Wednesday’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. charon says:

    A thread:

    https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/1420070748471840770

    pulling his members from Jan. 6 committee is going to haunt Kevin McCarthy.

    boy, did he get played by Pelosi. he walked right into her trap

    btw, this committee will work into 2022

    the Senate 1/6 Commission would’ve had a much tighter deadline, but GOP rejected that .

    pulling his members means Fox News will never have a single helpful GOP clip to air during the entirety of the 1/6 investigation

    4
  2. Mu Yixiao says:

    This story on NPR yesterday floored me.

    Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in the United States, but suicide attempts and death in younger children have also been rising in recent years. Now a new study in JAMA Network Open outlines the risk factors linked to suicide in kids aged 11 and younger.

    Donna Ruch had noticed the trend with suicide among kids aged 5 to 11.

    (emphasis added)

    Five?!

    3
  3. CSK says:

    Trump endorsed Susan Wright (widow of Ron) in a Texas special election runoff, and she lost to Jake Ellzey.

  4. Mimai says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    Thanks for posting this. I’m affiliated with a major children’s medical center and do clinical research with kids and parents struggling with comorbid chronic physical (trying to be general here) and mental health conditions. The level of suicidal ideation would blow your hair back – and I’m talking active, scary level ideation. Attempts and completions haunt staff from top to bottom.

    And yet I still frequently encounter dismissive attitudes about “the kids these days” being soft, whiny, fragile, etc……by people who “should” know better. For many, it’s a matter of ignorance. For many others, it’s a matter of avoidance and emotion regulation. For many others, it’s a matter of shame and stigma. Etc etc. These are not mutually exclusive.

    At the end of the day, you see kids – yes, even 5 year olds – who are struggling with their internal experience, struggling to wrap their heads around it, struggling to articulate their suffering, just struggling all the way around. It’s tragic. We can do better. We must.

    5
  5. Teve says:

    @Mimai: “the kids these days…” is an automatic conversation ender for me.

    When people get around 60, they start projecting their infirmities and comfusions on the rest of the world, and the lie of nostalgia. It goes back forever. In 7th century BCE Socrates was complaining about the Kids These Days.

    4
  6. Scott says:

    @Mimai: My wife is the school counselor in an elementary school (lower socio-economic) where suicidal outbursts are quite common. There are protocols to take when that happens and it is taken seriously. I have to admit my first reaction was “really?”. Of course, my wife schooled me on the facts. There could be family issues, mental health issues, community issues that can trigger the kids. It is tough and heartbreaking but has to be done.

    3
  7. Teve says:

    @Teve: obviously other people do it too, 60ish is just the common age for people to start thinking like that. When I was tutoring math I had a 5th grader say something like, “these days you can’t trust just about anybody.” and I had to stifle a laugh. I knew he was just repeating shit his dad said.

  8. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Teve:

    “the kids these days…” is an automatic conversation ender for me.

    Last week I was training one of our younger staff (mid-20s) on how to deposit checks for the company. She couldn’t tear the perfs on the checks because she’d never dealt with checks before.

    I feel completely justified in talking about “kids these days” in that context. 🙂

  9. Teve says:

    @kavithadavidson

    Simone Biles won nationals w/broken toes in both feet, worlds w/a kidney stone, and has carried the burden of being a face of sexual assault survivors as a national institution failed to support them

    Half of y’all yelling about “toughness” can’t handle wearing a mask in Wegman’s

    11
  10. Kathy says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    I don’t even know what stone is good for making a spear point, nor how to shape one.

    4
  11. mattbernius says:

    @Mimai:

    And yet I still frequently encounter dismissive attitudes about “the kids these days” being soft, whiny, fragile, etc……by people who “should” know better.

    Given the sheer amount of people critiquing Simone Biles decision to pull out of the competition, no one should be surprised at how toxic our culture’s views on mental health culture are.

    Only slightly better were all the folks walking back Simone Biles “hot” takes with “I first thought it was lame, but then I realized she might die” takes. IT’S STILL NOT A GOOD LOOK.

    Just respect that a mental health decision is a REAL health decision (and that elite performance athletes know their bodies and their minds).

    6
  12. Teve says:

    @deannahong

    One former US elite gymnast I talked to said that if it was someone other than Simone Biles who had made that same error, they would have certainly blown a knee, at minimum. Another said if it had happened to her instead of Simone, “I probably would have ended up paralyzed.”
    Most non-gymnastics fans do not understand the seriousness of what happened because she landed on her feet. Every elite gymnast I’ve talked to has said that Simone Biles’s vault was TERRIFYING and it’s a miracle she put that vault to her feet & avoided seriously injuring herself.
    It’s not that she made a silly mistake and landed poorly – her mind & body betrayed her in the air while doing one of the hardest vaults in the world, and it’s only due to her extreme athleticism that she was able to land safely.
    Imagine being driven into the ground directly onto your head/neck/back from 10 feet in the air, with the force of 15x your body weight. THOSE are the stakes here. People need to understand that before they run their mouths.
    Simone is an elite athlete and the greatest of all time – she would not take pulling out of two Olympic finals lightly. This is NOT comparable to other sports. Proud of her selfless decision and wishing her the time and space she needs to rest and recover ❤️

    8
  13. @Teve:

    the lie of nostalgia

    Yup.

    I am not a fan of “kids these days” either. It just simply cannot be the case that each generation is somehow a degeneration from the one previous.

