What Ashlee is Reading

One of postmodernism's defining characteristics is deconstruction - dismantling everything. This was eventually a self-destructive tendency and it burned itself out around the 1980s. However, several offshoots of postmodernism took the principles and ideas of postmodernism and gave them  a practical aim, a goal, made them actionable. This enabled the Theory of postmodernism to live on, and also enabled it to break out of the bounds of academia and into the real world and the culture war we experience today.  Several varieties of Theory became prevalent, and they will each receive their own focal chapter: postcolonialism, black feminism, intersectional feminism, critical race Theory, and queer Theory. These various branches took the principles and themes of postmodernism that were discussed in the previous chapter to varying degrees, so they won't all look the same, have the same goals, or be applied in the same way, but they will all exhibit characteristics of postmodernism. T...

 I recently started to listen a Joe Rogan podcast here and there, for reasons that are probably obvious. One of the episodes I listened to was with James Lindsay. I thought some of his ideas and arguments were really interesting and I wanted to learn more about them, so I looked up this book of his, coauthored with Helen Pluckrose.  The intro acknowl edges that the culture war is divisive, pushing the left further left and the right further right. This book, while no excusing any of the craziness on the right, will focus on the craziness of the left. The reason given is that the left used to be associated, rightly, with the word 'liberal', " open to new ideas, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; not bound by traditional thinking; broad-minded. synonym: broad-minded." With cancel culture and the vitriol for anyone who questions any part of the latest gender ideology, it's not hard to see how they have forgotten their roots. The authors' argument...

 Chapter XX Do Unions Really Raise Wages? "Wages are basically determined by labor productivity." In other words, wages are simply another manifestation of the law of supply and demand. Employers demand productive employees. The supply can fluctuate, but employers must either pay competitive wages or put up with sub par employees while their competitors get better, more efficient employees.  "Emotional economics has given birth to theories that calm examination cannot justify. One of these is the idea that labor is being "underpaid" generally . This would be analogous to the notion that in a free market prices in general are chronically too low." I loved this quote for the phrase, 'emotional economics' which I do recognize as a problem all too often.  Hazlitt offers an example as to why unions don't raise real wages. He gives several groups, and assumes they all unions, to different levels of effectiveness. One group succeeds in raising their w...