Elon Musk, Wokeness, and the Myth of Meritocracy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ม.ค. 2025
- How Tony Stark, the myth of meritocracy, and our unspoken beliefs about genius explain Elon Musk and the (re)turn of eugenics to the right wing
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Bibliography and Further Reading
Interview with Stan Lee where he talks about the creation of Iron Man: screenrant.com...
How Albert Einstein was no "lone genius": www.nature.com...
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn, 1962
How many filaments Edison tried in creating the lightbulb: uncommoncontent...
Talented and Gifted programs and their legacy of Eugenics: rethinkingscho...
On the creation of the IQ Test: • The dark history of IQ...
Alfred Binet thought intellegence couldn't be reduced to a number: www.verywellmi... while Lewis Terman disagreed: stanfordmag.or...
Terman study subjects results more about socioeconomic status than intelligence: www.psychology... and the high performers and low performers had about the same IQ: www.nytimes.co...
The Bell Curve is based on junk, fraudulent "science": • The Bell Curve
What Intelligence Tests Miss, Keith E. Stanovich, 2009
On "Gifted Kig Syndrome": thehowleronlin...
Local education systems are funded by property taxes: www.npr.org/20...
DeSantis campaign says "woke" is awareness of systemic injustice: www.motherjone...
Someone working 40 hours a week at minimum wage is still below the poverty line: www.cnn.com/fa...
Why DEI was created: www.americanpr...
Study where resumes were sent out with stereotypically black and white names and their results: www.politifact...
On the long, toxic history of "Cultural Marxism": www.nytimes.co...
Cultural Marxism and the "vast, Jewish conspiracy": www.dailydot.c...
The "Hyperloop" is an idea that can never work: bigthink.com/s... and was just a ploy to disrupt the development of trains in California: time.com/62038...
Wired story from 2018 about Musk mistreating his employees: www.wired.com/...
Some More News on Musk: • Elon Musk Is Not Your ...
Tesla cars fall apart in motion: www.reuters.co...
Tesla cars suspected of turning off self-driving moments before a crash: futurism.com/t...
Musk not interested in labor laws or regulations: apnews.com/art...
More on Musk mistreating employees: www.latimes.co...
Musk spreading lies on Twitter: futurism.com/e...
Musk antisemitic tweets: www.theguardia...
Musk racist tweets about asylum-seekers: www.rollingsto...
Musk the eugenicist: disconnect.blo...
"Scientific change is a group effort"
❤
That’s why everyone gets a Nobel prize.
@@GEB-yy3ud Since when current state of the world passes for what is just and proper. I mean if you lived during a gulag system times in USSR time "people who want to challenge current ideology go to gulags" would this be enough of a reason that they should go there for that? Both of those are, after all, rules of a system that some person/people decided on.
When I was younger, I always thought the most ridiculous part of superheroes like Batman and Tony Stark was that they never actually fixed anything. Now I realize it stood out because it's the most honest characterisation in all of comic books.
Billionares and demigods absolutely _would_ (and often do) neglect managing their unrealistically large business and vast fortune personally to enact good in favor of sinking millions into a fancy state of the art boondoggle that lets them personally punch badguys in the face. It's only odd because usually, comics are more hopeful than that.
except the stories venerate them, not critique them.
My favorite rhetorical device against meritocracy is to point out that those who defend meritocracy as a desirable state of affairs should necessarily oppose intergenerational wealth. One cannot have a meritocracy while people earn things based on the families they were born in, i.e. without merit.
But those before that person possibly used their intellect to gain that wealth. It's up to them to decide what to do with it even if it's leaving it to their dumb ass kids. You can't just say "well your parents are dead kid, we own your house now".
@@evilnick2885 Then meritocracy only exists for the first generation with an even playing field, which actually never existed.
@ but that doesnt matter. they used their merrit to earn what they earned at some point and its up to them to decide what to do with their earnings. what would you have done with it. all get taken away and given to the government...... yeah that seems legit. to me this entire video sounds like whining
@@evilnick2885 As I said, there would only be merit is the "first round" of this game, and that first round never even existed. Meritocracy is both a myth and a bad idea.