    2
  14. George says:

    https://www.denverpost.com/2021/07/27/aurora-police-excessive-force-john-haubert/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okOsK3dgvRk

    How were these two ever allowed to be police? And given what’s happened in the last year, especially wrt the murder of Floyd George, how in the world could they think it was still acceptable “policing”?

    3
  15. Teve says:

    @Kathy: whenever i try to make a pelt from a fox i just brained with a stone, it always deteriorates 😀

    2
  16. @mattbernius: Indeed all around. The whole “rub some dirt on it” aspect of how we address mental health is shameful.

    Further, there is a lot of “I must be entertained! Dance for me!” to all of this.

    Moreover, surely it is obvious that someone at this level of athletic competition would not just pull out of the Olympics on a whim.

    3
  17. Mimai says:

    @Teve: @Scott:

    There are a lot of contributing factors to this. I can’t help but think that a major one is the social environment they are born into. Their developing central nervous system is marinating in a toxic brew that is being produced by a toxic social climate. This is pre-COVID and has only been made worse over the past 18+ months.

    And by toxic social climate, I don’t mean drugs, sex, cussin’ and all the typical stuff that prior generations complain about. I’m talking about the baseline level of spite, vindictiveness, cruelty, etc that has become “normal” operating procedures. Our go-to reaction. Our habit. The new normal.

    Our collective autonomic nervous system is jacked to 100 at all times.

    This has major impacts on central nervous system development – in utero and after – that we are just barely starting to understand. These kids are victims and guinea pigs to our cynicism.

    5
  18. Teve says:

    CatherineBurns

    Hi, your friendly neighborhood former gymnast and diver here to attempt to explain the mental phenomenon Simone Biles is experiencing: the dreaded twisties.
    When you’re flipping or twisting (or both!) it is very disorienting to the human brain. When training new flips and twists, you need external cues to learn how it feels to complete the trick correctly. (In diving, a coach yells “OUT” and you kick your body straight and pray).
    Once you’ve practiced a trick enough, you develop the neural pathways that create kinesthesia which leads to muscle memory. Your brain remembers how your body feels doing the trick and you gain air awareness.
    Think about something that took you a while to learn and required a lot of concentration at the time to get it right, but now is second nature. Driving a car is a good example (especially stick!)
    Suddenly, in the middle of driving on the freeway, right as you need to complete a tricky merge, you have totally lost your muscle memory of how to drive a car. You have to focus on making you foot press the pedal at the right angle, turn the steering wheel just so, shift gears..
    It’s terrifying. You’re moving way too fast, you’re totally lost, you’re trying to THINK but you know you don’t usually have to think to do these maneuvers, you just feel them and do them.
    The twisties are like this, and often happen under pressure. You’re working so hard to get it right that you stop trusting your muscle memory. You’re getting lost in the air, second guessing your instincts, overthinking every movement.
    It’s not only scary and unnerving, it’s incredibly dangerous even if you’re doing basic gymnastics. The level of skills Simone throws combined with the height and power she gets can lead to catastrophic injury if you’re not confident and connected to your kinesthesia.
    This isn’t as easy to fix as just sleeping it off and hoping for a better day tomorrow. It can look like retraining entire routines and tricks. I never mastered my front 1.5 with a full twist because I’d get the twisties and it would mess with my other twisting dives.
    So. When Simone says she’s taking it day by day, this is why. She’s not soft. She didn’t choke. She isn’t giving up. It’s a phenomenon every gymnast and diver has experienced and she happens to be experiencing it at the Olympics. Can you imagine the frustration? The heartbreak?
    I’ll also add that @Simone_Biles choosing to bow out pushes back against a dark narrative in gymnastics that you sacrifice yourself for the sake of the sport; you are the product of your coaches and you owe them wins, no matter the personal cost.
    No. You owe nobody anything, and you especially don’t owe them your body, your health, or your autonomy. I hope every single tiny baby gymnast got that message on self advocacy and setting boundaries loud and clear. Thank you, @Simone_Biles.

    8
  19. Kathy says:

    Fun fact of the day:

    Isaac Asimov, perhaps best known for his robot stories*, was largely computer illiterate.

    To be fair he passed away in 1992. This is well into the PC revolution in business, but not quite the wide adoption of home computers.

    *He claimed to have coined the word “robotics” in the late 1930s or so. He did come up with the Three Laws of Robotics.

  20. mattbernius says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    Moreover, surely it is obvious that someone at this level of athletic competition would not just pull out of the Olympics on a whim.

    Or that an elite athlete of her level somehow lacks the mental and emotional toughness necessary to compete.

    Anyone who is stupid enough to write that is once again proving Maya Angelou’s point that “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. “

    2
  21. Teve says:
  22. Kylopod says:

    @Kathy: I only learned fairly recently that he died of AIDS, due to a blood transfusion. It was not publicly disclosed until a decade after his death in 1992. His family kept it under wraps because of the public stigma around AIDS.

    1
  23. Teve says:
  24. Teve says:

    From the wonderful Reddit group ‘I never thought Leopards would eat MY face’:

    George P. Bush (son of Jeb) who is the only Bush to kiss Trump’s ass, for an endorsement who Trump called ‘My Bush’, gets screwed over when Trump endorses Ken Paxton for Texas AG.

    2
  25. CSK says:

    @Teve:
    You could see this coming a mile off. Someone accused DeSantis of “pimping the Biden poison jab.”

