs to learn that chosing the 20 side of a 20/80 issue is a bad choice and it appears the Tories have even less backbone than our RINOs.

        Starmer and his buddies may throw a few of our diplomats out as persona non grata in a fit of pique. Fine, they’ll find it very hard when we put large tariffs on some of their goods. They export much to the US and import large amounts of raw goods for many parts of their economy. In essence they started this by trying a color revolution against us. We told them where they could shove that 249 years ago and perhaps they need to hear it again.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Beats me. The whole point of the Liberator was it was a cheap one shot way to get hold of a real gun from a dead Nazi. Most British police aren’t armed so now you have a dubious pistol that is hard to reload (Was the Liberator even rifled?). It also assumed that yoiu had a population that was willing to fight. Of late the Brits have been showing a little more fighting spirit but you’ll need more than a little fight to take on the law and a bunch of entitled immigrants.

            I may be totally black pilled but more and more the UK, Ireland and Western Europe look like write-offs. The situation looks like one of sauve qui peut and Devil take the hindmost. To me those girls and others like them look worth saving. And our people need to hear their warning that unassimilated foreigners with very different views of civilization can be a real issue. Meanwhile we need to not get overrun ourselves. Some of our cities are getting overrun. Luckily we have a lot more space than either the UK/Ireland or most European countries and we haven’t yet given up our natural right of self defense (although good luck using it in say Massachusetts or New Jersey).

            Like

          1. Likely Parliament was more of the Issue than George III. They were unwilling to share power and take comments from uppity no accounts from the colonies. Honestly even just a BIT more listening and a bit of bending and we’d have been something like Canada. But the Author seems to have other plans and hardened their hearts just like he did Pharaoh’s long ago. And so we had a country that ultimately decided it needed to go all the way to the other coast.

            Like

      1. I highly recommend the Randall #1 fighting knife. (Thanks Pop)

        The Buck 119 sheath knife, or the Buck 110 folding Hunter are good.

        Always have a knife. (grin)

        Like

        1. I presume pop bought earlier – 7 year wait if you order from Randall directly!

          In the less-storied line, Cold Steel OSS and SOG Seal Pup are on sale at Bezos’ Place today.

          I have developed a fondness for Tod Cutler products; rondel daggers are fun, and he has some nice short swords.

          Like

          1. Pop (US Army CIC), and his best buddy, a Korea Marine, bought their preferred types in 1958 while in college together.

            Pop gave me his when I enlisted. A very crusty old Vietnam vintage Master Sargent once told me “You ain’t old enough to have one of those.”

            Like

  2. And those are the people who think White Americans inherited the “sin” owning Black Slaves even though no living American owned slaves or are slaves.

    Of course, these are often the assholes who believe “To Be White Is To Be Racist.”

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Or that to be racist you have to be white, since ‘persons of color’ can’t be racist because reasons. Except that yellow is white. And some flavors of brown. And wrong-thinking others . . .

      Like

  3. No, the three guys standing and catcalling women now aren’t Portuguese, they’re African. Because the EU has outsourced sexual harassment and sex crimes to migrants, don’tchaknow. Just doing the jobs Europeans won’t do.

    Like

    1. MOST human behaviors are trainable. Now, you’ll never make me into a calm, laid back person, but I can pretend it, and am in fact much better.
      You’ll also not get me to stop scrambling digits. But there are work arounds and my kids got taught those early, so they went all the way in math as far as the University taught.
      I couldn’t, because I didn’t even know it was a form of dyslexia. I just thought I was stupid. When I figured it out, I learned workarounds. but I was in my forties by then. (Figured it out by meeting someone who had overcome it.)
      MOST behaviors are trainable. If you work hard enough and want it badly enough.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I had to learn calm as a fighting method because I shoot one heck of a lot better when calm. Likewise some other mayhem.

        I then learned “let your inner berserk go free” on a bayonet course. (grin) -That- was both therapeutic and fun. I -destroyed- several of the targets, and ruined my bayonet.

        Ahhhhh good times.

