Jekyll2022-04-13T16:11:20+00:00/feed.xmlSpin-OneHalfScience, philosophy, technology commentary for people who like that sort of thing.Untitled Post About Pandemics2022-04-06T00:00:00+00:002022-04-06T00:00:00+00:00/culture/science/medicine/2022/04/06/covid<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2022/coronavirus_meme.png" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:left;" />
</figure>
<p>This is not relevant to the subject of the post, but the meme here was actually <a href="https://imgflip.com/ai-meme">created by an AI</a></p>
<p>I wanted to talk about the pandemic without this turning into a rant about how stupid everyone in my community is. How my entire town is taking part in this ad-hoc <a href="http://sca.org">SCA</a> cosplay where they are pretending it’s 2019 and the pandemic never happened. How there’s just a few of us left who wear our masks at the grocery store, silently acknowledging each other with the briefest of eye contact as a way of saying, “You’re not crazy.”</p>
<p>I don’t want to rant about how my daughter’s school is all like, “Hey it’s all good now! Risk levels are low, so we’re dropping the school-wide masking rule!” and then 8 kids get COVID a week later. Not my daughter, thankfully, so far as I know, anyway.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to talk about any of that. I wanted to talk about fear and anxiety. So we have this civilization now that’s completely split on the amount of fear that is appropriate. So here’s how I lay it out. I live in constant <em>fear</em> of this virus. This fear is informed by reading about studies (I’ll be honest, I don’t actually read the studies because I’m a computer scientist and science writer, not a doctor, but I do read the abstracts and understand how research works) about the virus. It’s informed by keeping tabs on various data dashboards that are available from reputable organizations like the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/map/">Mayo Clinic</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html">CDC</a> and the <a href="https://mndps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/f28f84968c1148129932c3bebb1d3a1a">State of Minnesota</a>. As a result, I actually live in a constant state of low-level anxiety. And I <em>know</em> that this is unhealthy because there’s a giant bag of science that tells me so.</p>
<p>To summarize, I am not <em>afraid</em> of the virus to the point where I think it’s going to kill me, but I do not like getting sick and I <em>really</em> don’t like getting the kind of sick that people are getting from this virus. But it eats at me.</p>
<p>And so here’s my hypothesis. All the people cosplaying like it’s 2019 are actually <em>more</em> terrified of the virus than I am. They are <em>so terrified</em> of SARS-COV2 that they <em>have</em> to pretend it doesn’t exist in order to function. When the pandemic happened, I saw a lot of people go into fear and panic overload. Lots of them. And, while I don’t have any data to back this up, and anecdotes aren’t evidence, a really large portion of the people that I observed displaying this extreme panic responses are happily going about their lives today as if there never was a pandemic (which we are still in).</p>
<p>The thing that I think gives credence to my hypothesis is that, as we know, a lot of the people who like to cosplay 2019 are conservatives, and there’s a non-trivial amount of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes">research that shows</a> conservatives are driven by fear and anxiety.</p>
<p>I have seen people who claim that since you can’t see the virus, you can’t prove that it even exists. And this is insane, of course, because you <em>can</em> see the virus. But it’s also very revealing. Conservatives like to have the illusion of control. And people who are not conservative (I won’t say liberals, because I don’t believe we have a consensus definition of that word anymore) generally have a higher tolerance for ambiguity, and hence are much more able to operate in an environment of uncertainty.</p>
<p>This is not an attack on conservatism. This is a lamentation that, on some level, the conservatives might actually be weathering this better than me. They don’t have the daily levels of cortisol in their blood that I do. And they keep their fear bottled up inside, not letting it destroy their illusion of control. And I’m not completely convinced that they aren’t healthier for it.</p>
<p>The big difference is that they all got COVID. And so far, I haven’t. Yet. As far as I know.</p>Eric KuhatrueThe Dinosaur Train is Not Real2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:002020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00/media/culture/science/2020/03/05/dino_train<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2020/dinosaur_train.png" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:right;" />