@@00PlPu00 I don't think you understand what merrit is.
I'm never one to leave comments but this channel is INSANE UNDERRATED - I am also a POC who leans more conservative but this channel and this video specifically really showed me (with facts and figures) a new perspective. I'll be binging this some more.
Thank you so much!
As a black female . . . he's on point. majority of people are caught up in a false dichotomy of left/right, red/blue, GOP/DNC, and just getting played. This is about Mammon.
I have been on the far left for quite some time but no-one has made so many compact videos that explains everything clearly, you are like shaun in every good way but you release more, and its so easy to listen to you talk.
@@Wrenifferthis is shaun at a deeper level, no offense to shaun
@@carlosledezma1317 @Wreniffer This is a big complement, Shaun is an inspiration to me.
Keeping people divided benefits the powerful. It's a consistent pattern you see throughout human history. The US was founded with this premise in mind. Remember that.
Source on that?
It's a crime that this channel has fewer than 1,000 subscribers. How is that possible?
Thank you! Tell your friends and share on social media please
Holy cow, I didn’t actually notice. The quality is great!
I subscribed to you on Patreon. Hope that helps!
@@alisaurus4224 Thanks!
New channel…give it time
When INCOMPETENCE is elevated above talent, disaster follows.
Incredible video.
I hardly see anyone discussing the negative impact of "genius" or even "talent" stereotypes.
80% of people simply give up on any task if they don't succeed right away, simply believing that they have no talent. Artists are disrespected and sometimes even hated (especially now, in the age of AI) because people assume they didn't need to train and practice to create their art, that all the skills just came for them with no effort.
I was a "smart kid" in school" which probably was the reason that I suddenly really struggled in university because I never had to really plan and work before.
It's probably also the reason I only got diagnosed with ADHD when I was already 24 because I hadn't met the consequences of it before until my education had been ruined.
Yoo same. I literally got an official ADHD diagnosis two weeks after I had to leave my PhD program because I just couldn't get any work done.
He did weave this together really well.
Why is this not what's on tv? This is far more important and interesting than anything I've ever seen in mass media, and it's hugely hugely underrated
Thank you!
Now that you mentioned it, I'd like a take on Tarzan where he interacts with local tribes.
I mean, it's been a while and I only read a bit of Tarzan, but the stuff I read of him interacting with local tribes was some of the most racist stuff I've ever read in my life.
21:25 In my opinion, IQ is erroneously perceived as a static/fixed indicator. As everything else in this Universe, it is constantly influenced and changed by multiple external factors and conditions. Ergo, Intelligence is a dynamic phenomenon and it changes witnin (and probably without???) the boundaries of Space and Time. If Intelligence is measured (IQ) at different points in time, it will most probably show trends of increases and/or decreases. My point is that Intelligence should be measured and observed as a dynamic phenomenon - through the trends exhibited, not as a static individual segreegated point/measurement/result in a specific moment of time. This is too Deterministic approach and it is prone to ambiguity, misjudgement and errors. Intelligence is Indeterministic phenomenon.
Probably a "PQ" (potential quotient) is more appropriate indicator, observing the movement/change of the IQ in different points in time as a Potential/Trend. IQ can be used as a static measurement, feeding the dynamic PQ indicator for analytical purposes.
I got news for you guys, some people have greater intelligence than others, and the now notorious IQ test measures it well enough, whatever its racist or elitist origins. That's why people with 140 IQs are always way smarter than those with 90 or 100 IQs, even though it's possible for people with average intelligence to learn math and physics, they just struggle with it more. And sometimes people with high IQs don't amount to much in life. And this whole section about how raw, native intelligence and brainpower is not the end all and be all did not come off as benevolent or enlightened. It came off as passive-aggressive hostility for people with more talent than others, and that they better watch their back, because the mediocre hordes aren't just going to take it lying down. And they will scrap and claw to earn their place in the world, in our lauded 'meritocracy', even if they are flat out not as smart, and not as gifted as people that they are nevertheless determined to pass on the socioeconomic food chain. Not only are they going to hustle their ass off to land those plum jobs and get into top colleges, which absolutely does not require exceptional intellect but merely time spent and tedious effort, whatever their humble IQ score, they're going to boldly seek to delegitimize the very notion of superior natural intelligence at all. Which is obviously seriously messed up. And absurd. I guess that's what Nietzsche loathed as the 'slave morality'. And it is veritably thriving in the contemporary west....