        Like

        1. Berserkers can clear a room, but they’re lousy fighters, because they can’t tell friend from foe. Ask me how I know…
          Fortunately he who is my better half will stop a fit by putting his arms around me. Only thing that does.

          Like

          1. On Berserkers – There is an account from Sept 2010 of a recently retired Gurka soldier on a train in India when 40 thugs started robbing the passengers. When one started to molest a girl next to him and asked for his help, he drew his kiris and rampaged alone through the cars, killing three robbers, wounding eight, and chasing the rest off the train. Took a severe knife wound in one arm but kept going. He refused a large cash reward. “Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier, but taking on the thugs on the train was my duty as a human being”.

            Liked by 3 people

              1. I believe that applies to Gurkhas in general. “Ayo Gorkhali!” doesn’t translate to “Come, let us reason together.”😈

                Like

          2. None of us berserk maniacs managed to stab each other on the bayonet course. (grin)

            The Drill Sergeant at the end of the course “finish” line did look a little worried as I was, coincidently, lined up on him as I left the last target and raced to the end, snarling the whole way. He backed -way- the eff up. (grin)

            Part varsity fencer. Part “Hulk SMASH!”. Yielded an “Expert” badge I cherished.

            Liked by 1 person

  5. I absolutely agree with you on the “It’s time for Americans to be unapologetically American and make people fit in or fuck off.” I suggest we start with the imports from Somalia and Gaza.

    Those folks who say you can never change cultures really are showing they have an “incomplete” understanding of human learning and mentition. And I have to suspect that they’ve never actually lived in another country, AS a member of that country. Except in very rare instances, people do not forget what they have learned. However, they can bury it so they don’t consciously recall it. They can dilute it so that it’s only a miniscule part of their memories. They can consciously repattern their behaviors to act like a member of the new culture, and not like their former culture. Acculturation occurs when your default mode of thinking and acting changes to the new one. I suspect a big step is if said acculturation requires a change in language; and the switch flips when you start actually thinking in the new language.

    I’ve run into it myself a couple of times. I start picking up behaviors of locals, understanding and then start using various idioms and ways of talking. The accent changes. South Korea, Germany, France, Okinawa, I’d get to a point where I was using words from their language in place of the English ones, sometimes entire sentences. Usually took until I got about 6 months in country before I noticed it. And I wasn’t consciously trying to “go native”.

    I do admit that I was a little annoyed one vacation trip to Spain, where all the vendors and restaurant folks were dead certain I was German, and not an American.

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Yup. After two years in East Africa I returned to the States. For a while people used to back away from me because I carried on conversations by standing too close to them and shouting. There are cultural changes you don’t even notice.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. There was one point when I realized why my sister’s MiL was making me uncomfortable until I sat down. Her conversational distance (from a South American country) was too close for Americans. Sitting down made the conversational distance irrelevant.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Janet Kagan used that in Hellspark. Her main character was fluent in many languages, including non-verbal cues, proper distance and so on. One of her tasks involved teaching a woman from one culture how to “speak,” to a man from another one, so she could make her feelings about him plain to him.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Hellspark is one of my favorites. Mirabile is also good, but less serious (of course, it’s not a novel, but a connected series of shorts). A shame she died young.

          Like

    3. Join your tears with older DIL. Everyone in such industries in Portugal thought she was FRENCH. German used to be what they thought I was when I was young. Now they land on American moderately often. Pity husband, though. They’re sure he’s the Portuguese one.

      Like

  6. “The context was of course the idiots who seem to believe no one can change cultures, and acculturation is utterly impossible.”

    This part made me facepalm. AYFKM!?!? Literally said that out loud. Scared Othercat off the couch, because I don’t do the yelling thing much. “No one can change cultures” is utter nonsense- actually, let me rephrase that. It is poisonous to sense. Anti-intelligent, pro-stupid (professional stupid, yes that’s a thing. See the media. And Congress).