    I’m not sure how it can be Biden’s poison, since Trump invented it. Right?

  26. Kylopod says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    It just simply cannot be the case that each generation is somehow a degeneration from the one previous.

    There are multiple factors contributing to the perception, but one of them is the way technology creates shortcuts for activities that were previously more involved. The kids these days have no sense of the hardscrabble life of dial-up modems, dot matrix printers, and VCRs.

    Another element of it is the gradually loosening standards over the past century when it comes to certain types of public expression, particularly regarding sex. But that gets tricky, because we’ve also seen an increase in taboos in other areas–think of the casual slurs against LGBT people that were a lot more accepted in the mainstream just a few decades ago. Ironically, the “kids these days” tropes is often now expressed as the idea that people can’t say what they were once allowed to.

    Then there’s complaints about language–but here we come to one of the most truly subjective and delusional forms of generational criticism by older folks. This applies to denouncing contemporary slang, bad grammar, and filler words (Robert Byrd once actually gave a speech on the floor of Congress complaining about the term “y’know”) and acting like it’s a sign of the breakdown of society. Oldsters have literally been doing this since ancient times.

    1
  27. CSK says:

    @Kylopod:
    Asimov contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during bypass surgery in 1983.

    1
  28. @mattbernius:

    Or that an elite athlete of her level somehow lacks the mental and emotional toughness necessary to compete.

    Anyone who is stupid enough to write that is once again proving Maya Angelou’s point that “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. “

    Yup.

    3
  29. @CSK: Wow–I did not know that.

    1
  30. Kathy says:

    @Teve:

    What I wonder is why anyone thinks an accomplished athlete who has enjoyed great success in her field, would need to risk her health, mental and physical, for just a little more.

  31. Kathy says:

    @Kylopod:
    @CSK:

    I felt a bit betrayed when I learned this.

    In his memoir, “I, Asimov,” which he dedicated to all his “gentle readers,” he describes suffering from kidney failure in the last years of his life. In the postscript, written by his wife, we’re told he died of kidney failure.

  32. Teve says:

    @Kathy: they feel entitled to her performance, best I can figure.

  33. Kylopod says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    Wow–I did not know that.

    A lot of people still don’t, even though it came out in 2002 (from Janet Asimov’s autobiography).

    1
  34. KM says:

    @Kylopod:
    Interesting thing about language is that “bad grammar” and slang words for the youth often end up being their own dialect or future grammatical or lexical choices. It also reflects changing ideas about what concepts language is attempting to convey and what meaning they should have.

    Here’s a good one: what the socially appropriate answer to “Thank you”- “you’re welcome” or “no problem / worries”?

    There’s a generational divide that will tell you the other choice is impolite. “No problem / worries” is impolite because it doesn’t convey gratitude or respect while “You’re welcome” is rude or sarcastic because it carries an impersonal formality and assumption the speaker isn’t genuine. “Welcome” to what – it’s a greeting and invitation so what are you welcome to exactly? “No problem / worries”- they might be offended you implied it or they were a problem that needed to be addressed in the first place. What’s more important – respectful recitation of a formal traditional reply or a reflection that you might have caused inconvenience but they didn’t consider it a hassle?

    1
  35. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Apparently, mac-n-cheese ice cream is not as unappetizing as it sounds
    Either that, or NY has an amazing number of gulls. $12 a pint seems like a lot to spend for ice cream to this little confused bunny.

    1
  36. Teve says:

    @KM: I’m 45 and I say ‘No worries” habitually. No idea how I picked it up.

    2
  37. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    Didn’t we have a long discussion about this the other day? Not only is the favor loathsome, the price is ridiculous.

    1
  38. Kylopod says:

    @KM:

    Interesting thing about language is that “bad grammar” and slang words for the youth often end up being their own dialect or future grammatical or lexical choices.

    Generally that’s true, but there are certain language choices that seem to be perpetually associated with youth over several generations, such as the “like” business (which I believe began with the Beatniks in the ’50s).

  39. grumpy realist says:

    @KM: The only time I ran into the “no worries” answer I was in Oz….

    Some of the “new” answers coming in look to be literal translations of traditionally correct interactions in other languages–isn’t “de nada” the traditional Spanish response? (In Japanese it would be “Do itashimashite” which gets translated as “you’re welcome” but, um, isn’t.)

  40. CSK says:

    @KM: @Kylopod: @grumpy realist:

    In my four years’ residence in the U,K., I noticed right off the bat that “You’re welcome” is unknown to the Brits as a response to “Thank you.” If I said “thank you” to someone, that person would reply “thank you” to me.

    2
  41. Teve says:

    @profgalloway

    100% of the people criticizing Simone Biles are wimps compared to Simone Biles

    3
  42. @grumpy realist:

    The only time I ran into the “no worries” answer I was in Oz….

    I say it/write it all the time.

    1
  43. KM says:

    @grumpy realist:
    Phatic speech is flexible – what’s considered an appropriate response in the UK won’t necessarily fly here even if they’re in the same tongue and have (mostly) the same linguistic and social roots. What matters is not so much the worlds but the intent as the words have no intrinsic value other then be a social pleasantry. It’s why we say “I’m sorry” after someone tells you bad news – you didn’t do anything so why are you apologizing? FYI – I have a coworker who will irately snap that at you if you mindlessly “sorry” him; it either comes across as pointless pity or just meaningless things you’re saying to indicate you heard what was said….. which is exactly what phatic speech is meant to do.

