Dr. Feser defines "woke" out of existence, part 2

In a not-so-recent post on his blog, Dr. Feser attempted to define the term "woke".  I discussed the first part of the post earlier, so now I'll move on.  As before, I will use "woke" in quotes when talking about how right-wingers use the term, and remove the quotes when using the term as I would.

Feser goes to list characteristics of his claimed "woke" mindset that are indicative of some psychological disorders (later identified as "depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders", still later referred to as "delusional paranoia", and compared to the full-blown schizophrenia of John Nash).  He has assembled quite a list of traits.  Amusingly, he succumbs to every item he accuses the "woke" of.

• emotional reasoning, or letting our feelings determine how we interpret reality rather than letting reality determine whether our feelings are the appropriate ones; -- Feser has a strong emotional reaction to depictions of homosexual or trans people, to the degree he can't stand having children exposed to the concepts, much less studying them
• catastrophizing, or focusing obsessively on the imagined worst possible outcome rather than on what the evidence shows are more likely outcomes; -- I really don't have to look further than identifying the mindset of "woke" people as "delusional paranoia", but I can do even better, such as when he refers to protestors as "tyrants" because they resist being tear-gassed, pull down statues dedicated for countering civil rights, feel free to protest vocally, and criticize people on the internet 
• overgeneralizing, or jumping to sweeping conclusions on the basis of one or a few incidents; I didn't find an example here, but neither did Feser describe "woke" people of suffering from this.
• dichotomous thinking, or seeing things in either-or terms when a more sober analysis would reveal more possibilities; Feser, when disagreeing with the existence of microaggressions, offers an either-or explanation when the reality is the effects combine (see part 1 for slightly more detail)
• mind reading, or jumping to conclusions about what other people are thinking; Feser's entire post is an exercise in mind-reading, and he misses the mark widely
• labeling, or slapping a simplistic description on some person or phenomenon that papers over its complexity; Feser's use of the term "woke"
• negative filtering and discounting positives, or looking only for confirming evidence for some pessimistic assumption while denying or downplaying confirming evidence that things are not in fact so bad; Feser's ignoring decades of research on racism is due to negative filtering
• blaming, or focusing on others as the sources of one’s negative feelings rather than taking responsibility for them oneself.  Feser projects his own negative feelings onto the "woke"

To paraphrase Feser, looking at the world through his ideas about "woke" leads him to be blind to oppression and injustice even where they do exist, to feel strongly aggrieved at the woke who point out this oppression and injustice, and then to treat the narrative of grievance that results as if it were confirming evidence of the unreality of the very real oppression and injustice.  It distorts his reality.

In the next paragraph, he refers to the confidence of the woke (not surprising given the decades of studies), but also refers to their supposed tendency to attack critics, apparently not realizing that Feser and his ilk are doing the attacking.  When you deny the reality of the trans existence or deny the daily, lived experience of another as some sort of delusion, that is an attack on a fundamental part of someone's identity, a part that they already suffer oppression from. 

Ironically, Feser opines:  Hence it would, for example, be unjust for a government to protect the lives, liberties, and property rights of citizens of one race while not doing the same for citizens of other races.  This would be a clear case of an unjust inequity.  Again, Feser ignores decades of studies that citizens of different races do not receive equitable protection of their life, liberty, and property.

Again, Feser opines:  What I am calling hyper-egalitarian is the tendency to suspect all inequalities of being per se unjust – for example, to suppose that if 10% of the population of a country is of a certain race yet less than 10% of the stockbrokers in that country are of that race, this amounts to a “racist” inequity that cannot be given an innocent explanation and must somehow be eliminated by governmental policy.  Feser does not present an alternative explanation, for example, that Hispanic people are over 12% of the population but less than 6% of stockbrokers.  With over 43,000 stockbrokers, The probability of this being due to random chance is effectively zero.  Feser needs to offer an explanation not rooted in racism to make his point effectively. 

To paraphrase Feser again, I am not saying that Feser is as insane as the John Nash.  Nor is Feser even as shrill as commentariat.  Like other forms of delusional paranoia, denial of oppression comes in degrees.  But if you think that views like Critical Race Theory, Gender Theory, etc. are so obviously wrong that no decent and well-informed person could possibly support them, and find it at least difficult calmly and rationally to engage with anyone who thinks otherwise, you in denial.  And precisely because you find it difficult calmly and rationally to entertain the possibility that you are part of the problem, your attitude is paradigmatically irrational.
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ALS Update: I aspirate and I drop things

I will be updating my decline every month or so, towards the end of the month (here, my timing is prompted by a doctor's appointment the day after tomorrow).  I have the results of a test to discuss, something formerly rare but currently commonplace to discuss, and a couple of new things.  To get the usual concerns out of the way:  I have no new falls to report, I am still taking care of my basic needs, I still eat a large amount of food, and I am maintaining my raw strength, as far as I can tell, though my coordination is declining.