</figure>
<p>My daughter is almost four. She has two favorite shows right now and they are <em>Mr. Rogers Neighborhood</em> (which plays with my emotions a lot in very complex and nostalgic ways) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Train"><em>Dinosaur Train</em></a>. The show is great for loads of reasons. It positively portrays a blended family, encourages curiosity, and has a lot of cool dinosaur facts. It’s <em>about</em> a time travelling dinosaur family who ride a train pulled by a steam locomotive powered by fossil fuels. In fact, there are so many problems from an internal logic standpoint, that it’s difficult to decide where to even being. But that’s not the point. With the exception of the cryolophosaurus episodes (if you’ve seen the show, you know what I’m talking about), it’s a fun show that I don’t hate watching with her. And that, dear Internets, is the <em>important thing</em>.</p>
<p>So the family travels back and forth in the Mesozoic Era meeting all the creatures that inhabit them. There’s this one episode where they find a fossil of some long-extinct creature from a previous time period and decide to go back in time to meet this creature in the flesh becuase, of course, they have the power of time travel. It’s this, like, weirdly ghoulish episode in my mind, because it’s almost like they’re trying to find who owned this exact skull. And then, what? Show it to them? Give it back?</p>
<p>I can’t remember how the episode turned out, but I’d obviously be lying if I said I didn’t always fantasize about what they were like when they were alive whenever I see a skeleton at the museum. Or a fossil in a piece of rock.</p>
<p>It’s why <em>Jurassic Park</em> is a multi-billion dollar property. People freaking love dinosaurs. And people love the idea of meeting them in the flesh.</p>
<p>So, some scientists did a science and found some <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/75millionyearold-dna-found-preserved-in-baby-duckbilled-dinosaur-/">Dino DNA</a>! Well, sort of. Isn’t that just how these headlines go? They stick it to you with this totally amazing thing and then dash your hopes into a million pieces because reality is never going to be as cool as headlines make it out to be.</p>
<p>I mean, yeah, they totally found some DNA in some fossilized cartillage of some euornithopod (late Cretaceous!), but it’s not like it was <em>actual</em> DNA. There are no genes that we can sequence. It’s just the presence of the chemicals that make up DNA that were still there. The actual original materials are still intact, but they’re irretrievably scrambled by the ravages of 70 million years.</p>
<p>So, it’s not like we’ll be cloning any duck billed dinos any time soon. All that they discovered was, in a way, the fossilized remains of something that doesn’t typically fossilize well. But we did learn something neat. DNA <em>can</em> persist longer than thought possible. It might inspire other scientists to continue looking for DNA, which is probably a good thing. Obviously, we have no idea if we’ll ever be able to even partially sequence actual dino DNA, but it’s worth imagining. It’s as close to the Dinosaur Train as we will ever be able to get.</p>
<p>It’ll have to be enough.</p>Eric KuhatrueThe Democratic Party is Run By Chimps2020-03-02T00:00:00+00:002020-03-02T00:00:00+00:00/politics/culture/2020/03/02/bonobo<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2020/bonobo.jpg" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:right;" />
</figure>
<p>Do you know why they don’t have bonobos in zoos? I don’t either, but I have heard that the preference for having chimpanzees, despite the fact they are violent as hell, is that if you had bonobos in an enclosure at a zoo, they would literally just have sex, like, <em>all the time.</em> And so I guess people just don’t want to see that? Who can say? The fact of the matter is, these two animals represent, in some way, the inner struggle of every human. We are both warlike and peace-loving. We are violent and compassionate. It seems just a bit too easy to side with the chimp for some reason that I can’t figure out. Why <em>don’t</em> we want to go to the zoo and watch a bunch of bonobos hump each other constantly? It’s because we have attached ourselves to the part of our ancestry that, distilled, is a warlike creature. We only enjoy sex as a power move. We only show compassion when it gets us points in our social circles.</p>