    Younger folks are starting to question these expressions, likely due to the nature of mutating language on the internet and social shifts in things like pronouns. What is the point of saying “sorry” online when you don’t need to small talk? Why say “you’re welcome” when it sounds overly formal and a quick np will do? If the point is to acknowledge you heard the statement and need to respond, why not an emoji instead? This bleeds over into spoken word were overly formal terms seems sarcastic or insincere. Instead of reassuring someone you didn’t bother them with their request (which seems more polite in a busier world where taking time and effort to respond can be meaningful in and of itself), you are supposed to reinforce the obligations inherent in older phatic terms…. why exactly? Thus terms mutate and older folks grumble about rude youth who can’t speak correctly.

    1
  44. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Kathy:

    To be fair he passed away in 1992.

    I was taking a literature class from Asimov’s best friend (SF editor Martin H Greenberg) when he died. It was over spring break.

    When we got back to class, Greenberg told us about the death–and the funny little incident it involved.

    Greenberg was one of the first people that Asimov’s wife called when Isaac died. It was early in the morning, and she woke Greenberg up. He told her to cut the call short and start calling his close friends so they wouldn’t hear about it on the morning news. Her response was golden:

    “What are you talking about? Why would it be on the news? He’s not famous.”

  45. Teve says:

    I just saw, on Twitter, a morbidly obese white guy call Simone Biles a quitter.

    Dude…

  46. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Kathy:

    I don’t even know what stone is good for making a spear point, nor how to shape one.

    You’ll want to use flint or volcanic glass. You chip off flakes using a hard (non-brittle) stone (usually round, so it’s easy to hold) by striking the tailing edge of the flint (the side away from you) in a forward motion. This will leave you with a sharp, serrated edge.

    2
  47. Jay L Gischer says:

    My recollection is that I started using “no worries” in about 2004/2005 while playing Everquest 2. I think it was fairly common on my server. This may have been Aussie influence, and the influence of Hakuna Matata (from the Lion King, represented as “it means no worries”, but not as an apology acceptance) may have been felt, though not directly.

    I still use it, and I’m 65 (almost).

    1
  48. Jay L Gischer says:

    Yeah, I reject the “kids these days” business, too. Things are different, so I try to dig into the differences and understand what influenced them. But I understand the temptation.

    I think the 90’s and to some extent the 80’s were kind of dark psychologically. Probably Watergate and Vietnam had some influence here. It was the time of the Iron Age of comics, and the attitudes there can be seen elsewhere in film and music. The chief idea is that you had to be bad to be good. An idea that was brilliantly lampooned in the film Dudley Dooright, but that just demonstrates how important/big the idea was at that time.

    We’ve moved out of that, but not back to the sunny “Everythings Groovy” attitude of the 60’s. I’m not sure yet how to characterize the time we are in. In part that’s because the music/art/film world has been upended by the internet.

  49. Kylopod says:

    @Jay L Gischer: There were a variety of films in the ’80s and ’90s that seemed to be implicitly a critique of Reaganism. These include Risky Business, They Live, Wall Street, Glengarry Glen Ross, and American Psycho. On the surface these may seem to be very different types of movies, but they all contain subtexts about the dangers and delusions of American capitalism and the me-first selfishness underlying it. It wasn’t the first time there were entertainment movies critiquing capitalism–you had a lot of those in the ’30s–but these ones had a somewhat different approach and vantage point than their predecessors; I call them Reagan movies.

    Then there’s the Angry White Male genre, which today might be called the Proto-Incel genre–movies like Taxi Driver, Falling Down, and Fight Club.

    1
  50. gVOR08 says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    Probably Watergate and Vietnam had some influence here.

    Another bit of parlance – do ya think? I’ve had Trumpy types tell me I blindly trust the government. Good Lord. I came of age politically with my government trying to draft my generation to kill and be killed in an obviously pointless lost cause, lying about it every day, and being supported in those lies by the MSM.

    3
  51. Mister Bluster says:

    @podman:..Generally that’s true, but there are certain language choices that seem to be perpetually associated with youth over several generations, such as the “like” business (which I believe began with the Beatniks in the ’50s).

    …like no daddyo…

    1
  52. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Teve: kids these days

    Speaking only for myself, I have noticed that the 40 year olds have gone straight to hell.

    3
  53. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Kathy: Chert, and very carefully.

    1
  54. Jay L Gischer says:

    @gVOR08: You know, it’s odd. There are some things I do trust the government to do. I trust it to follow bureaucratic rules and make scheduled payments on things, and to be somewhat inflexible about how those rules and payments are applied.

    This is not at all the same as trusting political leadership to “do the right thing”. Maybe they will. That sometimes happens. Maybe not. Politicians are rarely “leaders” in the sense I understand it. They watch where people are going, then run to the front and yell, “follow me!”

    We muddle along.

    2
  55. Teve says:

    @Kylopod: I didn’t get Fight Club at first. I thought it was just satirizing the vapid consumerism of Ed Norton’s character, and I didn’t see for a while that it was also satirizing the Brad Pitt character’s reactionary, masculine…idk what to call it, neo-primitivism?

    2
  56. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: It just simply cannot be the case that each generation is somehow a degeneration from the one previous.

    I like to think my sons’ generation is better than mine, and I have plenty of evidence to back it up.

