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PaperclipPerfector  20d ago (text post)   32840 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025

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Let's say you're stuck on a deserted island with a small group and the only one of you who knows anything at all about food preparation is Sylvester Graham.

First of all: lmao. I did not know the connection from Graham (crackers) to the rest of the cereal craze. Kellogg's Cereal Cure All Dietary Sanitorium was built on the pillars of greatness. Bedeviled spices be damned.

"Graham believed that adhering to such diet would prevent people from having impure thoughts and in turn would stop masturbation,"

I will think of Graham when I seasonally sully his crackers with delicious, sweetened cream cheese filling and fruit.

In the case of the Academy, its defenders would have to make the case that America's economic prosperity is dependent on its activities... e.g. capricious defunding of federal grants leads to a mass exodus of scientists to Europe, causing the collapse of the American phamaceutical, chemical, energy, etc. industries

Some areas can make the case better than others. Regardless, I don't believe this admin is committed to a root-and-stem method that leads to a mass exodus or a system collapse. It continues towards a (somehow) calculated oversight. The verdict is out for me as to whether they'll do a good (or any sort of lasting) job for the R&D parts. Social sciences, which I was thinking of, is another matter and mostly outside of the administration's reach for what they've shown.

If I'm picking up what you're laying down, then I'll say that "willing, interested, and put in the effort" is intrinsically valuable. Knowledge Producers do produce things I won't, can't, or don't want to. They do so as a privilege that society bestowed on them, sure. Is can't/won't/don't-want-to a skill issue? Also, yes. Some amateur historians do great work without institutional support. I bet there's a number of hobbyist anthropologists I find more interesting than esteemed academics in the field pushing the ideological laden theory of the day. I am no utilitybot. I don't want to kill all men who wear glasses. We can afford to pursue and enjoy things other than maximizing our chances to go to Mars. All men have a desire to know, and that's good. Knowledge Production is good. It can be boring, uninteresting, or stuffy, but it shouldn't be in a position to be scorned generally.

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