<p>That’s why when a bonobo shows up, we don’t know how to respond. When someone comes along and says, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if people could go to college if they wanted to? Or didn’t have to go bankrupt in order to treat cancer? Or, maybe we could just legalize weed?” people freak out and start flinging poop. Whenever a bonobo comes along, they beat the everloving crap out of it until it’s dead because that’s what chimps do.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how far I can take this metaphor, so I might stop there and say, there is nothing that Sanders is calling for that is not immensely popular with most Americans. But as long as no one is actually offering it up, we are too cowed to demand it.</p>
<h2 id="college-tuition-as-an-example">College Tuition (as an example)</h2>
<p>Most arguments against free tuition and student debt forgiveness that I have seen fall into two closely-related categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>I had to pay off all my debt the old fashioned way!</li>
<li>That’s socialism!</li>
</ul>
<p>To the first category, I have this response: if you got cancer, would you wish it on everyone else in the world? If you survived a gulag, would you want everyone else to go through it as well? It sucks what you went through, but it is absolutely <em>not</em> a justification for not forgiving the debt of people struggling. And people will make this argument even given very strong evidence that it would help them <em>as well</em>. They have even gone so far as to say, “Will I receive reparations?” <em>Reparations!</em> I’ve seen these people use this word. It’s bizarre to me in ways I cannot completely articulate. It speaks to a selfishness. An inability to see beyond the immediate circumstances of their world. And when they do peak out of their tiny little bubble, it’s to make sure that everyone else is as miserable as they are. Which is, of course, bullshit. It’s some serious chimp behavior (I think I can keep the metaphor going after all).</p>
<p>To the second category, I think we can definitely see that chimps and bonobos align themselves with capitalism and socialism very nicely, don’t they? At this point, I’m not going to try to define socialism in any concrete way, or distinguish it from communism, even. I’m going to simply say that in my mind, capitalism is the propensity in humans to only think of theirselves and their immedate tribe and to fuck all with everybody else. It’s an economic philosophy that looks for fancy ways to justify selfishness. It’s the chimp.</p>
<p>Socialism is the quality of human endeavor that cares about other people even if you’ve never met them. It’s the part of humankind that rushes to help someone who is drowning. Pay for someone else’s groceries. Rescue a stranger from a collapsing building. It’s the bonobo. How these things are structured, implemented, or organized is categorically irrelevant when you distill the ultimate intent. When the intention is to be good to your fellow human whether you know them or not, you are being the bonobo.</p>
<h2 id="the-democratic-party">The Democratic Party</h2>
<p>A bonobo has shown up. His name is Bernie and he’s so, so old. But he’s also walking around telling them what to do and how to fix things around here and everything he says is making a lot of sense to people. So much so that people are starting to nod in approval and take his side. And the alpha chimps sitting on top of their big alpha chimp log are sacrificing their own to consolidate power so they can beat the everloving crap out of the bonobo. Because the DNC and Joe Biden and the Clintons are chimps. That’s how it is. They are violent, aggressive, and do not care what’s best for anyone. They will all gang up on anyone that they perceive as <em>the other</em>. Anyone that is a threat. Anything that they do not understand.</p>
<h2 id="apologies">Apologies</h2>
<p>My apologies to the chimpanzees. My intention is not to besmirch the good name of this noble animal. The chimp only acts in the way that it has for hundreds of thousands of years. But let’s face it, they can be really vicious, violent creatures, and I kinda feel like humans should try not to behave like that.</p>Eric KuhatrueState of the Union2020-02-05T00:00:00+00:002020-02-05T00:00:00+00:00/politics/rant/2020/02/05/sotu<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2020/sotu.jpg" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:left;" />
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<p>The place is America.</p>
<p>The year is CE 2020.</p>
<p>It’s the day after the State of the Union Address in the last year of the T***p Administration.1</p>
<p>You know what’s funny about the current administration?</p>
<p>Nothing. Not a goddamned thing. It’s not funny. Oh sure, we laugh at the memes,
but it’s not <em>actually funny</em>. We laugh because if we don’t laugh, we are suddenly
forced to acknowledge that pure absurdity of it all. If we don’t laugh, we will cry.</p>
<p>Sure, sure. I know what you’re thinking. “Hey snowflake, why are you so sensitive?” and you know what I have to say to you?
