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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x
The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x
Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x
The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x
It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
As someone\u2019s who\u2019s read the book, this review strikes me as tremendously unfair. It mostly faults Adler for not writing the book the reviewer wishes he had! https://t.co/pqpt5Ziivj
— Teresa M. Bejan (@tmbejan) January 12, 2021
The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x
Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x
The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x
It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
The Eye of Horus. 1/*
I believe that @ripple_crippler and @looP_rM311_7211 are the same person. I know, nobody believes that. 2/*
Today I want to prove that Mr Pool smile faces mean XRP and price increase. In Ripple_Crippler, previous to Mr Pool existence, smile faces were frequent. They were very similar to the ones Mr Pool posts. The eyes also were usually a couple of "x", in fact, XRP logo. 3/*
The smile XRP-eyed face also appears related to the Moon. XRP going to the Moon. 4/*
And smile XRP-eyed faces also appear related to Egypt. In particular, to the Eye of Horus. https://t.co/i4rRzuQ0gZ 5/*

I believe that @ripple_crippler and @looP_rM311_7211 are the same person. I know, nobody believes that. 2/*
Today I want to prove that Mr Pool smile faces mean XRP and price increase. In Ripple_Crippler, previous to Mr Pool existence, smile faces were frequent. They were very similar to the ones Mr Pool posts. The eyes also were usually a couple of "x", in fact, XRP logo. 3/*

The smile XRP-eyed face also appears related to the Moon. XRP going to the Moon. 4/*

And smile XRP-eyed faces also appear related to Egypt. In particular, to the Eye of Horus. https://t.co/i4rRzuQ0gZ 5/*

Best books I read in 2020
1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear
“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings
https://t.co/KZDqte19nG
2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
https://t.co/uZT4kdhzvZ
“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”
Grandstanding
https://t.co/4Of58AZUj8
"if politics becomes a morality pageant, then the contestants have an incentive to keep problems intact...politics becomes a forum to show off moral qualities...people will be dedicated to activism for its own sake, as a vehicle to preen"
Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson
https://t.co/yLC4eGHEd4
“Across diverse cultures, a man who lives in the house with another man’s children is about 60 times more likely than the biological father to kill those children.”
1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear
“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings
https://t.co/KZDqte19nG
2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
https://t.co/uZT4kdhzvZ
“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”

Grandstanding
https://t.co/4Of58AZUj8
"if politics becomes a morality pageant, then the contestants have an incentive to keep problems intact...politics becomes a forum to show off moral qualities...people will be dedicated to activism for its own sake, as a vehicle to preen"

Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson
https://t.co/yLC4eGHEd4
“Across diverse cultures, a man who lives in the house with another man’s children is about 60 times more likely than the biological father to kill those children.”

This thread examining a detrans story puts me in mind of something that shocked me to the core fifteen years ago in early 2004. I’ve not often told this so there follows a mini thread of my own.
This time in 2004 was very sensitive. Our little team at Press for Change was carefully helping to support the government to get the Gender Recognition Bill through its parliamentary stages. It had already started in the Lords and faced a committee stage with evangelical-backed..
..opposition facing the government’s Bill minister Lord Filkin and and others from all parties supporting him. The heavy lifting of daily liaison work was handled on our side by my colleague Claire @2legged whose back room lobby efforts should never go unacknowledged in any..
..account of events. Our political backdrop was a small but determined effort by two evangelical groups touting very familiar lies about trans people and, perhaps more worrying, a couple of contemporary journalists (one a Guardian staffer and one a freelance) determined to tout..
..detransition scare stories as a way to perhaps cast doubt over formalising a legal recognition process. The thing that was obvious at the time was that their stories relied on constant recycling of the same 10-12 case stories, which they had discovered because they were the..
Found a podcast by Keira Bell talking about her reasons for detransitioning
— Lux \U0001f3f3\ufe0f\u200d\U0001f308 (@Lux_fae) February 2, 2021
Listened to it so you don't have to
Wherein, at the 24-30 min mark, keira talks about her reasons for detransition and admits she did it for her ideology alone.
Thread:
This time in 2004 was very sensitive. Our little team at Press for Change was carefully helping to support the government to get the Gender Recognition Bill through its parliamentary stages. It had already started in the Lords and faced a committee stage with evangelical-backed..
..opposition facing the government’s Bill minister Lord Filkin and and others from all parties supporting him. The heavy lifting of daily liaison work was handled on our side by my colleague Claire @2legged whose back room lobby efforts should never go unacknowledged in any..
..account of events. Our political backdrop was a small but determined effort by two evangelical groups touting very familiar lies about trans people and, perhaps more worrying, a couple of contemporary journalists (one a Guardian staffer and one a freelance) determined to tout..
..detransition scare stories as a way to perhaps cast doubt over formalising a legal recognition process. The thing that was obvious at the time was that their stories relied on constant recycling of the same 10-12 case stories, which they had discovered because they were the..
One popular foreign entertainer in Japan you don't hear much about today, is Roy James. Here he is, in a TV commercial for Nescafe instant coffee.
Roy James was born in Tokyo in 1929. While he might have looked like a Westerner, his family were Muslim Kazan Tatars who fought against the Soviets, and ended up in Japan. Roy James was a stage name: he was born Abdul Hannan Safa.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Roy James's family ended up as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. During WWII, Turkey had good relations with Japan but declared war in 1945, which caused Turks in Japan a few months of hardship.
Speaking about this time, James said he was questioned on the way to school, and would take a beating if he was deemed to be in an unauthorized place.
Roy James went to Japanese schools and was a native speaker of Japanese. He got his introduction to showbusiness through Taibi Okada aka E. H. Erick. Erick and his brother featured in this old thread:

Roy James was born in Tokyo in 1929. While he might have looked like a Westerner, his family were Muslim Kazan Tatars who fought against the Soviets, and ended up in Japan. Roy James was a stage name: he was born Abdul Hannan Safa.

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Roy James's family ended up as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. During WWII, Turkey had good relations with Japan but declared war in 1945, which caused Turks in Japan a few months of hardship.
Speaking about this time, James said he was questioned on the way to school, and would take a beating if he was deemed to be in an unauthorized place.

Roy James went to Japanese schools and was a native speaker of Japanese. He got his introduction to showbusiness through Taibi Okada aka E. H. Erick. Erick and his brother featured in this old thread:
This is Erick, who took the stage name E\u30fbH\u30fb\u30a8\u30ea\u30c3\u30af. His Japanese name was Taibi Okada. One of his talents was wiggling his ears. /7 pic.twitter.com/xi4YkJO36z
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) September 27, 2017