Tootfinder

Racist and sexist citations from Darwin
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On the subject of sexual differences, so often a surrogate for racial attitudes, Darwin writes in The Descent of Man (and with direct analogy to cultural variation):
"It is generally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man; but some, at least, of these faculties are characteristic of the lower races, and therefore of a past and lower state of civilization. The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than woman can attain — whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands."
Darwin attributes these differences to the evolutionary struggle that males must pursue for success in mating: "These various faculties will thus have been continually put to the test, and selected during manhood." In a remarkable passage, he then expresses thanks that evolutionary innovations of either sex tend to pass, by inheritance, to both sexes — lest the disparity between men and women become ever greater by virtue of exclusively male accomplishment:
"It is, indeed, fortunate that the law of the equal transmission of characters to both sexes has commonly prevailed throughout the whole class of mammals; otherwise it is probable that man would have become as superior in mental endowment to woman, as the peacock is in ornamental plumage to the peahen."
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(Stephen Jay Gould, Eight Little Piggies, essay 18: The Moral State of Tahiti — and of Darwin)
Cited as a historical testimony to the scientific thought of the Victorian era, not as something to appreciate. I wish we could just laugh at that as a relict of weird past…

Do you think all people deserve a level of life that affords them human dignity? Are you not a fan of fascists? According to the UK government, you could be…
A TERRORIST!!!
#prevent #uk #ukpol

“In religion and politics, on the contrary, though there is as yet nothing approaching scientific knowledge, everybody considers it _de rigueur_ to have a dogmatic opinion, to be backed up by inflicting starvation, prison, and war, and to be carefully guarded from argumentative competition with any different opinion.”
Bertrand Russell, “Free Thought and Official Propaganda”, March 24th, 1922.

Free Thought and Official Propaganda - Wikipedia

This is why we can't have nice things - sorry @Pontifex, but human dignity has survived things a lot worse than people wanting babies and self-actualization:
Vatican Says Gender Change and Surrogacy Are Threats to Human Dignity - The New York Times
https://www.

Vatican Says Gender Change and Surrogacy Are Threats to Human Dignity
The statement is likely to be embraced by conservatives and stir consternation among L.G.B.T.Q. advocates who fear it will be used as a cudgel against transgender people.

Why is a private citizen and Russian asset blocking access for a foreign dignitary to speak to the Speaker of the House?
The GOP is a clear and present danger to the future of American democracy, and must be eliminated.
If Ukraine falls, the decades of war that follow will be personally the fault of Donald Trump and the GOP leadership. And they should be treated accordingly.
No quarter for fascists.

"The job of government is to provide and fund public services. The only way government can genuinely help more people get into work is by making sure we have healthy, educated, and happy citizens with decent housing and decent pay"
Mhairi Black: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget shows the rich getting richer | The National

Bangkok Post - Climate disasters decimate Mongolian livestock
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2772041/climate-disasters-decimate-mongolian-livestock

Climate disasters decimate Mongolian livestock
Millions of livestock have perished as climate change exacerbates impacts of extreme winter weather in Mongolia, crippling nomadic communities that rely on the animals for income and threatening wider economic damage.

After last week's book that I wanted nothing so much as to disintegrate, I'm really enjoying this week's reading. I'd like more political economy/history of capitalism - ahem, colonial economism - like this please. @…

Egypt's Occupation: Colonial Economism and the Crises of Capitalism - Aaron G. Jakes
The history of capitalism in Egypt has long been synonymous with cotton cultivation and dependent development. From this perspective, the British occupation of 1882 merely sealed the country's fate as a vast plantation for European textile mills. All but obscured in such accounts, however, is Egypt's emergence as a colonial laboratory for financial investment and experimentation. Egypt's Occupation tells for the first time the story of that financial expansion and the devastating crises that fo…

Apple lowers the price of 10th-gen iPads $100 to $349 and discontinues the 9th-gen iPad with Home button and headphone jack (Zac Hall/9to5Mac)
https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/07/apple-reduces-ipad-10-price-to-349-discontinues-ipa…

Apple reduces iPad 10 price to $349, discontinues iPad 9 with Home button - 9to5Mac
While refreshing the iPad line at the mid to high end, Apple has also rejiggered the starting lineup as well....

"Infamous Cop" Joins DeSantis's Paramilitary Force - Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2024/05/infamous-cop-joins-desantiss-paramilitary-force/

“Infamous Cop” Joins DeSantis’s Paramilitary Force
The Miami Herald reports: Javier Ortiz, the Miami police captain whose long history of citizen complaints alleging beatings, false arrests and harassment made him notorious in the city he swore to pro