First off, I took a swallow test with a barium solution.  They found that I am getting some of what I swallow in my lungs.  It varied with the consistency of the mix (thinner is worse), volume (more is worse), and chin position (lower is worse).  The main risk is getting pneumonia.  I have been offered a gastric tube, but don't plan on getting one yet.  However, I am planning on taking other measures.  I have a medications that needs to be taken in a cup of water twice a day, so I gave that some thought.  I have a few cups that allow me to restrict the flow of the liquids into my mouth, and I'm using them to keep a limited flow (reducing the volume), with the added benefit I can keep my chin up while drinking.  I have a few cups like this everywhere I tend to drink.  They also detected degeneration in my C6-C7 spinal disk, but I'm not in pain and I'll be happy to live long enough that it becomes a problem.

I've been dropping things occasionally for years, a couple of time a year.  It might have been a plate of food or a book.  Now, I drop things a few times a day.  I take six pills in the evening, and more often than not I'll drop one of them while getting them out of the bottle.  I drop forks, game tokens, anything light and small.  I haven't been dropping heavier items, except once a glass mixing bowl full of brownie batter, shattering a lasagna pan under it (that was a bad morning), so I'm pretty sure this is coordination and not strength.

I drool heavily.  My neurologist in Illinois has prescribed a suppressant (atropine, a common ingredient in eye drops), where I am supposed to put one drop under my tongue. If I put two drops in, that will slow down my saliva to the point I can keep it in my mouth most of the time.  I use it when in class or on game days. I also wear a mask when cooking or baking, which send the drool down my neck nstead of dripping off my chin.

I have a pair of sandals with no heel strap, designed for beaches, waterparks, etc.  I like to wear them at home when I'm not planning on going out much.  Lately, this past week-end especially, I'm noticing that the lack of a heel strap means my foot will not always come down squarely on the heel, particularly when I'm walking a little sideways.  This has caused me to stumble (but not fall) a couple of times.  I might to get a pair with heel straps.

That's all I have for now.  Feel free to ask questions to get more details, if you want.
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Dr. Feser defines "woke" out of existence, part 1

In a not-so-recent post on his blog, Dr. Feser attempted to define the term "woke".  Unsurprisingly, he made several mischaracterizations, of which I will address a few.

We can begin in the very first sentence:  A common talking point among the woke is the claim that “woke” is just a term of abuse that has no clear meaning.  The correction would be:  “Woke” is just a term of abuse among right-wing commentators that has no clear meaning, but refers to any policies/facts/lesson plans about minorities that they don't like.  Feser proves the latter to be true in his attempt to defend the former.

I will use "woke" in quotes when talking about how right-wingers use the term, and remove the quotes when using the term as I would, which would be something like:  recognition that there are many ways, some not obvious, that oppression can manifest itself.  

It would be unfair to not include his definition:  "Wokeness" is a paranoid delusional hyper-egalitarian mindset that tends to see oppression and injustice where they do not exist or greatly to exaggerate them where they do exist. By this definition, no straight, while, cis, etc., male (such as me) can be "woke" because, regardless of how much we agree that society is fundamentally racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc., it favors me.  Feser would consider me pronoid instead, meaning I can't be "woke".  It's  a measure of Feser's privilege that he seems to think everyone who shares some common characteristics with him must agree with him.

Next, he gives  several examples of "wokeness", all of which are laughable. 

• Characterizing as racist “microaggressions” behaviors that in fact are either perfectly innocuous or at worst just ordinary rudeness; -- people exhibit much more "ordinary rudeness" to those they consider (perhaps subconsciously) of a lower social status, and in particular toward black people.  It's both day-to-day rudeness and racism working in tandem.
• condemning some economic outcome as a racist “inequity” despite there being no empirical evidence whatsoever that it is due to racism; -- to offer one example, racism dictates and has dictated where we live, with all the differences that creates in the ability to generate wealth through home ownership, environmental pollution, educational quality, availability of good food, etc.  where we live affects every facet of our life, hence, racism does by this facet alone.
• condemning as “transphobic” recognition of the commonsense and scientific fact that sex is binary; -- any time Feser can't justify a position, he calls it "common sense" as he does here, when the scientific fact is that there are multiple ways to specify sex, and any combination can be present in any individual; however, Feser seems confused by multi-factored analysis (as can be seen in his linear notion of causation, e.g., his hand-stick-stone argument for a first cause, when causes are more like lattices).
• condemning as “racist” the view that public policy should be color-blind and that racial discrimination is wrong whatever the race of the persons being discriminated against; -- Feser seems unaware that this claim is used by people who want to engage in de facto racism while maintaining de jure equality.
• condemning as “antigay” the view that it is not appropriate for grade schools to address matters of sexuality in the classroom without parental consent; -- matters of heterosexuality are discussed all the time in grade school classrooms, and Feser would eagerly join any protest if all depictions of heterosexual couples were banned, but he chooses not to be honest about others expecting equal treatment.