    Cultures constantly are in flux. They change. Some of them are sick (yes, I had to do the pun), all on their own, others are made that way in response to their neighbors. And cultures are made of people. So those who believe culture is a static and unchanging phenomenon have failed basic logic. Unsurprisingly, they are most often leftist (Marxist, Communist, Socialist, Democrat all the same).

    Cultures are habits of thought. That’s how I’ve always thought of it, personally, in a nutshell. And habits are STRONG. Traditions that last multiple generations? Habits, culture in microcosm. Those thoughts can be things like “respect the rule of law.” Or “women and children first.” Or even, “I get mine, and damn the rest.” Within the culture, most people don’t even think these thoughts out. They are habits of thought, so they operate as if on reflex. Damned hard to break.

    Those habits of thought are the well worn paths that a person’s mind travels, hardly considering the scenery or where it is taking him, for the most part. It’s easy to conflate culture with things like clothing, food, and festivals. Yes, it is in those things, but those things are the effects of culture. Far, far downstream of the root causes: those habits of thought.

    Culture permeates everything. That’s one of the most difficult things for the ethnographer to grasp, because it’s quite literally everywhere. From the moment of birth to death. There are traditions- cultural phenomena- surrounding both. Culture affects how children are brought up, taught, and trained. Culture affects how those little people are taught to think.

    Every culture is under constant pressure. Always. Warfare, basic survival, beliefs (religion AND politics fall under this umbrella), trade. Therefore every culture is always changing.

    Look at the US pre and post 9/11. Before and after the internet. Before and after any of the big wars we got in, to include the one we got in with ourselves. Look at Europe before the EU and after. Russia before and after it (the Soviet kleptocracy) broke up. Change happens to people, thus to cultures.

    Not getting this is like keeping one’s head buried in the sand. Somebody’s eventually going to come around and kick your @$$. It’s happening to the left, now. The envelope they keep pushing tore. More the fool they. The envelope was culture. Outside our culture looks a lot like chaos to us. Now it’s living next door, to many of the leftists in “sanctuary cities.”

    It’s not sweet little brown people. We’re not all the same. Not everyone “just wants to be loved” as the song goes. Different. Cultures. Are. Different. Sometimes wildly so.

    The great thing about the US is that we can accept people from ALL cultures, provided they come to fit in. Yes, FI/FO. We want those who value liberty, property, and the chance to seek happiness on their own terms (provided they keep their fists out of other innocent people’s faces). America is the world’s engine of prosperity because we give anyone the chance to try. And the ability to survive inevitable failure.

    Respect our culture, Proglodytes. Respect the flag and what it stands for. Respect our laws, that are there to provide safety, security, and opportunity. And maybe, just maybe, think about acculturating here, too. We welcome even refugees from the Democrat concentration camps.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I’m always amused (morbidly so) by the people who claim that culture is only food and clothes and music, and also so ingrained in genetics that behaviors and mores cannot be challenged or changed. Both at the same time. *weary kitty eyeroll*

      Liked by 5 people

      1. YEah.

        Factories, now, and the early 1900s, were culture. And deliberate calculated choices within tha.

        Defense scientists and engineers of the 1960s and 1970s in America were maybe a culture.

        I find it a little sad that there are people trained in archeology or anthropology who can travel the world, and spend years of months over decades finding traces of artifacts to speculate about tens of thousands of years back, but have not curiosity or sense of wonder for the vast wealth of fairly recent artificats nor for the cultures that made them.

        I feel it is pointless to attempt to address poverty in modern times as an archeologist, without putting any thought into something like austrian economics, and into the study of fairly modern agriculture, and the societies which can practice it.

        Like

        1. Historical archaeology. Or historiarch, in shorthand. It’s a thing, but a much ignored, underfunded, and very little studied thing. “Why not just be a historian?” They ask.

          Historiarch looks at artifacts, physical media, and written history to recreate a somewhat accurate picture of the past. A historian might dabble a bit in historiarch, an anthropologist might spend a few late nights in a dusty archive. Different flavors of the same sort of thing. Main difference is just in the training anyway, but they grow together as you go until they are pretty much indistinguishable.