And I have no love for EM, whatever his IQ, and have never voted for a R in my life and never will.
Nice! I like that you mentioned the Bell Curve, and how you tied the IQ test with eugenics, which is very much a bunk "science". Subscribed - keep up the good work!
Thanks!
AKA, I get to cope and believe genetics has nothing to do with intelligence and that all the races are equal.
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHA
So glad I found this channel, the depth and breadth of these video essays is astounding. This is important work, it’s only with good information that people are able to grow and expand their perspective.
Thank you!
I'm a Native American activist and writer in my 50s. These essays are really well written, logical and concise. This channel merits a far higher profile and I'm down to help. I also work as an editor and consultant so if you touch on any Native American issues in future essays, please consider me a resource.
Thank you, and thanks so much for the offer!
Whenever anyone refers to themselves as self-made, it’s a clear tell that they are self-centered and dishonest.
No one is *ever* self-made. Not even in the slightest degree, ever. Even the most wealthy and successful people in history have had countless predecessors, family, teachers, mentors, and workers that all came
together to place them at the top.
I’m astonished how good prepared this video is. Thank you so much for producing it!
Thank you!
I've known for years that Elon wasn't smart. I've studied logic and argument for legal career reasons, and Elon makes very stupid logical fallacies almost every time he is in front of a camera.
Notably, a lot of business majors/middle managers I find on social media, as well as Musk's bot-filled Twitter do this to steer conversations and narratives away from mostly "capitalism = bad" or "Corporatism bad". The amount of ad hominem attacks is rather staggering, but telling.
He once posted a list of fallacies. I'm not sure if he did it as a warning for the MAGA voters, knowing it would go over their heads.
Not a genius. Just a whiny nepo baby thinking his privilege makes him smart.
Very funny how you appeal to the authority of education and knowledge and use ad hominem instead of giving any facts, while implying you have anything to do with logic
@@VladislavDerbenev I wasn't appealing to education or knowledge, I was appealing to logic. You seemed to be confused between ad hominem and valid criticism. Would you like me to explain it to you?
Elon Musk is an evil supervillain in disguise...
Top notch! Going to share with my small but passionate email list... Keep it up! Please...
Thank you, I appreciate it!
This channel should be broadcast on the news.
I fall into the category of sub-genius sci-fi nerd- basically I’m average IQ at best. I also realize much of my career and success had to do with my parents middle class privilege and me looking like the bosses who hired me- white men who hired other white men like themselves. Anyone who says America is a meritocracy is a fool- it’s not nor has it ever been. It’s ok to realize this- it doesn’t make me weaker or less successful to recognize I’ve had advantages others didn’t- and that I didn’t do anything to earn those advantages. Now I support programs to level the opportunity for everyone- for me, universal education K-PHD, is a no brainer. How is it bad to have a society full of highly educated people?? Second, universal healthcare and housing- allowing all those millions of highly educated people to work on amazing discoveries rather than stressing about the roof over their head or going bankrupt because their kid has cancer. Amyways, great video and I hope others can learn from your work! Keep it up!
Thanks!
You sound high-IQ to me
At no point does meritocracy require equal starts or equal ends. It solely about movement happening based on your own resolve. If your a dumb millionaire youll probably lose your money on stupid sht. If you the tallest kid in highschool u just might make it big in the nba.
While I totally support free education for everyone up to university, and honestly think free university like in Scandinavian countries is a great idea, I must say that too many college grads in a society is a problem, because we NEED manual workers, lots of them, and they can't only be immigrants, because a society need to be able to survive on itself. Too many college grads diminishes the desirability of a diploma for employers, since everyone has at least one, and also drives down education quality by increasing class sizes, etc. It's best for a country to keep higher education for highly motivated people.
