Posts by Simon

There is something called legacy admission which benefits students whose parent went to the same university. It also benefits students whose parents have donated a nice chunk of change $$$$ to the university.

There are those who get admission because they are great at Football but don't have necessarily the best academic grades

The US admissions system is pure bat-shit crazy and corrupt as hell. It's a ponzi scheme.

And yes, it's systemically racist even if it might also be money-grabbing as well. How does "oh, they are corrupt in other ways too!" alter the fact that they judge people based on their race?

157

Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest?

by minimus in

jw
friends

the president of the united states says we have to do something about this.

many politicians and people agree that we are all affected by the scourge of systemic racism.

what’s your view of this?

Simon

That is a systemic problem when the police ...

If you take this as evidence of a "systemic problem" then each crime committed by individuals of any race is equally evidence of a "systemic problem", isn't it?

The fact is that individual acts do not act as evidence that any systemic problem exists, only that a particular person committed a crime.

Apply the same reasoning to other things: if I have a Toyota and it breaks down, does it mean that Toyotas are systemically problematic? Of course not - to determine that would need to look at the entirety of the cases, the system as a whole.

The clue is in the name - systemic, applying to the system.

62

What Will Happen If You Do NOT Get The Covid Vaccinations?

by minimus in

jw
friends

we are encouraged to all, if possible, get the vaccinations.

if you don’t, we are told that we definitely could get the virus.

fair enough.. but what happens if you decide you aren’t going to get the shots?

Simon

But what happens if you decide you aren’t going to get the shots?

Haven't you watched John Carpenter's "They Live!" movie?!

If you don't get the vaccine, you'll be able to see the alien overlords!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZUDMGJsKo

157

Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest?

by minimus in

jw
friends

the president of the united states says we have to do something about this.

many politicians and people agree that we are all affected by the scourge of systemic racism.

what’s your view of this?

Simon

Racism is nowhere as prevalent as it once was say 50 years ago, not saying it doesn't exist now but in evidential fact.

I agree. Years ago there was both racism (individuals with prejudice) and systemic racism - actual laws on the statutes that mandated different treatment based on race. Each probably perpetuated the other to some extent.

That is no longer the case. There are undoubtedly racists in the world (of all colors, we should note) but systemic racism as it's usually claimed doesn't appear to be a thing, even when justice departments have done lengthy investigations to find it.

Again, the trick you'll see is people pointing to individual act of racism and claiming it as evidence of systemic racism, or comparing things to the general population which is statistically incorrect and invalid.

The reason you know they do it intentionally to misrepresent things is that the stats are clear and easy to check. The stats show more black people commit crimes and the prison population largely reflects the population of those committing crimes.

To compare the general population would mean including more in the complete pipeline of "the system", because prison / justice is just the end part of it.

So why then don't they include the school system, when it comes to deciding if things are "systemically racist"? There seems to be way more evidence that schools are systemically racist if you compare "what goes in / what comes out" against the general population.

What could it possibly be? Surely not that teachers unions donate massive amounts to the democratic party? (98% of their political donations in 2020)

157

Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest?

by minimus in

jw
friends

the president of the united states says we have to do something about this.

many politicians and people agree that we are all affected by the scourge of systemic racism.

what’s your view of this?

Simon

Case in point - prison population. If 10% of the population is a specific ethnicity that nation's prison population must be 10%. If it is more or less the criminal justice system is prejudicial.

It should only be that 10% if everyone commits crime at the same rate. The trick that politicians especially do is have people focus on the wrong metric, because most people don't understand stats.

The prison population should reflect the population of those committing crimes, which is likely different to the general population.

There are very few systems where you would expect the makeup to exactly match that of the general population, unless it was a true random selection. There is always some form of self-selection going on as an input to most systems.

157

Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest?

by minimus in

jw
friends

the president of the united states says we have to do something about this.

many politicians and people agree that we are all affected by the scourge of systemic racism.

what’s your view of this?

Simon

IMO, "Systemic Racism" is where a system treats people of a certain race differently because of their race, usually disadvantaging one group and advantaging another.

