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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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My main problem with Wokeism is that it really struggles to answer whether it actually delivers what it promises to. A Buddhist monk, a nun, and an EA (as far as I know) have a good sense of what they're getting into and what they'll get from it. In contrast, the effectiveness of woke policies on actually improving the wellbeing of the disadvantaged (what its adherents actually want) runs the entire gauntlet from effective to counter productive, while cultivating a culture that has no qualms about deliberately misrepresenting the empirics.

You really make the comparison on that? Delivering on promises, compared to religions? "The entire gauntlet from effective to counter-productive" is a hell of a lot more "actually delivering on its promises" than Christianity or Buddhism. I've seen minorities treated better and offered opportunities thanks to "wokeism", but I ain't never seen anyone who went to heaven or broke out of Sansara.

I honestly see where you're coming from, but I personally am willing to carve out some space for supernatural beliefs. I may think the nun is wrong about going to heaven, but I think the Catholic leadership is just as wrong, so I'm satisfied that at least the intentions of all involved are honest. And insofar as non-supernatural aspects of the "deal" are concerned, "hey, want to meditate 10 hours a day and eat beans? You'll feel fulfilled" seems fairly truthful.

In contrast "hey, I found this empirical evidence that reparations probably wouldn't help black people after one or two generations" is met with "thanks for sharing this with me, but it's racist to post this publicly" is nakedly betraying the trust of people who are trying to be altruistic.