Fuck you. No joke. That’s my whole response. Because if you can’t be arsed to be even a little sympathetic to the horrorshow that
over half of Americans perceive your president as, then I don’t have time for you. I do not have time for your callous disrespect
for your brothers and sisters who are struggling with this reality.</p>
<p>But America is doing just great, you say?</p>
<p>Is it?</p>
<p>The economy is booming! Lots of jobs! you say. Well, okay, sure. Rich people are doing fantastic. That’s great for them. They got a massive tax cut. Good for them. Stock market is bullish as all fuck. <em>Wonderful!</em> I’m so happy for them. Except that actual wages that real humans earn have been stagnant for decades. But <em>everything</em> has gotten more expensive. Inflation is happening, but wages aren’t increasing to match that. The power of a dollar has gone down, but the amount of dollars that we have is not getting bigger.</p>
<p>And this ia an indisputable fact. Sure, you’ll always make the argument that people have the freedom to change jobs. The thing is that <em>even if</em> I accept that this as true (which I don’t), it’s absolutely beside the point. Every job that a living human being is being paid to do right now are jobs that <em>someone</em> needs <em>someone else</em> to do. And what <em>that</em> means, is that <em>someone</em> is going to be stuck doing every fucking terrible, low-paying job. For every terrible, low-paying job out there, someone is going to be desperate enough to <em>take</em> that job and struggle through, racking up debt, watching the years go by, failing to attain anything resembling self-actualization.</p>
<p>So, no. I do not believe that America is doing great. And this is just the economic side of it. The environment is also garbage. The water is poison. Topsoil is being erroded. Climate Change is the slowly accelerating apocalypse that will destroy our civilization, leaving us in a Roadwarrior-style wasteland. We won’t have a nice cushy Walking Dead zombie apocalypse, because the entire world will be poison and sterile. Maybe there won’t actually be zombies, but it <em>will</em> be a really shitty place to live for all the people unfortunate enough to survive.</p>
<p>And you know what the real kicker is? At least right now, today? That orange blob of a man had the audacity to stand up there yesterday and tell us how great he is and how great America is, and how splendidly everything is going. That rapist. That thief. That charlatan. That conman.</p>
<p>Everyone who continues to support him has my contempt.</p>
<p>Is that too strongly worded? Maybe. But I kinda think it’s warranted at this point.</p>Eric KuhatrueI Don’t Watch Game of Thrones2019-05-09T00:00:00+00:002019-05-09T00:00:00+00:00/media/culture/2019/05/09/got<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2019/got.jpg" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:left;" />
</figure>
<p>You know what’s funny? Everyone I know watches this show. That’s cool. But I want to understand something about this whole thing. <em>Is</em> there some special kind of offense that GoT fans take when you don’t watch it?</p>
<p>This is it: there seems to be this sense that I’m flaunting the fact that I don’t watch the show. Or that someone doesn’t watch the show. It’s like they <em>want</em> people to say “I don’t watch that show,” so they can be offended by it.</p>
<p>First, there’s no particular reason I don’t watch it. I guess I wasn’t a huge fan of the books. I read the first two and just didn’t feel compelled to continue. On paper, it seems like the perfect show for me. I love all that sword and medieval combat shit. Dragons? Hell yeah, sign me up. But… I just haven’t gotten around to it. And this doesn’t mean that I <em>won’t</em> ever watch it. I just am not that interested at the moment. And it <em>seems</em> like people are really offended by this.</p>
<p>But this got me thinking. Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. <em>Are</em> there anti-GoT people out there bragging about how much they don’t watch Game of Thrones? Maybe as an outsider, I just don’t notice because it’s not on my radar. I’ve never seen it. But Fans Of Things are usually hypersensitive to people being critical of the Things. For example, I play fantasy football in a league with some friends and family. We take it moderately seriously. There’s a modest buy-in and a non-trivial payout for the winner. As a result, during the football season, I watch a lot of football. And right away at the beginning of the season, there’s a whole lotta posts from people talking about <em>how much</em> and <em>how often</em> they don’t watch “sportball!”</p>
<p>That’s not even a real sport, guys. Come on!</p>
<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2019/football.jpg" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:right;" />
</figure>