@@richardf.6430how do you suggest deciding who qualifies for higher education?
finally got round to watching. brilliant as always!
Thanks Gabi!
This is an interesting view on meritocracy. I'd also include a zero-sum game on the number of available jobs/resources and nepotism in the picture, but you probably avoided that to make the video shorter.
@LiterateMachine, At time 5:25, when you're reading the author's name, his name has been censored in the closed captions.
Oh TH-cam, smh.
Oh…..oh yeah. That happened in another video I was watching recently, when they were talking about raccoons. CC can’t tell the difference in context. Edit: they used the shortened form, without the “rac”.
absolutely well said.
Its a shame that only 11k subscribers are smart enough to see this
The rest of the world still needs to get past the noise from corporate media
Thanks!
The concept of inheritable genius is SO pernicious. For me it was something I never reflected on, I did believe it's inheritable for most of my life, not realizing what """smart""" people are really inheriting is wealth and privilege......
Right?
I love your analysis narcissistically because it’s as if you’re just validating my own opinions, it would be better if I learned something. In high school in 1976 I got in trouble for writing about this very thing, the most offensive line they suspended me for was, “There’s no merit in your meritocracy.”
Everything is learned even learning itself. At 17 I aced the Navy nuclear power exam, it wasn’t magic, I worked hard to learn physics over high school level in the 1970’s, so I spent a lot of time in the library and had no social life.
Rather than being arrogant about my 150+ IQ what I know only reveals how ignorant I am about thousands of subjects I will never have time to study. Also at 65 years old I sense the beginning of my cognitive decline and didn’t take it well for a few years until I came to terms with my situation. I had a sad, traumatic, fulfilling life that would have been better with a bit more love, or money.
I don’t care who you are, you can know anything you want, you have the sum of human knowledge at your disposal, the question is whether you want to take the time to do it or not. Most don’t for the wrong reason, that being convinced you can’t because someone convinced you that you can’t. I was arrogant and stubborn enough to reject my father’s philosophy of life because he was intent on convincing me of how stupid I was. It’s a crime to do that to a kid, and more so a crime to do to yourself.
Good luck to all of you, from an old intellectual whose outcome was humbling despite my efforts.
"There's no merit in your meritocracy" is a five star line!
I love your post. I agree, we are all ignorant about many things because it's impossible to learn everything. The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to know.
i just wanna say loved the video but in the movie Ratatouille, Remi learned his techniques from stealing food and watching Gusteaux on TV and reading his cookbook. How he learned english and french is unknown
This is a fair point. We see him pouring over a cookbook and seeing Gusteaux on the TV, and so I suppose he's supposed to be an autodidact (though it's left vague and implied as I recall).
woow it was awesome and informative
16:00 I was shadow debating myself on this topic just today, the notion that socialism makes people lazy. What actually happens is we believe there won't be any opportunities for us anyways, so there's no point in even trying. I used to be an example of that, ended up a homeless beggar.
When the pandemic hit, my family rescued me from the streets and I went to rehab for 9 months thinking I'd be there forever since I was a lost case, until the rehab's director began encouraging me to try again. My parents gave me a laptop and a smartphone and I quickly found a remote job which only lasted until the pandemic ended. I was about to go homeless again when by some odd chance I applied for government benefits, in the process of which I got diagnosed in the autism spectrum. Imagine being shunned, discriminated against and outcast from society, living for over 3 decades thinking I was the only one responsible for all that, then finding out that the problem was never me but always the system... I had no hope whatsoever, then a tiny flicker and today back to zero, since DEI was my only hope and the POTUS literally killed it today. Well done USA, well done. 😐👏
@@DisruptarianRadio Emphasizing merit-based systems can only keep perpetrating the meritocracy lie. Have you not watched the video you're commenting on? ffs
Man, you are my hero. Well said and shown.
Thank you!
I agree with the majority of the things you said but I think that the idea of merit it still is very important to be told so young people just don't give up thinking things like "Why do I bother working hard? I will never achieve my dreams, only people with money or a specific race will". I'm not saying it doesn't exist, just that the idea of denying merit creates resentfulness.