    4
  57. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK:

    Despite her husband’s life in the limelight, Susan preferred a very private life. There is no information available about her family at the moment. Her parents and siblings remain unknown.

    Susan Wright Husband Ron Wright
    Wright was married to Rep Ron Wright. It is, however, not known when the couple got married. We also cannot provide information on how they met. We will provide information about their marriage once it is available.

    Maybe it’s not so much the FG endorsement, but only that “well, I’m his wife” is no longer enough to get elected.

    1
  58. Kylopod says:

    @Teve:

    I didn’t get Fight Club at first. I thought it was just satirizing the vapid consumerism of Ed Norton’s character, and I didn’t see for a while that it was also satirizing the Brad Pitt character’s reactionary, masculine…idk what to call it, neo-primitivism?

    Why can’t it be both?

    1
  59. Teve says:

    @Kylopod: i said “also”.

    1
  60. JohnSF says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    This will leave you with a sharp, serrated edge.

    I was shown how to knap flint about 20 years ago by an archaeologist.
    It tended to leave me with a small irregular lump of stone, and possibly minus several fingers.

    2
  61. JohnSF says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    …each generation is somehow a degeneration…

    Well, obviously my seniors were mistaken about my generations inadequacies.
    But have you seen the kids these days? They just won’t get off my lawn!
    🙂

    6
  62. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    That’s entirely possible, and Wright apparently didn’t run a very good campaign, but I’d like to think that Trump is losing some of his clout.

    Liz Harrington, Trump’s current spokesperson, blamed the loss on Democrats voting for Ellzey, who’s a Republican.

    3
  63. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kylopod: Almost every time I need to show a DVD to a class of kids, I ask need to ask one of the kids to help operate the DVD–start it, open it to the correct place to restart, access the menu, whatever. I always explain that this is because I moved to Korea just before DVDs became a big thing in the US but after Koreans had started streaming movies from online sources, so I’ve never owned a DVD player and don’t really know how they work.

    (One guy I sub for only shows videos that are from his Amazon account. That’s a real easy day. Open a file, press play, and we’re off to the races! 😀 )

    1
  64. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I am not a fan of “kids these days” either. It just simply cannot be the case that each generation is somehow a degeneration from the one previous.

    I don’t use it in the sense of “the generation after me”, I use it (when I’m not just being a smart-ass) as referring to kids: Thems that’s too young to have learnt ’bout the way the world works (which, to be honest, seems to be a lot later than when I was young).

    There’s a significant drop in critical thinking from when I was a kid. I don’t blame the kids, I blame my generation (and those 15-20 years younger) for not teaching the kids how to think for themselves. The whole “helicopter parent” thing has done some serious damage to their ability to make risk assessments and adapt based on trial and error*.

    ==========

    * Okay… Raising the ramp to 3 bricks is exciting and fun. Raising the ramp to 4 bricks sends the bike careening off and throws you ass-over-teakettle.

    Hmm… Does anyone have anything that’s half a brick thick?? It’s for science!

    😀

    1
  65. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: @Teve: There’s also a factor of “you’re only as good as your last performance” I think. It’s not a fair or reasonable standard, but there it is.

    2
  66. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: Of course we did. Why do you think I linked to the column in the first place? (Gimme 5–up high, down low)

  67. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Kathy: What gets me is that after she has risked her health, mental and physical, for so much, for so long, they think they have the right to have a say in whether or not she risks more.

    2
  68. Mimai says:

    Re responses to “thank you” – I too say “no problem,” “no worries,” “sure thing mate,” etc in many/most situations. For example, if I hold the door for someone, let someone go ahead of me at the check-out line, etc. These are relatively small (though not insignificant – see above about toxic social climate) gestures that elicit an appropriately casual “thanks” which deserves an appropriately causal response.

    Other gestures elicit different “thanks” and deserve a different response. For example, if I pay for a stranger’s groceries at the check-out line, this nearly always elicits a very big and earnest and surprised “thank you so much, you don’t know how much this matters…!!!”

    In these cases, “no problem/worries” seems insufficient and doesn’t honor their expression. So I look them in the eyes and say in my most earnest way “you are very welcome.” This is classic intensity matching. I also see it as a gift of sorts. It’s hard to accept earnest “thank yous” like it’s hard to accept compliments.

    4
  69. Jay L Gischer says:

    Like some others here, I think Fight Club is not the film you think it is. It very well describes the kind of situation young men find themselves in, rejects the previous generation’s approach (“you are not a unique snowflake”), but also rejects the “alpha male” approach to life that was just getting started at the time.

    I don’t know whether you’ve seen it. But if you haven’t, I feel confident saying that you probably don’t know what it’s about, because, well, it’s tricksy.

  70. Kylopod says:

    @Teve: I don’t remember my initial reaction to seeing Fight Club the first time, other than that I liked the film and found it clever, witty, and thought-provoking. I probably wasn’t thinking too hard about its social message. It wasn’t until 2005 when I studied it for a course that I first remember probing these issues–and subsequently going to an imdb forum only to be (verbally) assaulted by a mob of Durdenite trolls.

    I think that anytime a movie tries to explore the social reasons behind violence, it runs a fine line and is bound to be misinterpreted by some viewers as a justification for that violence–I’ve seen it happen over and over. Especially when it tries to make the central character charismatic and/or relatable (and Fight Club does both, with its Durden/Narrator duality).

