That was such a bizarre statement.
1 Like
As opposed to right now, when we⌠donât have enough democratic votes on his economic agenda. Good stuff, Joe.
3 Likes
Youâre upset that he wonât make a meaningless gesture on the filibuster even though that will make it harder to pass the bills that the big brains say are crucial to reelection.
No, I think it is bizarre to say out loud that is his strategy if the reason heâs not pushing filibuster reform now is because heâs afraid it will imperil his economic agenda.
Her factual account seemed pretty well supported and fairly conventional. I think the Belgians went back and forth some, but mainly favored Tutsi, and there were strongmen dating back to the 50s and before who particularly villianized the Tutsi, to one degree or another. However, there were various arrangements and accommodations and quotas, but also for many years marginalized Tutsi were attacking from Uganda or wherever, and propaganda was rampant. I donât know nearly enough to comment in an informed manner, but again her historical claims seemed fairly standard.
The counterfactual about the Belgians exacerbating everything would be harder to prove, and she doesnât seem to mount a detailed argument for it, but Iâm certainly willing to accept the idea. However, people like Modi or Mugabe or Erdogon show that you can have oppression of minorities absent colonialism, and Iâd think colonial regimes would want to encourage relative harmony, but who knows. She didnât dwell on the counterfactual much or really establish any special Belgian role in the genocide, other than perhaps through its racial divide and conquer strategy (but again, it would take a stronger argument to establish that as a necessary condition). The real story that seems to come out of the work is that is you have a 4-5 decade long cold civil war with a lot of propaganda and dehumanization and such, really bad things can happen,
Biden is a corporatist Dem scumbag, but damn if I donât kinda like the guy.
2 Likes
That was an odd combo of back to back posts.
8 Likes
Whatâs the actual reason gas prices are so high? Rs blaming it all on Biden obviously and treating it like the worst thing to ever happen to them. Iâm very much open to it being all Bidenâs fault but I somehow doubt it.
Taxing unrealized capital gains of the super-rich sounds like a good idea.
Pretty much the same as everything else â demand is way up and supply hasnât been able to keep pace.
Based on your report, this seems like an above average thesis. Iâve read a bunch of these, from some absolutely brilliant peopleâeven if the subject matters are the kind of frivolities you are unlikely to respect-- and they are largely terrible. The problem is they take so long, the writing starts early, and you end up being somewhat shoehorned by your early work + paying tuition/needing the Ph.D. to get on with your life so that you canât really go back and do things properly.
Thereâs a reason that most of these things just disappear, they need to be massively reworked to be good enough to be books.
Also, fucking idiots can write good Ph.D. theses sometimes.
Sinema the hero we need it turns out, actually going to force taxes on the billionaires. Now get rid of estate tax loophole nonsense and we can finally be rid of the impediments to the broader tax increases needed.
âThis is pretty sad?â
Come the fuck on, lady. How about âall of your futute generations are fucking dead thanks to one coal mining lobyist fuck in West Virginia who will be rich and die before this affects him in any real way.â
1 Like
Gee Joe, I wonder why?
Maybe its because our world is burning down around us and people have decided that they arent going to spend their last few years toiling away at some shitty dock job in Long Beach only to commute an hour and a half at the end of the day to a shitty hole they are paying 4x too much for, and instead have decided to take every advantage they can possibly find like the rich have been doing for generations?
Butnahhhhhhhh
1 Like
What does this mean? Did Cinema change tunes and is on board with some tax increases?
Donât fucking give me hope
Well, thatâs a tough question. It was solid work for what it was but I donât think it was really at a PhD level or would have allowed her get an academic job, at least not these days. It was good at the reportorial stuff, but it hardly engaged with existing sources or the philosophical issues they raise. To me, it has significant red flags in purporting to draw on, eg, Foucault, without engaging with the strengths and weaknesses of whatever framework she draws on. I went to grad school in philosophy (bailed out for law school) and her thesis wouldnât have passed muster, but then again itâs a different sort of thing than would be expected in philosophy.
After writing my summary I came along one of the few places where her thesis is discussed by someone with competence in this area, this is the review: Kyrsten Sinema. Who Must Die in Rwandaâs Genocide? The State of Exception Realized. London: Lexington Books, 2015. xv + 176 pp. Appendices. Bibliography. $95.00. Cloth. ISBN: 978-1498518642. | African Studies Review | Cambridge Core
Hereâs a quote:
In a book targeted to a general readership [itâs a fricking dissertaion, that was then printed as a book, Who Must Die in Rwanda's Genocide?: The State of Exception Realized - 9781498518666] wondering how such a thing could have happened, Sinema uses five chapters examining one hundred years of political history to argue that the state of exception âcreates an atmosphere wherein a sovereign (government) strips its citizens of their sociopolitical beingâ so they are no longer people, but instead simply âa threat to the existing power structure,â whereby elimination of a portion of the citizenry through genocide becomes a logical, not merely plausible, solution (132â33). However, the book misses an opportunity to advance our understanding about how the genocide occurred, or to retheorize governance and the state of exception in Rwanda or African states more widely, for two reasons. Sinema neglected to engage with the extensive scholarship within and outside of Rwanda on sovereignty, necropolitics, bare life, and the genocide that have been produced over the past twenty-five years [this would make it nonviable as a dissertation imo], and she did not acknowledge how the one-sided perspective of the sources she usesâofficial documents from state-sanctioned archives managed by a regime that is notorious for control and dissemination of an official narrative, and harsh punishment of dissentâled her to fit facts into a preexisting script.
Iâd say it was quite good for a âhobbyâ dissertation, but not up to snuff if one were leaving a grad program hoping to go on the academic job market (which, to be fair, is brutal). With regard to Sinema, it showed a basic level of diligence and competence but did not exhibit any particular intellectual virtue. Itâs the kind of thesis one with the will but not the talent to run a marathon would write.
1 Like
This is academia, really. Some of the most brilliant people in the world go through the process, and they make it look good, but really if you just put your head down and grind, theyâre giving you the degree. And some of these people who survive on hard work have good social skills end up getting jobs.
Thatâs not to say you wonât get pushback, but you just try to do what your advisers ask, go through the motions, and youâre going to get the degree. Sure, a lot of people couldnât do this, but I donât think the bar is that high. Almost everyone posting here could get a Ph.D. and of course many have.
Edit: That last line sounds like a super insult but I did not mean it that way.
1 Like