[FRIAM] anthropological observations
Prof David West
profwest at fastmail.fm
Tue Apr 14 12:56:00 EDT 2020
Glen,
You are correct, especially when I used all caps to shout my assertion. My only excuse is that I was writing to a specific audience who I do not expect to take me all that seriously.
Also, a bit of habit. When I stood in front of the classroom for the first time and introduced myself to the class I would tell them, "Everything I say is absolute gospel truth asserted by god!" Then I would smile and tell them that most of them knew a lot more than me, but it was up to them to either challenge me and have some great discussions where I would learn something, or be a mute sheep. Being intentionally provocative worked very well, but I was teaching in a software program where requirements for admission included 3+ years of professional software development experience. Had some lively class discussions, and I learned far more than I taught.
davew
On Tue, Apr 14, 2020, at 11:48 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:
> Excellent! Thanks for that qualifier. A remaining question is: When you
> state your CONCLUSION without a subjective qualifier, the audience is
> supposed to implicitly *hear* a qualifier. But when someone on MSNBC
> states their conclusions without the qualifer, you hear *authoritarian*
> assertions.
>
> Why should your audience have to insert the qualifier themselves, but
> *you* don't have to insert the qualifier when listening to others? That
> may be unclear. Why do you hear scientists' assertions as
> authoritarian, but expect the scientists to hear your assertions as
> lil-ole-me opinions?
>
> I.e. why are their qualifier-less expressions any different from your
> qualifier-less expressions?
>
> I suppose you could make the argument that your platform is much
> smaller than theirs. So, nobody could mistake what you say for
> authoritarian. But I'd argue that your email address and name "Prof
> David West" make explicit leverage of the authority that comes along
> with professorship, much like Dr. Oz explicitly leverages the authority
> of the "Dr" prefix. To boot, implicitly, the jargonal language you use
> (e.g. "ethnographic research mode") lends a hint of "I'm an expert
> because I can use these words". With no qualifiers like "my attempts at
> ethnographic research", which could be emphasized with further
> qualifiers like "my layman's attempts at ..." or whatever, it would be
> easy for me to *fear* you and those who talk like you.
>
> I don't fear you, because you seem like a nice person. But I do fear
> those who might read your authoritative words and uncritically believe
> them.
>
> On 4/14/20 9:11 AM, Prof David West wrote:
> > It was not my intent to make any assertions, or claims. merely to offer completely subjective observations - "anecdotal data" as it were. Yes, there is a not-so-subliminal editorial slant behind the observations. But that slant is pretty obvious and quite familiar to those on the list:
> >
> > - I do not trust, and actually fear, government, especially the Federal Government
> > - I believe the danger of a 'dictatorship-of-the left' to be far greater than from the right, and that the clown in office is a trivial to non-existent threat.
> > - nothing posted, tweeted, published, aired — regardless of source — can be accepted at face value but must be deconstructed (including "scientific" material)
> > I have no expertise,, certainly no authority, but do fancy an aptitude for careful observation that may or may not be of value to anyone.
>
>
> --
> ☣ uǝlƃ
>
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