Links - 17th November 2017 (2)

Survival of the Fittest and the Sexiest: Evolutionary Origins of Adolescent Bullying - "bullies had the most positive scores on mental health measures and held the highest social rank in the school environment"
This suggests that claims that bullies are cowards themselves might not be true

Corporations Biggest Threat To Free Speech - " On the same day Google fired Damore, Airbnb confirmed it was deleting accounts that the company suspected may be associated with an upcoming alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Airbnb did this in order to prove it is a welcoming platform, according to its own statement. Apparently, welcoming means banning people who may be suspected — just suspected — of claiming allegiance to the alt-right. Going back a bit further, there’s Mozilla firing its founder Brendan Eich for quietly donating to anti-gay marriage initiatives, an event that now serves as an early precursor to the current Google mess... The Google firing is a chilling example of a major corporation firing someone solely over their viewpoints. This is different from companies kicking off users from the platforms they provide. Taking away a person’s livelihood over their political views is far more serious than ensuring they can’t tweet anymore. To many Americans, the idea of being unemployable for your political stances seems outrageous. But that’s what these left-wing activists want. Those who wanted Damour’s head claimed they needed his termination in order to make Google a “safer” work environment. This is the exact kind of bullshit campus agitators use to shut down speakers they disagree with."
The rally AirBNB deleted people's accounts about was for... free speech. SPOING!

The New Blacklist - "The following is an updated list of figures bullied, badgered, pressured, and purged from polite society for discussing topics outside of the Overton Window."

Chinese auntie enforcers jailed after reign of grey terror - "They would shout at or insult debtors into submission using loudspeakers, and when that did not work they spat at them, reports said. Some female victims reportedly had their clothes torn off if they resisted, while men said the aggressive aunties would rip off their own clothes to imply they had been sexually assaulted. One of the ringleaders, a blind woman named Gao Yun, told The Beijing News the nefarious scheme had been a way to kill time and was "something fun to do"."

The Rise of Antifa - "Those responses sometimes spill blood. Since antifa is heavily composed of anarchists, its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism. They prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, antifa’s partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force. Such tactics have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left. When the masked antifa activist was filmed assaulting Spencer on Inauguration Day, another piece in The Nation described his punch as an act of “kinetic beauty.” Slate ran an approving article about a humorous piano ballad that glorified the assault. Twitter was inundated with viral versions of the video set to different songs, prompting the former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau to tweet, “I don’t care how many different songs you set Richard Spencer being punched to, I’ll laugh at every one.” The violence is not directed only at avowed racists like Spencer: In June of last year, demonstrators—at least some of whom were associated with antifa—punched and threw eggs at people exiting a Trump rally in San Jose, California. An article in It’s Going Down celebrated the “righteous beatings”... Antifa believes it is pursuing the opposite of authoritarianism. Many of its activists oppose the very notion of a centralized state. But in the name of protecting the vulnerable, antifascists have granted themselves the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not. That authority rests on no democratic foundation. Unlike the politicians they revile, the men and women of antifa cannot be voted out of office. Generally, they don’t even disclose their names."

If You’re Reading This Essay, You Should Probably Have (More) Children - "Economists have long argued that more people means more minds productively working on the kinds of problems that plague us. Although we often pollute as a consequence of using carbon-based energy sources, these energy sources also fuel a wide array of industry, including the invention of new kinds of energy that cost less and reduce pollution"

The Neurodiversity Case for Free Speech - "Newton wouldn’t last long as a ‘public intellectual’ in modern American culture. Sooner or later, he would say ‘offensive’ things that get reported to Harvard and that get picked up by mainstream media as moral-outrage clickbait. His eccentric, ornery awkwardness would lead to swift expulsion from academia, social media, and publishing. Result? On the upside, he’d drive some traffic through Huffpost, Buzzfeed, and Jezebel, and people would have a fresh controversy to virtue-signal about on Facebook. On the downside, we wouldn’t have Newton’s Laws of Motion... campus speech codes and restrictive speech norms impose impossible expectations on the social sensitivity, cultural awareness, verbal precision, and self-control of many neurodivergent people... Eccentricity is a precious resource, easily wasted. In his book On Liberty (1859): John Stuart Mill warned that ‘the tyranny of the majority’ tends to marginalize the insights of the eccentric... most speech codes prohibit any insults based on a person’s sex, race, religion, or political attitudes. But aspie students often notice that these codes are applied very selectively: it’s OK to insult ‘toxic masculinity’ and ‘patriarchy’, but not to question the ‘wage gap’ or ‘rape culture’; it’s OK to insult ‘white privilege’ and the ‘Alt-Right’ but not affirmative action or ‘Black Lives Matter’; it’s OK to insult pro-life Catholics but not pro-sharia Muslims. The concept of ‘unwelcome’ jokes or ‘unwelcome’ sexual comments seems like a time-travel paradox to aspies – how can you judge what speech act is ‘unwelcome’ until after you get the feedback about whether it was welcome?... People with diagnosed mental disorders qualify as ‘disabled’ people under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other federal laws, so any speech code at a public university that imposes disparate impact on neurominorities is illegal... In response to these chilling effects, neurodivergent academics may withdraw from the social and intellectual life of the university. They may avoid lab group meetings, post-colloquium dinners, faculty parties, and conferences, where any tipsy comment, if overheard by anyone with a propensity for moralistic outrage, could threaten their reputation and career. I’ve seen this social withdrawal happen more and more over the last couple of decades. Nerdy, eccentric, and awkward academics who would have been outspoken, hilarious, and joyful in the 1980s are now cautious, somber, and frightened."

