LC Thread 2020: What the PUNK? ROCK.

So the Shapiros had in vitro twice?

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Jesus, this looks bad.

https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1298684173666996224?s=21

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Still more qualified than Devos to run our national education agenda.

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Those aren’t the worst questions I’ve ever heard. And it’s a common failure of math instruction to not provide answers to questions about why any of this matters on day 1 or 2. There are good answers to these questions!

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Hey, that’s not how the internet works. You’re supposed to gather in a group around something and deride it endlessly to reinforce your group bond.

Are you from, like, the 1980s?

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Science of Politics podcast on “How the Plutocrats Win from the Populist Right” with the authors of Winner Take All Politics and Let Them Eat Tweets. This is for people interested in a more rigorous framework for understanding politics than junior league marxism or Bernie bro platitudes. How the Plutocrats Win from the Populist Right - The Science of Politics

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Jesus Christ you’re snobby and arrogant.

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Bernie bro platitudes…wat

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And wtf with all the damn podcasts? How about a book, genius?

Fair enough, but give it a listen or buy the books. It will expand your horizons.

I guess I could have included “empty headed anarchism” as well.

Man so glad we had a lot of people defend this guy as a good poster earlier.

Authoritarian liberals suck too.

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As far as I can remember he never used to be as conceited as this. :frowning:

Maybe he’s going through a bad patch and this is how arrogant lawyers react?

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Sometimes when you make someone out to be the bad guy, rather than face it down, they just embrace it.

image

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Ok, I have no idea whether this is real or parody.

I don’t remember how exactly I found it, but I came across this short series of YouTube videos outlining the case for imaginary numbers and some of their history, including that of some of the rest of math. I enjoyed its style quite a bit:

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I understand what she’s trying to say.

She also thinks that history isn’t real.

https://www.tiktok.com/@gracie.ham/video/6865389865614232838

Could barely get through that but this was a common theme among the students I used to tutor in math.

I like how she claims math isn’t real and then “proves” math with a simple example of apples just a few seconds later. In a real literal sense math ISN’T real, it’s just a tool to describe our universe. So maybe she’s actually close to a deeper concept that there’s no way she could articulate without sounding like an idiot.

But a larger topic is this, in my opinion - we don’t really need math in our day to day lives. At least, the average person doesn’t really. We have designed tools to do all of our thinking for us. So in that sense, I get it. I mean I am a perfect example. I studied math for CS and fucked up a really elementary number theory concept in another thread. Because I dont use that stuff nor do I need it at all.

However, I am also aware none of our modern lives exists at all without math. I used to tell my students - “smart people know math. Wouldn’t you like to be considered smart?” which wasn’t the strongest argument but appealing to people’s egos worked sometimes.

That all said we haven’t even dove into the age old argument of abstract mathematics vs applied. There can be strong arguments for the uselessness of abstract math.

:open_mouth:

No way. We don’t need specific formulas, if that’s what you mean. But the point of math class is to learn mathematical thinking, which is absolutely essential in the modern world. Mathematical thinking includes critical thinking, understanding statistics, formal and informal logic, simple mental math like comparing prices across various weights in the grocery store, how compound interest works and why that matters for investing and debt, how to balance a budget, etc, etc, etc.

Math is hella important even for dumb people!

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Well apparently you can become president without having one critical thought in your entire life. Yea, critical thinking is important and the deterioration of it is a huge reason we are in the position we are today. But I don’t think math is the sole tool to teach it.