Politics¶
Following a typical HBD Bibliography twitter intervention (paraphrased: “educate yourself”), a professor of Global Liberal Studies turned up to engage in activity that can be technically described as “hooting”. The pattern of symbolic behavior that then manifested cannot, of course, be reduced to the expectations of primatology. If it seems like an entirely predictable assertion of dominance, as found among all the great apes, something is surely being missed. That at least is the claim now being made (decorated by a little immediate status signaling):
@Outsideness @HBDBibliography Author thinks you don't understand article. Doesn't deny variation (I teach 19th c. history of science btw).
— Michael Rectenwald (@drrectenwald) September 24, 2014
@Outsideness @HBDBibliography Most likely you're reducing the political to the biological, a typical kind of reductionism but also mistaken.
— Michael Rectenwald (@drrectenwald) September 24, 2014
The error of mistaking this expert hooting for the first step in an argument was too tempting to resist. After all, if a professor of Global Liberal Studies deigns to teach you about the limits of possible biological understanding, it is only polite to listen attentively. Unfortunately, certain monkey juices were triggered by the chest-thumping of GLS-prof., and I descended quickly into obstreperousness:
@drrectenwald @HBDBibliography Politics has emergent principles (game theory), but it's as reducible to biology as bio is to chemistry.
— Outsideness (@Outsideness) September 24, 2014
@drrectenwald @HBDBibliography … Whenever a supervenient level seems 'irreducible' it's because our substrate theory is too crude.
— Outsideness (@Outsideness) September 24, 2014
Uh oh, look what’s happening now — it’s ~~gibbering monkey business~~ political dialectic. GLS-prof. isn’t being even nominally respected, there’s nothing remotely like a “please mount my butt you hairy master” moment taking place, and it’s not hard to see that GLS-p. isn’t getting enough of those from anywhere, so he’s kind of desperate for a random dopamine hit. Time to really make it clear that politics transcends biology, and anybody who thinks the contrary better bend over quickly for a piece of hierarchically-clarifying ass-punishment:
@Outsideness @HBDBibliography OK Kurzweil, or is it E.O. Wilson you're mimicking? I suppose there's a "D" gene for Democrat, and an "R" …
— Michael Rectenwald (@drrectenwald) September 24, 2014
Translation: So which serious ~~alpha monkey like me~~ person owns you as their bitch? Politics is nothing like primate dominance. Dumbass.
@drrectenwald @HBDBibliography You're right, what does an idiot like E.O. Wilson know about Global Liberal Studies?
— Outsideness (@Outsideness) September 24, 2014
Translation: [*sarcastic counter-hoot*]
@Outsideness @HBDBibliography Wilson is brilliant. But I don't need *you* to tell me what he and others like him think. Presumptuous much?
— Michael Rectenwald (@drrectenwald) September 24, 2014
Translation: My buddy PROFESSOR Wilson wouldn’t even use you as a doormat — so why am I even talking to you, impertinent gamma wretch? It’s distracting me from serious politics and stuff.
There has to be some ~~chimpanzee ass-play~~ politics that isn’t quite this disgustingly stupid, but I’m guessing — not a lot.
Note: “Michael Rectenwald is professor in Global Liberal Studies at New York University. He is the author of numerous essays and six books.” He is widely respected by his peers in the field.
ADDED: After posting this I worried a little that it was too harsh. The guy was probably just having a bad day. After all, no one “paid to write and think” by a (somewhat) prestigious university could possibly engage in these self-parodying dominance chimp-outs on a regular basis, surely? Ooops:
@AlbertKropp @HBDBibliography @ad_bestias @Outsideness None of you are worthy to wipe my ass, let alone sit in my class.
— Michael Rectenwald (@drrectenwald) September 26, 2014