<p>The deliberate bragging about not being interested in something that other people are interested in is a really weird thing. It’s exacerbated by social media, of course. And perhaps amplified by it. One question that bears asking is: to what extent is it just a vocal minority of people that are just, like, super proud of themselves for not having watch GoT or an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe">MCU movie</a> and to what extent is it that people who are Fans of Things are just hyperaware of that minority? Because I know it’s not my entire facebook feed that is posting about how awesome GoT is. And I know it’s not me or anyone that regularly shows up on my feed bragging about how so not into GoT they are. But I <em>am</em> aware of the handful or so people who don’t watch football and are super proud of themselves about it.</p>
<p>I’d like to say that there’s a solution to this conundrum. But I don’t think there is. I mean, it would be super cool if people could just, like, shut the fuck up about not being into things that other people are into. But they’re not ever going to do that. Maybe people just haven’t figured out how to comport themselves on social media. An offhand comment about GoT made over drinks at a pub don’t have the emotional force of a meme or a facebook post. Even if it was just dashed off in a moment of…whatever…peevishness? We are viscerally affected by the power of memes, and that power should not be taken lightly.</p>
<p>Social media is fundamentally altering the way we interact with each other. I think we all get that. But it is also fundamentally altering the way we interact with our godsdamned hobbies! The Things we are Fans of are on full display. We display them proudly. And apparently, we occasionally mock each other for it. In passive-aggressive meme-form. And maybe we should all just figure out how to either be cool with that. Or stop being jerkbags.</p>Eric KuhatrueEveryone Who Owned Slaves Was a Bad Person2019-03-12T00:00:00+00:002019-03-12T00:00:00+00:00/philosophy/history/rant/2019/03/12/slavery<figure>
<img src="/assets/images/2019/jefferson.jpg" width="50%" style="padding: 8px; float:left;" />
</figure>
<p>A couple years ago, I got into an argument with an acquaintance. About slavery. And whether it was wrong.</p>
<p>In my view, this is not an oversimplification of things. It went something like this. I made the <strong>bold</strong> claim that because he owned, bought, sold, and raped slaves we should not admire Thomas Jefferson. Despite everything else that he did and the pretty words that he said, he is still not a man worthy of our respect. That was my stance.</p>
<p>This acquaintance made the argument—stop me if you’ve heard this one—that we have to judge people within the framework of their time. Well, let’s start there.</p>
<p><br style="clear: both;" /></p>
<h3 id="ham-il-ton">Ham-il-ton!</h3>
<p>Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist and contemporary—and sort of a friend?—of Jefferson. I mention him specifically because he’s so hot right now, but it is important to understand that <em>he was not alone</em>. There was a massive and widespread abolition movement even before the Revolution.</p>
<p>In fact, as far back as ancient Greece, there were people who questioned the concept of owning another human being, body and soul (and not just exploiting their labor for profit). Indeed, there have always been people who believed that slavery was not just distasteful, but in fact, monstrous and inhumane. Violently immoral.</p>
<p>Which, we must understand: <strong>it is</strong>. This is not in question. If, in your view, there is any question about this <em>fact</em>, that is, if you think there is any justifiable reason to own another person, then you are a terrible person. If this is true of you, then this article is not <em>for</em> you because it <em>assumes</em> that slavery is immoral and makes no attempt to argue that slavery is immoral.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is, among the so-called founding fathers, several of them were openly hostile to the concept of owning slaves, despite the fact that their buddies owned slaves. So the argument that they “just didn’t know” about the immorality of owning other humans is utter nonsense.</p>
<p>Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist and he and Jefferson <em>were friends</em>—after a fashion. So what’s more likely?</p>
<ol>
<li>Thomas Jefferson was completely ignorant of the moral arguments against slavery.</li>
<li>Thomas Jefferson was just, like, <em>super conflicted</em> about it, but continued to benefit from it for <em>his entire life</em> and just sort of forgot to free his slaves after he died.</li>
<li>Thomas Jefferson was a racist prick who owned humans and gave fuck all about the morality of it.</li>
</ol>
<p>I know where my money is.</p>
<h3 id="sally">Sally</h3>
<blockquote>
I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstance, are inferior to the whites in the endowment both of body and mind.<br />
<cite>—Notes on the State of Virginia (1781)</cite>
</blockquote>