Take a look to my country's history, Argentina.
As I say in the episode, success is privilege and hard work (and luck if we’re being honest). That should make you more motivated not less, because it means you shouldn’t just assume that you didn’t win the genetic lottery if you’re not good at something right away, you can work at it and become good.
@@LiterateMachine You're right, thanks for clarifying that.
I think part of the idea of the meritocracy being talked in the US is the freedom and opportunities that the economic system gives you. Here in Argentina we have high taxes and restrictions for everything you can imagine, that results in people not bothering to start a business or even saving or investing their money (avg salary has been 200 usd per month for years, although is improving now), the ones they do have to evade taxes and restrictions in order to just survive. We even have free education on all levels (including university) but decades of overspending (therefore, inflation, debt and more taxes) have ruined us.
My point is, I think that the US it still is the best country to prosper, as there is ton of immigrants who entered the US with little money and still prospered economically.
But yes, I guess everyone has some level of privilege, just that not everyone takes advantage of it, and hard work is a must for everyone, maybe a different levels.
I hope this makes sense
I think the issue with the "DEI" and affirmative action stuff is, that it's (of course also, but not exclusively) not just a result of the mentioned historical structures, but also that they are inseperable from the development and structure of capitalism. Yes, also Jim Crow, because it was specifically instituted to prevent black people to integrate into the solidaric structures of worker's organisation to prevent a fusion of solidarity between black and white workers. A.k.a rule and divide.
However, the main point I have is that the issue with equality is an eternal game of contradiction. I don't wanna be the "read marx"-guy but really look into the short read "The critique of the Gotha program", where he very eloquently explains how striving for equality is not useful at best and harmful at worst in order to build a post-capitalist society. Instead it should be about the question who controls and owns productions, how are the fruits of labor utilized, etc.
Especially when operating inside of capitalism, this stuff is merely a government trying to compensate historic and economical structures it is (and has been) imposing itself. This fundamental conteadiction needs to be understood.
Hi! Thanks for this. If you see my video "How Will Capitalism End?" I talk in some depth about Marx (including the Gotha Programme critique), those who came after him, and ideas about how we can build a post-capitalist society.
@@LiterateMachine ok, great!
the notion of IQ plasticity is as powerful as it is fascinating. The real issue is the economics of scarcity and a cultural valuing of relevance realization based on circumstantial aspiration. Some family cultures are privileged with better maps than others. We live in an age that is privileged with an explosion in knowledge commonwealth but a catastrophic withering away of HOME and the repose that this dimension of being affords, to the extent that what we are experiencing could be termed a kind of 'domicide'. What we need to do is not simply valorize the economics of abundance but imaginally render this aspirational vision sustainably plausible.
Just listened to this and the Severance episode. Really informative and entertaining to boot. Great new channel for 2025!
Thanks!
Tony Stark has the same super power as Bruce Wayne he's rich.
I have read the famous scientist Richard Feynman did not test with a very high IQ and he attributed his success to simply being interested and his enthusiastic effort.
I truly believe this is the secret to success - being interested and enjoying what you do. Most of us don't find success in what we enjoy, so we have to get real jobs, which we can certainly do if your work is engaging enough, and your coworkers are nice.
The closest thing I've seen to a meritocracy is in A Brave New World. I seriously doubt the vast majority of people of this world want to live in a world like that.
Heavily slept on channel
If only an erudite, articulate, and thoroughly intelligent and insightful person as you ran for the Democrats I would have voted for them.
That's something iv been missing, like, i couldn't put my finger on it before, but all creation, artist and scientific, require understanding and building upon predecessors mental effort, its true in art and especially stories, comic books, and stories of the early 19th century seem quite simple and predictable by modern standards, and earlier stories of ancient times even simpler and even silly in some cases, because the Techniques and pattern's were taken and built upon over time, iterated and learned upon to create new ways never thought of before. All learned things in humanity are iterated upon from what was learned in the past! Very cool and i'd never considered that before for some reason, but it's probably because of rampant individualism tho.