          Historiarch was the branch of physical anthropology I was most interested in, back in the day. Shame that there weren’t any courses offered then on it specifically. I grew up finding Indian arrowheads, brass buttons, and the occasional tin spoon around the old battlefields. The study of the more recent past, with actual documents where folks wrote down what they were thinking at the time? Heresy to the modern archaeologist! Only that which cannot be proven is their playground.

          Eh, I complain about the idiocy of anthropologists often. Pay it no mind. Unless of course, you are independently wealthy- then pay money to do the studies! That would be good for history and anthropology in general.

          Like

    2. The sentence “no one can change cultures” has some equivocation going on, intentional or not, because there are two different meanings that both use the words “change cultures”.

      One of them is the culture of the group. If you’re trying to change the culture of a large group (such as a country), you are GOING to fail. Period. There have been a few rare exceptions, such as the American occupation of Japan changing the old strength-is-everything culture of pre-WWII Japan — and yet it’s likely that it never did actually change, it just went underground. Someone with more experience of Japan than me can speak to whether the Yakuza are a continuation of the pre-WWII culture or not. But most of the time, when someone says “This culture needs to change” and sets out to change the culture of the group? They fail, and they fail hard.

      The other is the culture of the individual, the world view that the individual filters things through. This is hard to change, as anyone who has worked or lived cross-culturally can attest, but it can be done if the individual is sufficiently motivated.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Follow-up thought. The only times when individuals have changed the culture of a group (usually a smaller group such as a village)? Has been when they persuaded the group members themselves that their culture had problems and they should change it. For example, I have often heard about villages in remote locations where they had never heard about Jesus, and when Christian missionaries show up, many people believe and become Christians. And then the culture changes: people who used to steal or cheat on their spouses now become convinced that those things are sinful, and they themselves want to change. So, with difficulty and effort, they do. Which often results in more people seeing the difference and saying “Hey, maybe there is something to this Christianity thing” and themselves becoming Christians, and the cultural change ripples out through the village.

        But when that happens, it’s usually a side-effect of the religious change. The missionaries didn’t (usually) come into the village saying “We want people to stop stealing and cheating on their spouses”, they were saying “We want people to believe in Jesus”. Of course they also thought stealing and cheating on your spouse was wrong. But in places where the missionaries’ main focus was changing the culture? They usually failed. In those places where their main focus was getting people to believe in Jesus and read the Bible for themselves? Cultural change happened as a side effect, after people became Christians and were highly motivated to follow the teachings of Jesus for themselves.

        So those who seek to change the culture of the group almost always fail. BUT those who are seeking to change individual’s lives can, sometimes, end up changing the culture of the group.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Look at the India practice of Suttee (sati). Banned by the locals in 1829 for their own reasons but started because of the disgust of British. Famous saying regarding the religious aspect “You practice your religious beliefs of burning widows on the husband’s pyre. We’ll practice our religion of hanging those who put the widow on the pyre.” But notice India had to pass a Sati Act in 1987, that is the Sati Prevention Act in 1987. With rumors of a form of sati still being practiced to this day. Widows may not be being forced alive into the crematorium while their spouses body is burned, but honor murder of women happens. Would not surprise me to discover they are widows. Along with daughters who refuse arrange marriages, or whose bride grooms refused them (funny how it is the rejected woman, not the men).

          Like

    3. Had an odd thought reading through your post.

      I’ve heard it said many times that the only way to understand the Koran is reading it in native Arabic. But consider what I’d said earlier about thinking in a language being a tipping point to acculturation. Programming mental malware can be insidious. Madrasas are not benign schools, and didn’t Barack Obama attend one for many years in Indonesia? Mental rot from acculturation, even if only partial.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. “There is no smoking in this aircraft. If you absolutely must smoke during the flight, please step outside.”

        Like

    2. The Reader believes that destruction is much easier than change. But notes that the attempt at destruction (Marxism in all its forms) has taken at least a century and a half and has not (yet) succeeded.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. The oldest saga of mankind, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is a story of acculturation, of bringing the “wild man” in to civilization.