  71. Teve says:

    @Jay L Gischer: which of the 2 dozen commenters above are you replying to?

  72. @Mu Yixiao:

    Thems that’s too young to have learnt ’bout the way the world works (which, to be honest, seems to be a lot later than when I was young).

    See, I would argue asserting that kids these days are developing later fits into what I am talking about. It might be true for some, or in some areas, but it may not be true in others.

    And that they don’t know about checks (to pick your previous example) doesn’t mean they aren’t learning fast enough, it means the world has changed.

    I am certain my sons (the youngest will be 20 in two months) couldn’t use a rotary phone. And while they have jobs and bank accounts, I don’t think any of them have checks–including the 24 year-old who lives on his own.

    I know none of them could operate a rotary phone.

    1
  73. Teve says:

    @Kylopod: do you think it’s just lack of metacognition that causes some people not to understand parody and satire?

  74. @Mu Yixiao:

    There’s a significant drop in critical thinking from when I was a kid.

    In my opinion, this is the essence of “kids these days” as it assumes, based on really not much of anything, that age group X was universally better than the current generation.

    1
  75. Teve says:

    According to the Rachel Maddow show, there’s a video clip where Pelosi can be seen saying of Kevin McCarthy, “what a moron”. 😀 😀 😀 😀

  76. Teve says:

    Request deletion please

    1
  77. @Teve: Here it is.

    3
  78. Scott says:

    @CSK: It was a local runoff election with about 8% of eligible voters voting. Even though Trump made it about himself, I don’t think most voters were even paying attention.

    Best writeup is probably Texas Tribune

    “One of the things that we’ve seen from this campaign is a positive outlook — a Reagan Republican outlook for the future of our country — is what the people of the 6th District really, really want,” said Ellzey, who had faced a storm of attacks from Susan Wright’s side.

    Ellzey relied on support from former Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston, a fellow Navy veteran who came off the sidelines in the runoff. Perry and other Ellzey allies suggested Trump had been misled into endorsing Susan Wright.

    It’s never Trump’s fault, is it?

    Anyway, the big story in Texas is Trump endorsing our indicted felon AG, Ken Paxton (isn’t that just on brand!) over George P. Bush, who very publicly groveled and sucked up to Trump. Will they ever learn?

    1
  79. CSK says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    I’m sure they could figure out how to use a rotary phone. It’s not hard.

    Were they taught to write cursive, or do they print everything? I don’t think my nieces and nephews know how to do anything but print. Back in the Dark Ages, we had to take penmanship till ninth grade.

    3
  80. Teve says:

    @CSK: i still write cursive, but mostly just because i like the aesthetics. There’s not really any point anymore. Kids today can text faster than I can type, which is much more useful.

    It’s funny, that because there was a decade where flip phones were the cutting edge, there’s a sub-generation of kids that can type T9 at like 60 wpm, which is already an obsolete skill. 😛

    2
  81. @CSK:

    I’m sure they could figure out how to use a rotary phone. It’s not hard.

    Figure it out? Sure. But it would take a few tries. Keep in mind, they don’t really know what a dial tone is. We got rid of a landline at the house quite some time ago and they are used to cell phones.

  82. @CSK: I am pretty sure they were taught cursive. The degree to which they use it is another matter.

    Heck, I basically only use it when I sign my name.

    1
  83. CSK says:

    @Scott:
    Trump must have really enjoyed kicking George P. Bush in the teeth after Bush quite publicly humiliated himself toadying so assiduously to Trump, even going so far as to peddle koozies with “This is the only Bush that likes me! This is the Bush that got it right. I like him. — Donald J. Trump” printed on them.

    I wonder if George learned a lesson from that.

    2
  84. Scott says:

    @CSK: They never seem to learn, do they?

    It is going even to be more fun when Eva Guzman kicks Paxton’s butt. She resigned from the Texas Supreme Court to run against him. A lot of money is flowing her way. A lot of people are just sick of Paxton who is as disgusting a human being as you can get.

    1
  85. Kylopod says:

    @Teve: A few months ago someone here* complained about the loss of snow days in New York schools, and I was like “What about kids in Miami who have never had snow days?” I think there’s a tendency for people to assume anything that was a normal part of their upbringing must be intrinsically important so that eliminating it represents a great loss.

    * Oh jeez, I just looked it up and it was Doug.

    1
  86. CSK says:

    @Scott:
    What gets me is that Paxton was re-elected to a second term as A.G. three years after he was indicted. Nothing like having a criminal as your top law enforcement dude.

  87. @CSK: It’s called “field experience.”

    5
  88. CSK says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    Of course! (Slaps forehead in chagrin.) How on earth could I have forgotten?

    I have some dim memory of people talking about Paxton in 2015, just after he was first elected, and saying how appalling he was.

  89. Stormy Dragon says:

    @KM:

    The other problem with “you’re welcome” is there is an implication the person was doing you a favor, which isn’t true in a lot of situations where you are thanking someone (e.g. If you’re buying a piece of pizza, it’s normal to say thank you after being handed your slice, but it would be weird for them to say ‘you’re welcome’, since they’re handing it to you because you paid for it, not out of the goodness of their hearts).

    1
  90. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Kylopod:

    Then there’s the Angry White Male genre, which today might be called the Proto-Incel genre–movies like Taxi Driver, Falling Down, and Fight Club.

