Obsidian Wings

Thinking about systematicity open thread

by liberal japonicus

I had scheduled this earlier, but ended up publishing it with the former Oct date, so maybe folks didn't see it. Or maybe they did and thought it was so trivial as to pass uncommented on. But anyhoo...

I don't know if you all are up on the Squid Game, but one of the complaints is the poor acting of the foreigners in the drama.

https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/q3376g/the_real_reasons_why_foreigner_actors_in_korea/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

This reminds me of Chris Rock's discussion of racism in Hollywood.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/top-five-filmmaker-chris-rock-753223/

So, some opining. The thing about systematicity in these cases is NOT that there is some specific animus. It is that there is an invisibility that leads to 1)a failure to account for differences and 2)differential treatment. I'd suggest that the reason why the foreign actors are so bad is that the Korean, from casting down to audience, didn't even clock to them. Not noticing them means that all the pairs of eyes that the series passed by never even clocked to the idea that there was a problem.

What's the solution? Diversifying the people who have a say in what goes up there. But when you have power concentrated, it becomes very difficult to grant outsiders that measure of power. Sharing things that you use to define yourself is the hardest I suppose.

A couple more links, since I'm not going to be able to give them the treatment of a post.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2021/asian-american-community-voting-trends-polling/

Of course, the hunger to the minority to assimilate to the majority is pretty amazing, I did a presentation about the Japanese diaspora and spent a chunk of time talking about names. This 2 part article was quite interesting in that regard
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2017/5/11/ja-name-culture-1

http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2017/5/12/ja-name-culture-2

The interesting point that a lot of Nisei boys (including my father!) were named George is taken up here.
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2016/4/20/george/

Open thread, but stories about names would be appreciated.

Progress, of a sort?

by liberal japonicus

At the likely possibility of reducing this dead horse to free-floating horse molecules, consider this

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/05/house-democrats-infrastructure-vote-wait-megabill-519731

Politico is pretty egregious on the whole moderate thing, but that's not what caught my eye, it was the controposing use of the term of 'liberal'. I don't know if it is progress but after a feint

The successful vote followed hours of painstaking negotiation between moderates and progressives that yielded a statement from caucus centrists committing to the party-line social safety net bill, if cost estimates met their projections. But the caveat in that centrist statement underscored the fragility of the underlying accord — House moderates are now staking their votes on an independent budget analysis that may take weeks to produce.

they seem to have given up trying to use progressive as the deprecation of choice. Check out the next paragraph.

While the House only took a procedural vote Friday on their progressive package of health care, child care and environmental investments, Biden and other Democratic leaders publicly promised the chamber would vote on the bill before Thanksgiving.

Maybe I'm misreading this, but the second use of progressive sounds faintly supportive. And here was the first para

House Democrats broke a monthslong fever Friday that has imperiled their entire domestic agenda, thanks to a truce from moderates and liberals brokered to advance more than $2 trillion in party priorities.

Not really crazy about the Democrat's 'fever', but setting that aside, is it moderates and liberals vs progressives? Or are liberals the new cover term?

I also found this interesting:

In a sign of how much trust has eroded, Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) asked each of the centrists who signed the statement to look her in the eye as they committed both publicly and privately to vote for the broader spending deal after they’ve seen cost estimates, according to multiple Democrats familiar with the exchange.

Talk about this, or anything else.

A spotted skunk open thread

by liberal japonicus

Missed getting something up last friday. So how about spotted skunks? Or other fun animals? A spray and pray thread.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/spotted-skunk

A whoops! Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

Couple of links for you
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/butterflies-parasitic-wasps-finland

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1045084704/an-invasive-plant-is-taking-over-the-kansas-prairie-it-may-be-too-late-to-stop-i

But that's plants you say
Scientists Built an AI to Give Ethical Advice, But It Turned Out Super Racist

A bit of opining here, Something to consider when people suggest that we can just science our way out of climate change. But open thread, so talk about that or anything else.

Yet another mysterious lost culture Friday open thread

Meet the Toaloans, not to be confused with the Talosians. Discuss.

I know you think you are, but what am I Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

An interesting article about mindreading and its relation to a theory of the mind.

In one of those 'papers I want to write but will probably never get around to', I wanted to make the argument that teaching students, Japanese student in particular, how to lie was a key component of communicative competence. Because many students learn by rote, the response to 'how are you?' is 99.999% of the time 'Fine, thank you, how are you?'. Communicative competence depends on being able to understand when someone is asking you to do something just out of politeness and when they are actually asking. Anyway, a Friday open thread.

Friday open thread literary cage match

by liberal japonicus

In the red corner, all the way from Mother Russia, the killer with Karenina, he knows war and he knows peace, Leeeeeooooooo Tolstoy!

And in the blue corner, the champion, the man coming to bury you, not praise you, from that scepter'd isel, Willlllllll Shakespeare!!!

Are you ready to rumble???

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/tolstoy-shakespeare/

A heartwarming Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

I'm pretty cynical, I think by nature, but I also believe that we are bathed in it, so even if I were the most optimistic on the planet (which I am not), getting pickled in it has the expected effect. But a bit of cheer below the fold.

Testing UBI in the Real World

by wj

It seems that there are several places around the country which are actually trying out variations on the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI), to see how it works in the real world.
https://usbig.net/state-level-ubi-and-guaranteed-income-initiatives-in-the-u-s/

We may, in the not too distant future, have something besides theory on which to evaluate the idea. (Actual data! Oh, the horror!)

It will be extremely interesting to see how it plays out.

FFS

by liberal japonicus

From The Guardian Pinker’s progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars

He has twice been a guest at Bohemian Grove, which has been described as an off-the-record summer camp for male members of the American establishment.

Discuss.