dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
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User ID: 583
The principled defense goes something like this: Arday was an extraordinary person who was overly scrutinized for being black. Sure he embellished his achievements and did some light academic misconduct, but not any more than any other successful white person. If you think he doesn't deserve to be a Cambridge professor you clearly haven't met any other Cambridge professors or are a racist. The scrutiny and hatred directed at him for invading a white space was over the top and led to his discrediting, resignation and suicide. He was just guy dealt a tough hand in life who succeeded despite adversity and it made some racists absolutely crazy.
Rowling on the other hand succeeded despite adversity as well, but then after becoming a famous white billionaire, used her position to punch down against a persecuted minority group. She is justly being attacked but is still alive and a billionaire so you can't even complain.
(btw black Cambridge professors exist but why let that get in the way of a story)
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
19hr ago
I'm sure you're playing dumb on purpose to obfuscate the issue
Thanks for providing the context but this barb is unnecessary.
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
1d ago
I agree the arguments are usually dumb but how about this one: datacenters in general built by the hyperscalers have a good history but modern AI datacenters in particular are built in a hurry with little concern for local pollution or green energy commitments and small municipalities are at risk of being played off each other by level 50 lawyer sharks from trillion dollar corporations. They create few permanent jobs and nobody trusts the promised infrastructure improvements will actually materialize.
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
1d ago
In the Arday context, no one argues he isn’t guilty of the charges. Instead, they claim accurately castigating Arday repeatedly for his crime is a modern day lynching.
Who is "they" here? Like two influencers posting rage bait? Or was there a poll done where 40% of progressives say this was a lynching?
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
1d ago
I spent the last 11 days camping without any Internet access. We engaged in primitive recreation like hiking to secluded hot springs, told stories around a fire and also wrote code without an LLM.
It was kind of hard, in dumb ways. I had to look up how APIs worked and couldn't because all I had were the C++ standard library headers, and those things are not meant for human consumption. I muddled through, but it reminded me of what it was like to program not only without an LLM but also without good online references.
We've come a long way.
Can you ping your online correspondents and ask them why Arday was singled out for lynching while Cambridge has other black professors who seem to have perfectly normal academic careers?
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