    Man, if only it were as easy as sending out a temple prostitute to make nice.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It works frequently– basic proggy tactic is to get a bunch of sexually available women, make sure that everyone knows that the way to get laid is to be known as this week’s cook version of proggy, and boom.

      Which is why you and I end up being lectured about how we “really” think, believe, and are, what the insane progressives insist we must be. Even by folks supposedly on our side.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I estimate that a minimum of 50-90% of non-draft eligible (too old, vets, 4F, deferred, etc.) males at anti-war rallies in the 60s were there because of the easy hippie chicks.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I’d say one can belong to multiple cultures at once.

    We’re part of the culture that watches SpaceX launches. We understand the reference yesterday to “open the pod bay doors HAL.” We understand what roll to confirm means. We understand a reference to Kobayashi Maru, soylent green, and Lazarus Long.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Just make sure you belong to a culture that has some survival skills. Consider the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy first.

      Does your culture understand how to build and maintain infrastructure? Can it sniff out and deal with corruption? Can it read a general ledger and income statement? Can it feed, nuture, and protect its own people? Can it pull the trigger on a mad dog?

      Like

    3. I was concerned when that little bit of the skirt blew the heck up during reentry, and when the rear flaps trailing edge got a little melty, and I was disappointed that I didn’t hear them play The Blue Danube Waltz during any of the coast phases like they did on the first one to make not-quite-orbit, but in the end it all worked. Bravo Zulu SpaceX.

      Like

  12. I realized I was an introvert too the first time I read “found out accidentally while reading that introversion makes you exhausted after being with people”, too. That you wrote in a post before. People shouldn’t be surprised at all because I thrived in jobs with minimal daily contact even being in offices and part of a department with lots of people. With my large extended family gathering background people wouldn’t think this is true. But surprisingly it is really easy to hang back and minimally interact (still exhausting, but at least get to leave not drained) beyond initial greet and “how are yous”. Harder to do the smaller the, um, crowd. Like when visiting the inlaws where the “crowd” is considerably smaller. Actually expected to hold up part of the conversation. Never is expected at my side of the family, there was always someone else “more exciting” and willing to be the center of attention. Me? Not so much. I so do not have the gift of gab.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Always knew I was introverted — my parents and siblings are, and 90% of my extended family, too, so those traits were always just a normal part of who we all were (are). My wife is, although she used to be really good at giving the opposite impression, and my kids are if anything even more introverted than I am (a feat very few can manage). If it isn’t an inherited tendency, nobody told my ancestors.

      But didn’t know the word for it until my mid to late 20s. Mostly what knowing about introversion did for me was that its opposite number explained why so many people couldn’t stand to be alone, couldn’t manage to leave me alone either, and kept saying dumb things like “break out of your shell.”

      Like

      1. My case it was getting lost in the crowd (of family). Frankly every whereelse too. Neither mom is, or dad was, introverts. My sisters and their kids aren’t either.

        Son is a bit of an introvert too. I just don’t know how severe. We tried hard but he got lost in the family crowd too. Not the large double family I had, but among my sister’s kids. Part of the problem, once they hit their teen ages, he was the only male among very, very, girly females. The next boy is 13 years younger. Scouts he mingled well. His friends have grown away from him as they had children or their own significant others. He gets along great with his cousins husbands. He goes out of his way to be social with co-workers and ex-coworkers outside of work (not happening during work, not with the hands on single project, minimal needed cooperation physical work he does). But he’s not out seeking crowds socializing either.

        Like

  13. In a DC Metro train at this very moment where someone scrawled on the wall: “Liberate DC”. It’s in process…

    Regarding introvert-hostile cultures: I dated a young woman of Mexican descent for several years. If one wasn’t working or sleeping, they were expected to be 100% involved with her family, 100% on their terms. I have to say I don’t miss that.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Can you be an Introverted Pervert. or would that be prevert, postvert? I may have a little too much vert on the brain. Overcomable? how about Overcombable in reference to the current glorious Leader and many of the other follicularly challenged.