<p>Dude was racist as hell. That’s the kind of thing that not even a Republican would say today… for the most part.</p>
<p>The thing is guys: the dude raped one of his slaves. Sally Hemmings. Oh, you’re telling me it wasn’t rape back then? Yes it was. It was rape. The author of the Declaration of Independence <em>had sex</em> with <em>a human being</em> that <em>he owned as property</em>. That is rape by any reasonable definition.</p>
<p><em>Six children</em> folks. With his property. And those children were also his property. How in the world did he <em>not</em> think that was irredeemably fucked up?</p>
<p>To his credit, he did free them. After his death. No joke.</p>
<p>Wait, you say I can’t judge the past by the standards of today? Why the hell not? We can’t own other people and have sex with them anymore <em>because</em> we judge the past by the standards of today. We look at each other and say, “Yeah, they were wrong to do that so we aren’t going to do that anymore.” That’s called progress. If we didn’t judge the past by the standards of today, we wouldn’t have laws in place that prevent these sorts of things from happening again. In theory, at least.</p>
<p>A man as intelligent as Thomas Jefferson should have known it. But he was a morally bankrupt aristocrat who only dabbled intellectually in the morality of the issue, but enjoyed the perks just a little too much to be given the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<h3 id="king-george">King George</h3>
<p>I have several beefs with O.G. Washington, but I have a bigger beef with people who look to him with the reverence that should only be reserved for Fred Rodgers or Keanu Reeves. People just go all gushy about his farewell address, for example. Oh, he warned about the dangers of a two-party system? Really! Well, you know what’s worse than a two-party system? A one-party system. Just ask China. Perhaps a rant for another day.</p>
<p>But what really bugs me is when people claim that he was an abolitionist. Let me spell it out: you cannot be an abolitionist and have 317 unpaid laborers working at your family estate. It doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p>Oh, but he freed them upon his death? So… like Jefferson, he got to enjoy all of the benefits of owning slaves <em>until the day he died</em>, and <em>also</em> get to be praised for his generosity of spirit? You know what that is actually called? Hypocrisy. He was a hypocrite. And, as a slave owner, he was a terrible person. He ate his cake and had it too. It’s disgusting now, and it was disgusting then.</p>
<p>Because everyone who owned slaves was a bad person.</p>Eric KuhatruePhilosophy is for Suckers – Apparently2019-02-25T00:00:00+00:002019-02-25T00:00:00+00:00/philosophy/education/rant/2019/02/25/the_trades<p><img src="/assets/images/2019/college_meme.png" alt="college meme" class="img-responsive" /></p>
<p>I am overeducated. I hold two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s degree, and am working on another. I’ve spent more time in school than not, and it’s going to be a long time before that’s not true anymore. I am the guy on the left in this meme. One of my bachelor’s degrees is even in philosophy. In fact, every single tick mark on that list is true about me, except the last one. And that is what we we need to talk about.</p>
<p>There are three dimensions that need to be addressed here.</p>
<h3 id="work-in-the-trades">Work in the Trades!</h3>
<p>This talking point is one that I have a difficult time engaging with or formulating a coherent response to. I see it on social media all the time, and it goes something like this: getting a four-year-degree is bad, working in trades is good. There are a number of different formulations of this meme, but they all boil down to steering people away from university and a four-year education. The snivelling, college-educated, elitist is poor, burdened with tremendous debt, and cannot find a job with his bachelor of arts in philosophy, but the hale, hearty electrician, lineman, or heavy-equipment operator is the exemplar of virtue and American grit.</p>
<p>The problem I have is this: the meme is <em>just</em> correct enough to be difficult to detangle truth from fiction. <em>Of course</em>, people should work in the trades. <em>Of course</em>, people should not feel inferior if they did not attend university or hold degree or even a diploma. But the meme is exactly what it pretends it’s against: it belittles someone’s chosen path in life. And it does it smugly. It builds this straw man caricature that people want to believe about college. Of course, the guy on the left is the worst. But he’s also a fiction in all the ways that matter.</p>
<h3 id="propaganda">Propaganda</h3>
