Various web links I found to be of interest recently.
There's a good reason for this: psychology, as a discipline, is a house made of sand, based on analyzing inherently fickle human behavior, held together with poorly-defined concepts, and explored with often scant methodological rigor. Indeed, there's a strong case to be made that psychology is barely a science.
This liberal philosopher predicted Trump's rise in 1998 - and he has another warning for the left.
He sees the American left as split into two camps: the reformist
left and the cultural left. The reformist left dominates from 1900
until it is supplanted by the cultural left in the mid-1960s. The
division has more to do with tactics than it does principles, but
those tactical differences, for Rorty at least, carried enormous
consequences.
...
Rorty admired the reformist left both because they were effective
and because they understood that the key dividing line between the
left the right in this country was about whether the state has a
responsibility to ensure a moral and socially desirable distribution
of wealth. The right rejected this proposition, the left embraced it.
...
The focus of leftist politics changed in the 1960s. For Rorty,
the left ceased to be political and instead became a cultural
movement. The prevailing view was that it was no longer possible
to promote equality and social justice within the system.
Despite the impulse to view the statement by the actress Catherine Deneuve and others as some innately French point of view, this isn't a straightforward case of cultural difference.
There are reasonable criticisms to be made of the reckoning, as it's come to be called, but Deneuve and Millet and their co-signers distort them. Bothering women in an unwanted way isn't an expression of artistic temperament, without which the world would lose its magic. It's often a by-product of a man's (possibly very good) work making him think that he is invincible and owed. The hundred women's admiration for a certain kind of man inhibits their empathy for his victims. Their stance is all the sadder in that it reveals a diminution of the same human quality that kindles the sexual energy they're so keen not to see snuffed out. The failure to grasp that a woman-another woman with a different history, different values, a different set of likes and dislikes, attractions and repulsions-could grieve a trespass upon her body is really a failure of the imagination.
What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves.
Among other things, Stephens-Davidowitz's data suggests that there are more gay men in the closet than we think; that many men prefer overweight women to skinny women but are afraid to act on it; that married women are disproportionately worried their husband is gay; that a lot of straight women watch lesbian porn; and that porn featuring violence against women is more popular among women than men.
Joe Frank, known for his unique and innovative radio monologues and stories, died Monday (01/15/2018). He was 79. Joe Frank – Tributes List.