    Like

  15. Sarah just learned that Larry Bauer (Uncle Lars) has died.

    That’s all she told me, but she will give us more info when she’s feeling better. ☹️

    Like

    7. Ah, damn. I missed him being around. I know I don’t comment a lot. I just enjoy the reading.

      For Uncle Lar, Eternal rest grant unto him oh Lord.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, agreed. I’m not having any more casualties, thank you, you must all be much more careful.

        I suppose Uncle Lar will have to be taken care of by all his old dogs and relatives until I can get there to tell him off myself.

        Liked by 1 person

    6. This general effort could be usefully described as “Lend-Lease 2025+” — and after all those abysmally stupid and also sadly out of touch attempted-interventions in American politics by left-listing “British institutions” like The Guardian (still visibly ongoing as of a few days ago), it would be nothing more and nothing less than a matter of Balance (even in the full Liaden sense).

      Of course, as far as I can tell at least, there’s nothing in British law that actually forbids making your own assorted pointy- and edgy-things, it’s the buying and carrying off-premises. Still useless to adhere to the law in a context of “no self-defense, no other-defense, you’re a peasant not worth saving and you ought not try to defend your worthless life either” — but maybe still good for a little, practically, where that context is not yet quite universal or invariable.

      I’m suddenly a little surprised that Brits are not already being taught how to say “my lond” and “my lady” in Arabic or other popular imported tongues… it would be right in line with the Current Regime and its lengthening parade of truly Intolerable Acts.

      Like

  17. …idiots who seem to believe no one can change cultures, and acculturation is utterly impossible

    Have them spend a few weeks in basic training. Assuming they have the intellectual capacity (let alone physical) to stay in that long.

    May I recommend the Parris Island campus of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children for the more obstinate ones.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah, but Basic at the MCRDs is a disassemble -> reassemble exercise, and totally structured as such.

      That was also the case to a lesser degree in the public school systems during the great immigration waves in the past century and a half. Even when my high school started getting HS-age Vietnam escapees in the years after the fall of Saigon, their ESL-track classes were just-go-a-lot-slower-in-English with a couple bilingual teachers aids, not teaching everything in Vietnamese.

      There’s not one ounce of “disassemble” left in the system now.

      Like

    2. My DI’s considered such to be a challenge. They loved challenges…😈

      Civilian ne’er-do-wells to Green Machine in 11 weeks; ask me how I know.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. “acceptance”

    Another case of corrupting the language. The left does not want “acceptance” as understood by any rational English speaker. They mean “approval” and “acquiescence” when they use that word.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. My review of No Man’s Land:

    https://open.substack.com/pub/jasinikc/p/review-no-mans-land-by-sarah-a-hoyt?r=kihoy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

    Sarah began writing this weirdly wholesome book at age 14 after reading Ursula LeGuin’s “Left Hand of Darkness”, and thinking that she could do better. It took her 40 years for her skill level to reach the point that her 14-year-old idealism dreamed of. Plus indie publishing becoming big enough that she no longer had to try to market it to traditional publishers.

    The story straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy, with some mystery, court intrigue, and just a dab of romance thrown in for good measure.

    Half the story follows Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden (AKA “Skip”), from the Britannia Star Empire, with the other half following Eerlen Troz, the Archmage of Elly.

    By the age of 25, Skip had been a naval officer, war hero (after the death of his father), wastrel, and finally, newly minted diplomatic officer/ambassador. On one of his first assignments, he falls (quite literally) into the forgotten world of Elly, which is peopled by hermaphrodites and run by magic, with no way to get home, or even send a message. Thus he is stuck being a fish out of water for the rest of the book.

    Eerlen Troz was the archmage of Elly, sworn beloved of the former king, sire of the current one. He ran the magical society of Elly. He and the current king are in hiding, but still running things, since the former king was murdered, and there have been attempts on the current king. But magic does allow them to still be in control while hiding from anyone (or most people) who might wish to attack them.

    As I said, the planet of Elly have magic, while the Star Empire has science and technology. But there are some indications that the magic of Elly is really science in disguise, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the reverse is also true in the Star Empire.

