Leaderboard

Well, I have been off work and isolating since recently contracting COVID. I've had my vaccinations but have still been quite ill (feeling a bit better now). Apparently I have contracted the Delta variant which is the one that is keeping the infected rates high where I live. Anyhow this has given me the opportunity to watch more blogs, lectures, debates involving Jordan Peterson. I have concluded, in my own opinion that in general, he has some valid ideas formed and grounded from well researched scientific data. I appreciate that in his field of psychology interpretation plays a big factor in many studies. However, I haven't seen any evidence of bias born from any personal desire or gain. He (appears) from what I have seen to be sitting pretty much centre field and if does lean towards any particular side its certainly far from either extreme. In fact he is very adamant that both sides are required and a balance and unity should be maintained, that the extremes on both sides are damaging to society. Thus far I'd have to agree with this view and would cite myself to a similar stance. I do however disagree with some of the terms and language he uses, I think some of this though maybe unintended, promotes misunderstanding and mis-interpretation and actually fuels the ongoing backlash against him. I also don't necessarily agree with all his ideas or policies, some are overly paranoid and/or a bit dramatic and don't sit true for all people. Maybe this is the approach he adopts in an attempt to get people to notice, I can't comment on that. In summary: I think he is a very intelligent person who is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about his speciality in phycology. I think he is passionate about things that sit outside his field of expertise, but I don't see him claiming to have all the answers or stating they are all strictly true. He has some good (in my opinion) ideas and I believe that he, in general, wants to make society better and believes his ideas, if adopted by most, would help to do this. I can't comment whether or not this would be the case, but I think most of the ideas he has proposed, would make some steps towards improvements. I don't believe is is racist, transphobic, sexist or any other of the bigoted terms used to characterise him. I think these are just used as decoys to misdirect people. So I think (my opinion) this is rather unfair. Conclusion: Like him, hate him, be indifferent, agree or disagree... I believe the world needs people like JP in the public eye, to shake thinks up and make people at least stop and think about things, help them consider their own lives, ideas, actions... rather than blindly following or burying their heads.

In a sense that's what's happening, owing to the expansion - it becomes redder, meaning it has less energy. But if you mean can it lose energy via some interaction with matter, that's scattering, which tends to change the direction of the light. By virtue of the light getting to us, without being smeared out, we know it hasn't done that. Specific refutations would require the models to be presented, so one could compare predictions with data. A detailed model would be able to predict how the redshift would occur and quantify the effects. People have proposed tired light models, and they don't fit with the evidence http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/tiredlit.htm

Which is completely off-topic. If someone wants to know how to fix an LP record player, it's meaningless to point out how CDs work differently. Don't you think it's safe to assume the OP is looking at that "bare" HD platter? I don't think its existence is in question.

Completely agree. Nice post, overall. We need MORE debate and pushback on ideas, not less. Sadly, when said pushback and criticism comes, it's too often cast aside and dismissed as over-sensitive cancel culture. Those buzzwords like "cancel culture" are, in fact, being consistently themselves used to cancel cultural conversations. Thought for food...

The far right with their simple scapegoats and caricatured versions of freedom are certainly on the rise everywhere, and this is quite common historically during times of economic stress and public health issues like pandemics. Basically, this is all very shocking and sad, but hardly surprising.

This is a big question. It’s in the US Congress especially the House, but more so it’s something tens of millions of voters seem to actually want and desire… though they’d never admit and maybe even aren’t self-aware enough to acknowledge this is how they feel. It’s coming through with how they vote, and how they support specific candidates with these tendencies, and how they attack anyone who votes differently than them online and IRL… complete with making death threats to those who voted to improve infrastructure. It’s happening at school board meetings and in neighborhoods and on apps like Nextdoor where neighbors are supposed to be posting about lemonade stands and selling raffle tickets. We see it in voting restrictions across the states and in the way they’re redrawing voting maps with redistricting and gerrymandering at the heart. We see it more formally in statehouses, yes, and in local legislatures, but these authoritarian / strong man / “be damned with the law so long as we have more power than the other team” mindsets are everywhere and spreading. It’s hard to summarize my point in a simple post, but I keep thinking how Hitler came to office via popular election, too. People voted for him, and the US feels more and more like that, too.

One could take the cynical view that he has found how to make large amounts of money by being controversial. Or you might think that the Canadian Government is too controlling of people's lives. In Canada ( Ontario ) we are required to show a double ( approved ) vaccination passport to dine in restaurants, attend sporting events/concerts, or have a drink in a bar. If I cross into the US and stay longer than 72 hrs, I am required to get tested before entering the US, and again within 72 hrs of re-entry into Canada ( at my own expense for a PCR test ) even if doubly vaccinated, and having had Covid. Things like this would undoubtedly lead to gun shootouts in the US, wouldn't they ? I myself think the Government has every right to be controlling in public health matters, where your illness could affect many others who are unknowingly exposed to you. The Government has every right to control what you DO. They have no right to control what you THINK. And should control what you SAY, only in cases where it can directly affect public health/safety. In case I wasn't clear, I don't agree with his 'politics' on vaccinations/public health measures.

It’s a matter of precision and accurate framing. We don’t “have evidence to support” that death is the end. It’s the most likely valid explanation, site, but we don’t have evidence FOR it so much as we absolutely lack ANY evidence whatsoever despite thousands of years of seeking that death is NOT the end… that ANYTHING at all happens or persists in any meaningful way once our biological functions cease. Perhaps a bit pedantic, but is more precise. Similarly, we don’t have evidence that flying unicorns don’t exist, we just lack evidence that they really do exist in anything more than fantasy books and children's imaginations.

You: we've found a Witch, may we burn her? Me: how do you know she's a witch. You: she looks like one... she's got a wort...