Yep. On top of being dismissive of women and feminism, he’s also dismissive of the entire field of history, especially as it’s been practiced since the 60s. He assumes that progress just happens, and that the people in power (mostly white men) are always on the side of progress. In reality, progress in terms of granting greater rights to people who aren’t straight, rich, white men have been hard fought for and won, by the labor movement, by abolitionists, by civil rights activists, by women, by LBGQT+ people, etc, etc. Every scrap of dignity and rights each of those groups (working together or separately) have come because of the fight, and often with an immense amount of footdragging (and lots of state-backed violence!) of those already in power. While Marx certainly only focused on labor as the key to this, he was very much correct that history is made IN that struggle to expand greater rights and a greater slice of power to a greater number of people. Pinker’s insistence that the power structure was what made that progress possible does not stand up to even the tiniest bit of scrutiny, when you get down to the raw materials of history. The power structure ONLY changes when people MAKE it change. And progress (as we’re learning right in this current historical moment) isn’t assured, because there is always some reactionary who will do all in their power to ensure nothing changes. Progress is made, not a natural phenomenon that we can rely upon. Every single expansion of rights was bitterly fought for, in other words. The asshole really needs to stay in his fucking lane and not speak like an expert on what he clearly has no understanding about.
and I kept on reading all the tweets in that thread and immediately regretted my decision… It’s full of ignorant men bloviating on shit they know nothing about…
Years ago, when Pinker was first getting published, it seemed like he was a legitimate academic. All those footnotes and massive bibliography! He must know what he’s talking about.
And then he wrote the foreword to a book on a subject I have deep knowledge about. And it was clear that he’d done no research, but presented his ignorant opinion as if he had all the references to back up his statements. That’s when I realized that the footnotes, etc. were just a ruse. He makes up his ideas – the world according to Pinker – and then comes up with references most people will never double-check, to ‘prove’ them.
Sucker Punch was a film I thought about for a while after seeing it. I talked with a female friend of mine about (pretty liberal one at that). Fwiw, I signed up because of the dragons and helicopters and shit.
There was a couple of possibilities for a good movie in there. None of them involved an underage schoolgirl wet dream.
It would have made a fine horror movie. They would not even have to get rid of the fantasy segments, just de-sexy the film a bit and actually make the horrific parts horrific. The viewer was regrettably spared, and the film feels dismissive of the real pain of the characters as a result. This was the direction my friend would have preferred, fwiw.
It would have made a fine summer blockbuster/fantasy movie. Just de-sexy it and maybe make reality a little less dark and grim somehow. More mental health centric, less illegal mental ward brothel shit. I think I like this option better myself, but either would be better than the mess we got.
No need to delete your comment; that was just my dark, cynical humor.
(That’s how I tend to deal with the horrors of being a woman in this crazy ass society. )
I never saw the movie, but everyone I know who did hated it, though for various different reasons. But when even my male friends who are hard-core comic book nerds call it a misogynistic piece of shit, that’s really telling.
Yeah, I agree. I did not like it. It was as they described. But I could not help but think there was a good movie in there somewhere and a somewhat different treatment could bring it out.
Sounds like somebody found out the hard way that you can either make an sadistic exploitation film that glamorizes abuse OR you can make a film about women empowering themselves and overcoming abuse… but not both. Latter film is rare and hard to do. Former one is what most people achieve at best. No there is no place for your sadistic fantasies in this story, are you still interested in telling it? No? Thought not…
Today’s back-tracky articles defending Al Franken…
I have a range of truths on the first accuser I think are possible (ranging from completely made up to mostly true, with some embellishments/lies). But the rest of the accusers I believe completely.
Now everyone is regretting Franken stepping down because he was so effective at keeping the political opposition in check. Looking back, and probably on some level thinking, “OK, he wasn’t that bad. Maybe we could have just kept him in line after the whole thing blows over.”
It’s unfortunate that the Democrats lost someone so good at their job during the time of Trump, but what needed to happen happened. This hand wringing about how they could have kept him directly weakens #metoo.