    The mysteries of the book include who killed the previous king, and is trying for the current one, with some other possible mysteries such as was Skip’s father set up, and who is trying to set up Skip for failure, and why for all it. Not all the mysteries are fully answered, leaving plenty of questions open for future books. (It does come to a satisfactory conclusion, though.)

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Funny thing is, I was near a native Spanish speaker who was listening to Spanish-language radio recently as she worked, and when the Spanish-language song ended (“Corazon!!!”) the commercials were all in English. She told they are mostly in English with only a very few ads in Spanish.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. sometimes, inexplicably, my internet decides I speak Spanish.
      HOWEVER My most fun month once was when all my advertisement was in Japanese. I really have no idea why, except for having a friend who is fluent.

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Well, Sarah, I live in the Phoenix area, and knowing my last name you can imagine how many ads and scam calls I get in Spanish.👿

        Nothing at all wrong with Spanish, the language or the people,, but geez; stereotype much?!?

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Yeah, the one that comes on for DeWalt tools kind of makes me not want to buy DeWalt.

      … more than I already didn’t, I mean.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. I get one for Target when I listen to Spotify. I like it, because it doesn’t effing scream at me, and is usually far lower in volume than everything else including the tunes. Other than that, it sure isn’t making want to go searching for the nearest Target (Green Bay, likely wanders off to look oh If I had a boat, Sturgeon Bay has one, and GB has 2)

      Like

      1. I’m actually referring to the printed advertisements in big hardware store that shall not be named.

        Like, read your customer base. A majority of the locals not only don’t speak Spanish, they are fed up beyond belief with the shoddy work done by those who refuse to speak English. Slapping holiday advertisements in every store in Spanish is Not Helping.

        Like

        1. someone at our local Menards places the Spanish labeling out on items with such, and I see only one Hispanic person working there, whom I’ve seen flip them to English side out.
          Now, we do have enough such the city of Marinette hold a Heritage Festival and it gets decent attendance, but the band has a Tuba (tell me you play Wisconsin weddings without telling me you play Wisconsin weddings) and a lot of locals go for the food.

          Liked by 2 people

    1. “So, Mrs. Hoyt, have you stopped bashing your clanker yet?”

      Actually thinking “bashing the clanker” is about to turn into a standard Internet shorthand (one of them) for “struggling with promptometry to get the Allegedly Intelligent system to do what I want” instead of what it’s hallucinating I somehow want instead. (That phrase does sound vaguely and diffusely suggestive… though still undecided whether that’s a bug or a feature.)

      Liked by 1 person

  22. “..these heathens they’re now living among…”

    I encountered an interesting cross-culture historical tidbit the other day.

    We have the song “Baby it’s Cold Outside” and a late 1940s holiday dance, with bare women’s legs and arms flaunted in public and men and women shamelessly hugging, dancing close, drinking alcohol, and even kissing, to thank for one of the most influential voices in the radicalization of Islam, and the resulting chaos that has yielded in the modern world.

    Egyptian schoolteacher Sayyid Qutb was in the US from 1948 to learn about the western education system when he attended a holiday dance in Colorado in 1949. He became so disgusted at the decadence on open display by those Coloradan dance goers that he concluded that the West was unredeemably corrupted, and only a return to strict Islamic law, enforced by violence if necessary, could save the moslem world. He fled back to Egypt and wrote prolifically, even after Nasser threw him in jail, along with the rest of the Muslim Brotherhood that he was able to catch after they attempted to assassinate him in 1954. Qutb’s writings were and remain a huge influence on Islamist militancy.

    All because some idiot invited him to that dance.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Of course, since 1949 Colorado is known so widely as peak decadence central. Heh.

        It makes me wonder if he didn’t already have these ideas fully formed while still in Egypt, and took advantage of the opportunity to find proof.

        Liked by 2 people

            3. The AI Overlord in training at DuckDuckGo seems a bit confused on this one:

              Peter Wason did not initially expect to find confirmation bias; rather, he aimed to demonstrate that people often fail to reason logically and tend to favor information that confirms their existing beliefs. His experiments revealed this tendency, leading him to coin the term “confirmation bias.”