Feser does not adress address the scholarship behind these concepts.  By failing to do so, he renders his attacks on the people who know the scholaship irrelevant, and those who acknowledge the scholarly consensus are neither delusional nor paranoid.  Feser's definition of "wokeness" has no greater correspondence to reality than the definition of a jackalope; his definition of "wokeness" has no existence.

Feser nevertheless goes on to slur "wokeness" for a couple of paragraphs.  He touts two books, one his, one by two other conservatives, none of whom are trained in the study of sociology.  I guess when conservative lawyers pass for experts on evolution or climate change, this is right in line with the trust conservatives place in ignorance of the topic at hand.

I think this is a good stopping point.  In part 2, we'll see how Feser accuses the "woke" of several habits of poor thought, but succumbs to everyone one of them, a case of the pot accusing the table of being soot-stained.
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I have ALS

 My family, workmates, and board-gaming associates all know I have ALS (more specifically bulbar-onset ALS), so it is about time I announced it on here.  There are a couple of people who have asked about my status (and more who probably want to know), so I'll use this blog as a way of checking in every month or so.

I remember the evening of my first symptom.  It was just shy of a year ago, on 2022-NOV-16, a fine Wednesday evening.  I was teaching a calculus class, and tripped over the word "statistics", for what I thought was no particular reason at the time.  By Christmas, even though I was still fully intelligible, it was obvious something was going on.  As ALS usually goes, I have gotten progressively worse over the year.

If you ask how I’m doing emotionally, that changes day-to-day.  I flit between four of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, depression, and acceptance; somehow, I never seem to be bargaining), sometimes going through multiple in a single day, sometimes fixated on one for a single event.  My father’s only remaining sibling recently died, and I could not summon words of compassion or condolence for him, because every time I tried, I would get depressed about my own mortality.  My wife and children are firmly convinced I’m going to beat the odds and live into my 70s, and when I’m with them I believe it too.  I have always kept my anger on a leash, but lately I need to express more (through dark humor or sometimes just punching something).  Then, I have days where life is pleasant and death is seen as an inevitable, but comfortable state.

Physically, my tongue, lips, and cheeks are all slowly responding less to my will.  I have two neurologists (one at an Illinois hospital and one where I work).  The Illinois neurologist has given me plenty of encouragement, but I think he thinks I’m more disabled than I am.  The last visit he was talking about taking small bites when I eat, which I am not ready to do yet.  It is partly pride, partly the satisfaction that I have always felt with taking large bites, and partly to stop from biting my cheeks (the left or the right, often neither, never both).  He is worried about my choking, but I’ve never choked on food yet.  I have choked twice on a soft-gel pill that got caught in my epiglottis, but was able to expel them.  No more soft-gels for me!  I’ve also choked on my own mucus a couple of times (another thing to thank my allergies for).  But, while I sometimes cough from my food (small, loose pieces like vegetables are especially troublesome), bite my cheek horrendously trying to chew it, and struggle to position it in between my teeth, I don’t choke.

As for the rest of me, I feel a strangeness in my arms, especially the triceps.  I am clumsier that I was, but I don’t think I have lost more strength than is normal for a man of 61.  I have fallen once (I tripped over an ottoman on Oct. 14, a fall I would not have taken a year earlier).  I cry rivers at the slightest sentimental thing, even when I’ve seen the show times before and know what’s coming (never at just random stuff, but I didn’t cry at the show the first four times I saw it; the doctors say random crying/laughing is another symptom, but this seems an edge case).  I rarely stop salivating.  

On the other hand, I still can cook, drive, address my own hygiene, lift things if I take my time and get good balance, chew through any food that gets between my teeth, etc.  After almost a year, I think I’m behind the usual progression, which is a good thing.

I’m on two medications, and relatively old, generic one called riluzole, and brand-new Relyvrio.  The first is covered by my insurance and, on the mean, increases life expectancy by about a month.  The second is not covered by my insurance and costs a few hundred every week, and increases life expectancy six whole months.  Fortunately, the drug company has enrolled me in a program where I get it free.

I have an appointment later this month where I should get the results of my genetic testing.  I don’t want to have to tell my brothers or sons that they might suffer this too, but I think it’s better to know.  I’m seeing more doctors and other specialists, taking more tests, etc., than I know what to do with.

Well, that's enough for this post. I’ll try to keep this updated every month or so.
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