    Underrated example in this genre: Megamind, in which all three male character (Metroman, Megamind, and Titan) are different versions of toxic masculinity, and the protagonist’s arc is being the only one of the three to move beyond it, and the main antagonist is an incel before incels were even a thing.

  91. Kathy says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I wonder if there’s a market for an Apple Rotary Phone with Siri 🙂

    1
  92. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    In my opinion, this is the essence of “kids these days” as it assumes, based on really not much of anything, that age group X was universally better than the current generation.

    Except that there’s actual data showing that there’s a decline in critical thinking. Both Newsweek and Psychology Today talk about it.

    Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa studied 2,400 college students at 24 different universities over a 4-year period [2]. They reported that critical thinking and other skills such as writing were no longer progressing during college as compared to previous generations of students.

    And…

    The Journal found that at about half of schools, large groups of seniors scored at basic or below-basic levels. According to a rubric, that means they can generally read documents and communicate to readers but can’t make a cohesive argument or interpret evidence.

    This was true even at some high-profile colleges. At California State University in Los Angeles, for example, 35 percent of seniors had below-basic skills and 29 percent had basic skills.

    So it’s not just brushing off the younger generation. There’s actual facts to back it up.

    Now… part of that is balanced by increased visual and dexterity skills, but those aren’t very useful in figuring out novel problems or separating fact from bullshit.

    Edit to add: The fact that states are having to pass laws saying it’s okay for kids to walk home from school without a parent, to go to the park without a parent, or stay at home alone before they’re 14 (!) also indicates that this is more than just a feeling.

    2
  93. Kathy says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    I liked that movie. It’s also an example of the villain as the good guy (spoiler alert!), and was unfortunately surpassed by Despicable Me. So, sadly, no Megamind sequels.

  94. Kylopod says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    and the main antagonist is an incel before incels were even a thing.

    There are a lot of examples of it. In the recent adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, a novel from the 1970s, they really seemed to draw out the incel qualities of the character of Harold Lauder.

  95. Teve says:

    Psychology Today:

    Conclusion

    Are we getting worse at CT? No. Are we losing our knowledge base? No. On the contrary, more and more opportunities to practice (and improve) CT have been afforded to us by advances in our knowledge base. However, given the rise in the amount of information out there, it is necessary to utilise our knowledge in tandem with CT for successful information processing outcomes. Years ago, knowledge was king; however, in light of the information explosion over the past few decades, it’s no longer possible to be an expert based on knowledge alone; rather, you need the ability to adapt — through CT — in light of all this available information.

    Sure, we see many examples on television and on the internet of people seriously lacking in CT — maybe even just common sense, in many cases. But, I don’t think people are getting worse per se. Rather, we might just be more cognisant of CT “failures” given the increase of people’s online footprint. Nevertheless, we live in a time where we need CT more than ever and because of that, people who once were deemed to be “smart” (i.e. vast knowledge) are being caught out because they may not necessarily have the skills, be disposed or even have the energy to analyse and evaluate information to infer reasonable conclusions and solutions to a requisite standard at a particular point in time.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/202103/are-we-getting-worse-critical-thinking

    2
  96. Kylopod says:

    @Kathy:

    It’s also an example of the villain as the good guy (spoiler alert!), and was unfortunately surpassed by Despicable Me.

    I noticed that (he even had the assistant called “Minion!”–I’m almost surprised there wasn’t a lawsuit), though a difference is that DM was more a spoof of spy movies whereas Megamind was a spoof of the superhero genre–which was a problem because there was already The Incredibles. (I think DM was also heavily influenced by the Shrek films, and Steve Carell leans quite a bit into Mike Myers’ vocal performance in those films, with the Russian accent replacing Scottish.)

  97. Teve says:

    The Flynn Effect also doesn’t fit with “kids these days aren’t as smart as they used to be”.

  98. Kathy says:

    @Kylopod:

    (he even had the assistant called “Minion!”–I’m almost surprised there wasn’t a lawsuit)

    It’s a generic term, commonly used in other supervillain settings. I don’t think you can copyright or trademark that.

  99. Mimai says:

    The way “adults” these days talk about kids these days! Ugh. Remember when “adults” used to be only moderately insufferable? Oh do I long for those good ol’ days.

    2
  100. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    Not to downplay the tragedy or suggest nothing should be done about teen suicide, but there’s only three significant causes of youth death in a developed country: accidents (which is more than the other two put together), suicide, and homicide, so the “second leading cause” bit seems kind of sensationalist to me.

  101. gVOR08 says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: I vote that Dr.T won the intertubes today.

    2
  102. @gVOR08: I’ll take it 😉

    It is actually a recycled joke insofar as we were going to bring in a candidate for a CJ position a couple of years ago and his cv looked great but I was perplexed that he seemed to have left a really good gig. I Googled him to discover that he was under indictment for grand larceny.

    I told the Chair of CJ that while it might count as field experience in criminal justice that we would not be inviting the candidate to campus for an interview.

    1
  103. Jay L Gischer says:

    @Teve: Honestly, nobody in particular. I just have found so many people have some ideas of what Fight Club is about from the trailers, and those ideas are very, very wrong.

    Because of my martial arts, I am interested in training young people for adulthood, and that includes young men, who are the most difficult to reach. FC gives some real insights to their current situations, and how their quests can really go off the rails.

  104. Mimai says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I totally understand the decision to not invite the candidate. Do you know the outcome of the case? And if you do, would it be kosher for you to share? And if it would, I’m curious to hear. Of course, I understand if you’d rather not.