<p>The meme is the product of a long-term, systematic, crowd-sourced–and mostly successful–effort to discredit and devalue, not just a college education, but <em>people</em> with college educations. Specifically the humanities. It’s an underhanded attempt to undermine one of the foundations of democracy: education. And the ploy is particularly nefarious because it’s specifically designed to appear to be an appeal to <dfn><abbr title="Appeal to logic">logos</abbr></dfn>, but it’s pure <dfn><abbr title="Appeal to emotion">pathos</abbr></dfn>. It’s an emotional appeal cloaked in “common-sense.” And common sense is just another buzz word designed to discredit education.</p>
<p>People with degrees are entitled. They have an inflated sense of self worth. They are not as smart as they think they are. They are just lazy layabouts who want to spend the government’s dime. And they dare condescend to our boys in the trades! Except that they don’t do that. No one does that. I have a peer group that includes the entire spectrum of educational attainment and economic status, and have never witnessed these kinds of behaviors among my peers. Perhaps my availability heuristic is flawed. And it is fairly well-known that there is elitism in the ivy league. But remember: the ivy league are also the wealthy and those people suck anyway for completely different reasons. So I do not think that the guy who majored in philosophy at state school feels at all superior to anyone who chose to become an electrician. Because that person majored in philosophy. And knows that would be a dick thing to do.</p>
<h3 id="the-good-will-hunting-effect">The Good Will Hunting Effect</h3>
<blockquote>
You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.
<cite>--Good Will Hunting</cite>
</blockquote>
<p>I hate that movie. It’s super dumb. And it’s because this quote is bullshit. You <em>cannot</em> get the same education by reading library books. Nothing could be further from the truth. The benefit of having a mentor (because that’s what a professor is) is incalculable. And furthermore, the quote mentions the price of an education. And it comes so close to making the right point and then misses it completely because: the price of an edcuation is <em>part</em> of the disease affecting American society. The fact that we are not actively working to create the most educated population in the history of the world (which we could totally do), means that there are forces actively working to prevent it from happening.</p>
<p>A philosophy degree is useless? Perhaps on a resume–though I don’t buy this since mine has gotten me several jobs, including my current one. But the degree represents a concerted effort to foster and cultivate critical thinking skills. A humanities degree helps build a cross-discipline, infinitely useful skill: the ability to spot bullshit. And this meme <em>is</em> bullshit. Because it’s specifically designed by and for people who would be the unwitting tools of an establishment (political and economic) which benefits immensely from people remaining uneducated and gullible.</p>
<p>By all means, go work in the trades because the trades are great. It’s satisfying work and it can be very rewarding (oh, I’m also a carpenter, I should mention). But you should also go to college if you want. And you should major in the humanities if you want. You may not be able to find a job “in your field”, but you have something better. A wide skill set, an ability to think, and if you sell (ha!) yourself correctly, you can find lucrative and rewarding work in just about any industry. Don’t let anyone define you except you. And don’t worry about the debt either! Once super inflation takes over, it won’t be worth anything anyway!</p>Eric KuhatrueWhen it happens2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:002019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00/general/2019/02/15/when_it_happens<p><img src="/assets/images/2019/stump.jpg" alt="stump" class="img-responsive" /></p>
<p>There was a time when blogging was the center of my social-media experience. All of my friends had blogs. We all read each other’s blogs. And it was actually really great. There’s something special about blogging which forces us to be introspective and thoughtful in a way that the newer social media websites do not.</p>
<p>The immediate feed-oriented design of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and essentially all other popular social media platforms actively discourages deep discourse on any topic. I have continually been frustrated and stymied in all efforts to carry on a conversation in a way that could ever hope to change anyone’s mind. And I’m not even sure that that’s my primary aim anymore. Just helping people to understand <em>me</em> seems to be more important than getting them to think <em>like</em> me.</p>
<p>Since I have started more blogs than most people have ever read, I’ll follow in that time-honored tradition. I’m archiving the old blog because after reading through old posts, I don’t feel that they are an accurate representation of who I am today. I might dig a few out and publish them here periodically, but I think we are trying something new now.</p>
<p>And we’ll see where that takes us.</p>Eric Kuhatrue