If you’re “woke”, you oppose Putin


Yesterday was my day for despair. Now that’s over with, and it’s time for rage.

I can’t do anything about Russia or Ukraine, but jesus, do we ever have a bunch of walloping idiot apologists here at home. The curious thing is that they’re neatly lining up across the chasm that has formed in our political divide. If you’re a Trumper, now you’re in Putin’s pocket — and that’s an about-face from Republicans I would never have expected. If you’re into crypto, of course you’re going to take the Russian side, since crypto is little more than a money laundering scheme for oligarchs. And now the IDW is rationalizing for Russia.

It’s like everyone is projecting their pet obsessions onto Ukraine. No, we don’t spend more time talking about pronouns that it does about things that matter. First of all, pronouns do matter, obviously, since they send the Heyings of the world into a frothing fury. And they seem to matter most to the people who hate the idea. If you tell me that you prefer to be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “they,” I’ll accept it as a matter of course and as a matter of courtesy. The anti-woke brigade will react as if you’ve just launched missiles into their Donbass. We aren’t fighting over pronouns, that war was won by the people who recognize that humans live cooperatively in a society.

The people who don’t recognize that side with Putin.

Here’s another thing that pisses me off: when they decide that they must be über-rational because they accept evolution, and therefore evolution must side with the Russians.

The evolutionary lens is logic and first-principles driven, rather than conclusion or ideology driven. Jesus fucking christ. Evolutionary biology is not a formula that you can plug your variables into, and out pops a fixed, flawless solution. Evolution is a diversity machine. It makes peacocks and parasitic worms. It produces humans with a battery of emotional and social needs, and the more complex the organism, the more unpredictable the outcome. Heying is the classic reductionist dudebro who thinks it is reasonable to strip away the complexity of reality to claim that Science with a capital S has decided that their narrow world view is the correct one.

And then they pretentiously announce the superiority of their perspective. I am one of the initiated, and I can tell you that Heather Heying is full of shit. She’s just a dogmatic reactionary who has found a rationale that feeds her ego and allows her to dismiss everyone else as wrong.

Also, Jesse Singal and Heather Heying joining hands to agree that the Woke are bad makes me want to puke.

Comments

  1. Susan Montgomery says

    I’ve always liked Popehat. Of all the people I’d expected to go to the dark side, I’m pleasantly surprised he didn’t, really.

  2. raven says

    The name was familiar so I looked it up.

    Heather Heying is one of the former Evergreen professors and married to Bret Weinstein. They are the scientific version of quacks, also known as lunatic fringers.

    No, Putin didn’t invade Ukraine because of trans, gays, abortion, evolution, CRT, Covid-19 vaccines, requirements to weak masks in stores, or mail in voting procedures.

  3. says

    “who thinks it is reasonable to strip away the complexity of reality”

    Yes, that tendency to over simplify scientific consensus, (and other issues as well) —that has always bugged me. It makes it easier for them reduce issues to talking points. Also, no hard work need be done and no real depth of knowledge need be gained.

  4. HidariMak says

    Someone should tell the Republican loons that the crypto loons are promoting evolution and science, even if the crypto side is screwing up the details of evolution and science (like the Republican side always does). It would be the battle of the blind leading the blank.

  5. says

    If you’re a Trumper, now you’re in Putin’s pocket — and that’s an about-face from Republicans I would never have expected.

    I did. But then, I not only have seen The Manchurian Candidate, but I’ve been forced to listen (politely, silently) while political appointees from that party railed against the fifty-seven accredited Communists in the Department of Defense… and against the four-hundred fifty-one inappropriate and un-American books in the library. Some during the Cold War; almost continuously (even after my time as a uniformed piece of furniture was over) since.

    The GOP uses ideology as a screening mechanism. It is entirely about exercising dominance over and suppressing the voices of those who aren’t already member of their club since 1951 or thereabouts — and because that guy in Moskva is very good at both, he’s a figure of admiration.

  6. davidc1 says

    @8 I wonder what would have happened if there had been a bottle of Thousand Islands dressing on the table,
    instead a bottle of Tomato Sauce.
    My,what a strange mind I do have,to be sure.

  7. Pierce R. Butler says

    … do we ever have a bunch of walloping idiot apologists here at home.

    I’ve been particularly disappointed lately by Code Pink’s anonymous pre-invasion “explainer“, a one-sided spiel against western involvement* with Ukraine that blatantly disregards equivalent or worse interference* from Moscow.

    *Euphemism

  8. says

    There will always be bad actors that will use “woke” as a way to distract us from important matters – either by being anti-woke or by pandering wokiness when they could be useful instead.
    It’s easy to put “BLM” in background or start any speech with “my pronouns are” just to use it as a smoke cover whenever emptiness of this politician becomes visible.

  9. mattandrews says

    @10

    I’ve been particularly disappointed lately by Code Pink’s anonymous pre-invasion “explainer“, a one-sided spiel against western involvement* with Ukraine that blatantly disregards equivalent or worse interference* from Moscow.

    *Euphemism

    Not all that surprising. There’s been a few “Sure, I guess Russia invading Ukraine is bad, but WHATTABOUT THE STUFF THE US AND NATO DOES, HUH? ANSWER ME THAT!!!” in the comments sections on this site.

    It’s like, “Yes, the US and NATO are ripe for criticism, but maybe you fuckheads could focus on the atrocity at hand? I’m sure the civilians being killed by Russian troops will find your insightful ‘The US is no better than Russia’ worldview extremely comforting.”

  10. says

    It’s amazing how trans people are apparently able to start wars between two countries that are explicitly opposed to them, but not able to stop bills like in Texas that criminalise loving your trans child.