  105. wr says:

    @Kathy: “I wonder if there’s a market for an Apple Rotary Phone with Siri ”

    I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a rotary phone app out there…

  106. Teve says:
  107. Teve says:

    @wr: an engineer built herself a rotary cell phone and also sells it as a kit.

    1
  108. Mister Bluster says:

    @Teve:..an engineer built herself a rotary cell phone and also sells it as a kit.

    Indoor plumbing is so annoying. I wonder if she also sells an outhouse kit complete with a shovel and a Sears catalog?

  109. Kathy says:

    @wr:

    I just noticed the phone app in my phone is a non-cordless landline handset.

    That reminds me of a cartoon where a kid sees a 3.5″ floppy and thinks it’s a sculpture of the save icon.

    1
  110. Teve says:

    @Mister Bluster: it’s not my bag. I just had the PlantNet app running on my cell phone to ID nearby trees and bushes. I’ve got Crepe Myrtles along my walkway, apparently. But I can appreciate the project. 😛

  111. Teve says:

    Man shot with BB gun over wearing mask at Omaha Aldi

    Nancy Gaarder Jul 27, 2021 Updated 19 hrs ago

    A man who was wearing a mask was shot in the neck with a BB gun at an Omaha Aldi Tuesday in an apparent confrontation over masks.

    Phil Anson, spokesman for the Omaha Police Department, said the incident occurred about 2:40 p.m. in the vestibule of the Aldi as one man was leaving and another man was entering.

    The man who wasn’t wearing a mask ran up and spit at the man who was, Anson said.

    The two men began scuffling and wrestling, Anson said, and the unmasked man pulled out a pistol-type BB gun and shot the man.

    The man who was shot said he had injuries to his face, neck and shoulder and had to pull a pellet out of his shoulder.

    “I asked him why he would do that and he said, ‘You’re on the other team,'” said the man, who asked not to be identified.

    The unmasked man has been arrested on suspicion of felony terroristic threats and misdemeanor assault, Anson said.

    The altercation occurred at the Aldi at 885 S. 72nd St.

    A representative of Aldi could not be reached for comment.

  112. Jax says:

    OMG…..the sheer obliviousness, considering what the Trump kids pulled…..

    I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m down with such a thing….as long as it applies to Republican, and specifically President’s named Trump, as well.

    https://waltz.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=529

  113. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Jax:

    that would require the President and Vice President of the United States to report the same financial disclosure information of their non-dependent children as currently required for their spouse and dependent children under Section 102(e) of the Ethics in Government Act.

    How? Parents don’t generally have access to their non-dependent children’s financial information.

    2
  114. Teve says:

    @Jax: @Stormy Dragon: LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!

    1
  115. Jax says:

    @Stormy Dragon: Rules, we don’t need no stinkin rules, all we need is Hunter Biden’s Laptop and OMGEEEEEE, he’s making money off paintings and THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW!!!

    (Runs off into the forest giggling madly because the cognitive dissonance has finally wrecked my brain) 😛

  116. Teve says:
  117. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK:

    I have some dim memory of people talking about Paxton in 2015, just after he was first elected, and saying how appalling he was.

    And yet, the good (???) citizens of Texas elected him all the same.

    Talk about the common clay of the American West…

  118. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: Probably not. If you were doing a task using a credit card–or an oldtimey long distance calling card–the connection would time out before you completed the validation sequence. (And I know this for a fact because while I was in Korea, my mom complained that she couldn’t call me using a calling card–it would never complete the connection–and I only realized why when I picked up her home phone and listened while the dialing buttons still clicked out the numbers the oldtimey way. And, no, I didn’t realize that system still worked either.)

  119. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Mu Yixiao: I’m iffy on the decline in critical thinking part of the thesis because “critical thinking” has such a loosey-goosey definition. On the other hand, the decline in reading skills (and reading level) has been pretty well documented over a 35 or 40 year span–it was a topic of concern in my education classes in the late 80s, for example, so a connection to decreased critical thinking skills can be inferred.

    The base from which I’ve always made the decline in critical thinking skills arguments I’ve made is that the highest achieving students across the system that I’ve worked in and received the students from tended to be identified as high achieving more because they were good at following instructions exactly than from their ability to innovate and express ideas. But my observations are from relatively small geographical areas and data is STILL not the plural of anecdote, so I can’t generalize. (But if that definition ever shifts, I’m good to go. 😛 )

    ETA: And your last observation is spot on!

    1
  120. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @gVOR08: Kathy had already declared me the winner on another post, but I will graciously step down because Dr. Taylor’s snark was far punchier and more quick minded. Congratulations, Dr. Taylor!

    2
  121. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: People always say it’s hard to get too much field experience, and yet this candidate seems to have accomplished it. 😉

  122. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Jax: “Under this administration, we have witnessed shameless attempts to profit off Joe Biden’s presidency that jeopardize the integrity of the White House,” said Rep. Waltz.

    What. The. FWK?

    Clearly Representative Waltz is in competition with Representative Stefanik for who is the rising-est GQP star. YOW! Bianca Belaire watch out, your position as an “est” is under attack.

    1
  123. Teve says:

    National NAEP reading scores show gradual improvement for decades.

    https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2018/10/08/rising-test-scores-reported-stagnant-test-scores/

  124. Jax says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: I know. I got whiplash from my eyes rolling so hard!