People often think some system must be "systemically racist" because they look at an end result, see a proportion that is different to the general population, and decide it must be so, and then look for the racism that surely must be there ... when of course it doesn't have to be. Less often noticed, but the "correct" mix doesn't mean that a system isn't systemically racist, it could be.

As an extreme example: is a hospital maternity ward systemically sexist because all of the patients are women? No, there are other reasons for the patients being women.

Is the NBA systemically racist because 75% of the players are black? No, there are other reasons for the players being predominantly black.

The only documented and approved systemically racist system I can think of right now is college admissions, which favours black candidates mostly at the expense of asian candidates.

4

The Secrets She Keeps

by Simon in

anyone watching this?

it's an australian production with the actress who plays lady edith in downton abbey.. great drama.. there was a surprise mention of jehovah's witnesses in episode 2. we just started watching episode 3 and, well, they are going to hate the kind of publicity this gives them!.

it will build on the terrible reputation they have after the commission investigating abuse within organisations, which the wts tried to obstruct and obfuscate their responsibilities in.. well worth watching as a drama in it's own right, but especially as a potential talking point about the wts.. on cbc in canada..

Simon

The JW's will probably Nit Pick at the slight "inaccuracies", which are not really, I think they are maybe deliberate, and even if not, do not excuse the JW Org for what it is, and what it does to people!

Yes, I think there are probably two reasons for this:

First, the audience needs to understand it and it's not intended as a documentary about JW beliefs, so "you'll burn in hell-fire for this!" is something they will understand, even if it isn't something the WTS teaches. The concept is religious condemnation and punishment.

Second, it's the recollections of a traumatized woman, so doesn't need to be 100% accurate. Again, it's about the feelings she has of what happened that matter, not the 100% accurate-to-their-beliefs wording.

And can you picture JWs that will pounce on the inaccuracy, imagining that it somehow excuses things? Oh dear ...

Person: "Wow, we watched this programme where they showed your religion in a pretty bad light, a young girl got raped by one of your priests - that's the 'organizational abuse' thing that commission investigated isn't it that we all saw on the news?"

JW: "Well, 'akshully', it's all lies because we never say 'hell fire' so, yeah ...."

Person: "Eh? WTF is wrong with you! You think that matters at all compared to the main story? Don't you have something to say about that instead of thinking they get off on a technicality?"

JW: "I have to go ..."

4

The Secrets She Keeps

by Simon in

anyone watching this?

it's an australian production with the actress who plays lady edith in downton abbey.. great drama.. there was a surprise mention of jehovah's witnesses in episode 2. we just started watching episode 3 and, well, they are going to hate the kind of publicity this gives them!.

it will build on the terrible reputation they have after the commission investigating abuse within organisations, which the wts tried to obstruct and obfuscate their responsibilities in.. well worth watching as a drama in it's own right, but especially as a potential talking point about the wts.. on cbc in canada..

Simon

It's a passing mention in E02, you know, the kind where JWs would nudge each other and smile, because the world "knew about them". At the time we even said "ha, JWs get a mention, they won't like that the mad stalker was brought up a JW!"

But it's a way more major part of the storyline in E03.

I'd encourage you to watch it though, not just skip through it.

4

The Secrets She Keeps

by Simon in

anyone watching this?

it's an australian production with the actress who plays lady edith in downton abbey.. great drama.. there was a surprise mention of jehovah's witnesses in episode 2. we just started watching episode 3 and, well, they are going to hate the kind of publicity this gives them!.

it will build on the terrible reputation they have after the commission investigating abuse within organisations, which the wts tried to obstruct and obfuscate their responsibilities in.. well worth watching as a drama in it's own right, but especially as a potential talking point about the wts.. on cbc in canada..

Simon

Anyone watching this? It's an Australian production with the actress who plays Lady Edith in Downton Abbey.

Great drama.

There was a surprise mention of Jehovah's Witnesses in episode 2. We just started watching episode 3 and, well, they are going to hate the kind of publicity this gives them!

It will build on the terrible reputation they have after the commission investigating abuse within organisations, which the WTS tried to obstruct and obfuscate their responsibilities in.

Well worth watching as a drama in it's own right, but especially as a potential talking point about the WTS.

On CBC in Canada.