Teacher in Mexico lines up pupils to show how bull will run around them if unprovoked

Ex-police officer jailed over helicopter film of couple having sex - "A “sex-obsessed” former police officer who filmed a couple having sex, and other people sunbathing naked, from his force helicopter has been jailed for a year. Sentencing Adrian Pogmore, Judge Peter Kelson QC told him: “You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law.”"

Deputy minister: Probe underway on Muslims joining Atheist Club - "The government will investigate if there are Muslims who have joined the Kuala Lumpur Atheist Club, as made viral on the social media recently, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki. He stressed on the importance for a detailed investigation to be conducted and urged for the involvement of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) as it involved the faith of Muslims in the country."
Why are Malaysian Muslims so week?

Atheists in Malaysia should be hunted down, minister says - "Atheists in Malaysia should be “hunted down” by authorities as there is no place for groups like this under the Federal Constitution, a minister said today. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said the public should aid authorities in locating groups like the Kuala Lumpur chapter of Atheist Republic so that action could be taken. “The (Federal Constitution) does not mention atheists. It goes against the Constitution and human rights."

Vegan cafe charges male customers 18 percent 'man tax' and seats women first in bid to address gender pay gap
Not like there're many male vegans anyway. And now there's even less reason for men to follow that diet

Haidilao billionaire owner ready to take on the world - "What really sets Haidilao apart is its customer service. Customers waiting for a table can get their nails done or receive a shoulder massage at no charge. After being seated, every diner is given a moist warm towel and apron to protect their clothes. Individual plastic baggies are provided for mobile phones and those dining solo are sometimes offered a teddy bear to accompany them... Mr Zhang, like his waiters from a humble background in the hinterlands, knows the challenges migrants face in the big city. Haidilao provides apartments, often with air conditioning and wifi, for its staff. Mr Zhang also provides a monthly subsidy for the parents of senior staff and managers. There’s a disaster fund for when employees’ families face hardships from natural disasters. “It’s not easy being a rural migrant in China”... Haidilao tends to promote from within, placing waiters and cleaners on management promotion tracks. The person who runs its US business started as a restaurant doorman. Chief executive officer Yang Xiaoli worked her way up from her first role as a waitress. Managers are evaluated by levels of customer satisfaction and staff morale, rather than primarily on restaurant revenue... At his sole US outlet in Los Angeles, Mr Zhang said he’s unhappy that its business relies heavily on ethnic Chinese customers. To try to attract a more varied crowd he says future restaurants in the US will adopt a more night-club-like atmosphere, with pop music and set menus for diners and perhaps even individual hotpots for each diner at the table."

Man provokes fury with ticket to women-only WW screening - "He also pointed out it's perfectly legal to buy a ticket to a specific screening, but it would be illegal to kick him out specifically on the ground of his sex or gender identity... Twitter user Steve Gorelick had a more brash approach, writing: 'Outrageous. These ignorant, vile misogynists -- who've happily enjoyed access to all sorts of male only settings -- are suddenly egalitarian.' Later, responding to backlash he continued to receive, he chastised those individuals, writing: 'I'm more or less stunned for an entire group of people who lay claim to civil rights how little they actually seem to know about them.'"
Some animals are more equal than others

Dang — looks like those women-only “Wonder Woman” screenings were illegal - "Now the chain has apologized for the screenings in a letter to the city. Drafthouse admitted their advocacy of a film screening for women was in violation of anti-discrimination laws in Austin, Texas. The apology follows an outpouring of dissent from men who claim they felt discriminated against, resulting in two official complaints to be filed with the city."
Feminists could just get anti-discrimination laws rewritten

Some men’s rights activists are using a California antidiscrimination law to take down ‘women in tech’ groups - "Men’s rights activists are using an antidiscrimination law from the 1950s to kneecap women in tech events... Candelore and Allison could file a lawsuit against Burns and her company thanks to a 1959 California antidiscrimination law called the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The law says all Californians are”free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation” can enter and participate in activities and events at all business establishments."
Discrimination is only bad when targeted at "minorities"

Sam Harris: I'm Leaving Patreon - "Harris noted a wave of left-wing agitation campaigns directed at shutting down all views dissenting from their neo-Marxist dogma, fearing that he will be financially damaged by such campaigns in the future."