              Which seems like it proves he did set out to demonstrate the very thing for which he coined that term.

              Liked by 1 person

  24. I love to read your comments on Portuguese life. Maybe because its different than Spanish which we are forced to listen. And even that maybe interesting except they treat all Spanish speaking people as the same. No difference in culture between Spain proper lets say or Mexico, Argentina. Everything is one. And anyone who knows people who have come out small villages, knows how patterns replicate. So I have to smile. But people certainly individuals can change and be part of the general culture. Speak English maybe as you said with an accent. But you know how to unction in society. And being a decent person doesn’t is the same in whatever language. If not, please stay home.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Because, y’all, religion is inherited. 

    OTOH, why wouldn’t they believe this, when they’ve been told for 25 years that criticizing Islam (and Judaism, although the waters are lots muddier there) is a form of “raaaaacism”.

    With Judaism, there are actual genetic defects associated with the ancestry, although Sammy Davis Jr would like a word about converting.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. OT, but it’s that sort of day…

    Just finished talking with a guy in the campground (we are on a volunteer stint). His dog died last night, choked on a chew he gave him. Dog was his constant companion. Not married, his parent are gone, his sister has stage 4 cancer. He’s deep into, “Why, God?” at the moment.

    His name is Bill. Prayers up for him if you feel so inclined.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. someone saying that he was descended from people on the Mayflower

    I don’t know why people are so proud to announce that they are descended from a group of people that got lost trying to find the already well-established settlements in the American colony of Virginia.

    Oh, I do know. After the Late Unpleasantness, it had to be rewritten that we had always been a Northern dominated country founded by Northerners… but it is still amusing to see the pride they take in people that were the original Yankees only because of they couldn’t find the existing Southern settlements.

    The second ship decedents, on the other hand, can at least claim that their ancestors could find the then-established colony they were headed to.

    Like

  28. The Purity Police on the right have been showing signs of coming out of hiding to put themselves in what they always think is their rightful place: bossing everybody else around. (The breed is not restricted to the left by any means; the ones on the right have simply gone to ground and been quiet because they haven’t had access to power for a time.)

    Think I’m joking? Glenn Beck’s The Blaze just posted an article “explaining” how Scooby-Doo, a nearly-sixty-year-old cartoon, is subversive atheist propaganda because it teaches kids to be skeptical of extraordinary claims, and to look to reality-based explanations in preference to supernatural woo woo. Horrors, no! Can’t have the children thinking for themselves! They must be indoctrinated to the One True Brand of woo woo. (It’s irritating that Beck allows this sort of thing, he’s generally a better thinker than that. Then again, The Blaze is a large operation.)

    I also saw, elsewhere, some smug ignoramus proclaim that there is only one framework in all of human thought that allows the very possibility of redemption. (He didn’t say christianity, or his brand of christianity, but he sort of thought it, Real Loud-like.) Since he was clearly immune to any viewpoint but his own, I did not bring up the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, through which each soul continually tries to improve and correct (one might even say redeem) past mistakes to work ever-closer to nirvana. That doesn’t count, nor do a host of others, because the answer is always the smug one’s belief system, and all claims must lead to that, or they are in error.

    There are enemies of liberty on all sides, and the ones on the right have begun stirring. Perhaps because they see the left in such disarray that they sense Opportunity coming within reach again.

    I stand with Jefferson: Eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

    Like

  29. Lost back in the beginning of Sara’s essay was “human domestication”. The only animal that apparently voluntarily domesticated itself was the cat. Long ago, it seems to have chosen to associate and live with humans and learning to please them while retaining its own aloof personal independence.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Eh, dogs stemmed from wolves hanging around after the hunt because the humans always took the parts of the kill that wolves liked the least.

      Like

  31. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » THIS IS NOT EDGY AND AMAZING. THIS IS JUST:  An OLD Kind of Dumb.

Comments are closed.