Brad the Year Is 2025 News Anchor in Tonights Top Story a Bi- Genderqueer Gluten Free Man Who Identifies as a Straight Woman and a Free Range Self Proclaimed Feminist Who Was Born a Woman but Identifies as a Pansexual Man and Author of the Book 'He Raped Me With His Eyes and Got Away With It' Have Given Birth to a Healthy Baby Xi Who They Claim at 2 Weeks Old Identifies as a Lime Green Crayola Crayon

What is gender, anyway? - "If you count only those who have or are expected to physically transition to some degree, the trans population of the UK makes up just 0.2 per cent of the whole... The backlash against the idea of sexuality and gender being connected was so great that, when Michael Bailey addressed it at length in his 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen, he was met with a sustained campaign of harassment that targeted his workplace and his family... Bradley also believes that for some of her patients, especially female ones, gender transition could be a response to trauma, allowing them to regain control of a threatened or violated body: “In the adolescent girls, we had a couple of kids who came in with no earlier history of particular cross-gender wishes or behaviours, but in the context of a sexual assault, they began to take on the role of a male.” (Like Michael Bailey, Bradley's colleague Ken Zucker, the head of the SickKids gender facility, was attacked for not conforming to the current trans political line, and ultimately forced from his job.)... Making it even more difficult to describe and analyse these conflicting accounts of gender is the fact that, according to some, even attempting the discussion is to show hostility to trans people... The review co-authored by Safer certainly includes multiple studies, and they all appear to point to the same conclusion – biological basis for gender identity. But crucially, they find many different possible biological explanations, so it's hard to use them to support each other. One study finds a possible genetic cause for transgenderism, for example, and another finds a possible cause in the uterine hormonal environment. Sometimes the research presented by Safer and his colleagues is actively contradictory... 67.6 per cent of natal female patients referred to the clinic are attracted to females, and 42.3 per cent of natal males are attracted to males, so there is clearly a substantial intersection between homosexuality and gender identity disorders... it seems unlikely that “gender identity disorder” - the current diagnostic term - describes one coherent phenomenon at all... Transgender people can point to compelling evidence of violence, unhappiness, and discrimination, and argue for medical and legal interventions to remedy them. But the fact of suffering is not evidence that the sufferer has unimpeachable insight into the source of that suffering... yet this claim has become the justification and basis for trans activism, and is increasingly influential in the development of legislation"
Problematising the theoretical foundations of trans mania

Oxford University sorry for eye contact racism claim - "Oxford University has apologised for saying that avoiding eye contact could be "everyday racism" after it was accused of discriminating against autistic people... Twitter users criticised the newsletter and academics argued the guidance was "trivialising racism"... Emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, Prof Frank Furedi, said the newsletter's authors "need a reality check"."

Can We Trust What Men and Women Reveal on Sex Surveys? - "Because sex workers are not sampled in most sex surveys (psychologists tend to fail to include them in their research samples), and vastly larger numbers of men pay for sex than women do (about 15 percent of men in USA [see chart below]; versus less than 1 percent of women; Smith, 1998), this might make it seem like men, on average, have more past sex partners than women do... there's quite a bit of empirical evidence suggesting the [Sexual Double Standard] no longer exists in the USA (Marks & Fraley, 2005; Milhausen & Herold, 1999) and may have even reversed... Richard Lippa’s (2009) famous BBC study of more than 50 nations is relevant here. Lippa found sex differences in sexual desire were not larger in more patriarchal cultures (as would be predicted by sexual double standards)... Overall, it seems sex differences in sexual desires and attitudes are not the false result of patriarchy, sex role socialization, and sexual double standards. Sex differences in sexuality appear to be very real, and men and women responding to sex questions in different ways reveals some important truths about human nature... responses to sex surveys under anonymous conditions are as valid as when administered under a lie detector condition. So, sex differences in sexual attitudes do not "disappear" from view when men and women are presumably more likely to tell the truth"
In Cambodia up to 80% of men have visited a sex worker

Stop Equating “Science” With Truth
Predictably, Slate is crusading against science when it is inconvenient for the liberal agenda (I've no doubt anyone who suggests climate science isn't infallible will be slammed). Maybe we need another March for Science
Luckily all of the comments I saw slammed her