I wouldn't assume that things necessarily got more complicated over time--artistic expression seems to go through periods of "baroque" complexity followed by reactions of simplicity. But it is absolutely the case that all art is in response in some way to the art that came before and exists in the context of its time and place.
@@LiterateMachine I agree, The main reason i say its more complex could also be due to the increased availability of the written, spoken, and visual mediums, and imagery being more and more widely available and the internet. I was just quite overexcited at the time. Thank you for responding also! Wonderful video.
Intresting I was attacked by a dog when I was 4 years old. It scarred me for a long time and I think I've only gotten over it due to being a sociopath. This had huge ramifications for me as a kid in elementary school and high school and even the vocational college that I attended. I am very bitter over the fact that I did not have a chance to go to university.
“Meritocracy” is right-wing conservative authoritarian justification for racist, classist, sociopathic, psychopathic, and social Darwinist inequality. Meritocracy is justification for exceptionalistic individualism and exceptionalistic tribalism to exist in abstraction from wider social and environmental systems-based consequences, specifically through psychopathy that denies other people their hierarchy of human needs, including contributes to ecocide.
You're a Jew.
This was an awesome exercise of articulation and critical analysis. Great!
Thank you!
Dont we sort of see Remy learn from reading the chef book and watching the TV show? I guess I always assumed it wasnt the first time he was 8n the house watching the chef's show.
Yeah, someone else pointed this out too that it's implied that he's self taught from books and TV, which okay, I guess it makes as much sense as a talking rat.
Wonderful work, very well stated and put together video. Hopefully it makes a lot of people think about the media they consume and the 'heroes' they follow.
Thank you!
14:40 A definition of wokeness (my understanding):
It's not about injustice. It's about the system, and the limits of the system. The "woke" argument is, in essence: The limits of the old system (economy, society, 1900's) are based on material, and we should replace this system with one that respects [fiat, virtual, social, dynamic] limits.
I say "limits" in an abstract way. Globalism has removed limits on stuff, including labor. Birth control has removed limits on sex (as a commodity). The internet has removed limits on communication. Modern medicine has removed limits in ways that are hard to measure.
For example, when a woke person speaks of systemic injustice, the implications isn't that we should adjust the system itself. If that were true, you would hear them speak of specific laws, even specific sections in laws, or perhaps a proposed law. Instead, the "woke" appeal to the (expressly incorrect) ideals held by their opposition.
To put it as shortly as possible: Wokeness argues that society is the result of our ideals (alone), and that our ideals, not our resources, should drive the development of our society.
This was brilliant and so appreciated!! I'm going to need to listen 3 more times at least. Thank you!!!
Thank you!
Well said, sir! I'm an artist and supposedly have a high IQ, but talent is not innate! The 'gift' may be the interest and desire to keep improving your skills.
Where have you been all my TH-cam life?!
I bet you say that to all the tubers…
@@LiterateMachine NO I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT! Keep up the good work! BTW have you read, "Tragedy and Hope," by Carol Quigley? Actually the condensed version, Tragedy and Hope 101 by Plummer, is a great quick read . . .
@@lakitawright6003 Thanks! I haven't read either of those, added to the reading list...
@@LiterateMachine Don't know who you are or where you can from but you are a terror. T&H101 (200pages), its its' 600page source, Tragedy & Hope is backed up by another 600page book, Anglo American Establishment by C Quigley. He wrote one as the evidence that the 1st work was true. Whatever you create I'll be waiting for the little bell to ring?
Structure of Scientific Revolutions cited, instant like
Should be required reading for everyone.
Your take on Elon Musk is spot on.
We will see to it that your videos reach millions
Thank you!
Love your content man. I hope to one day publish videos just like this. Just need to buy some proper editing software for my Mac
DaVinci Resolve is free! Drop a line when you post your first one.
You are breaking my already broken brain. Thank you
Thank YOU!
you're the best on youtube, thank you!!
Thank you!
Very interesting take, thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
Love the comparison of musk to Ryodian
In Czechia and many other European countries, we have public schools from nursery to university funded by taxpayers regardless of wealth or zip code. The only issue then is that in bad neighborhoods, the good teachers don't always stick around. And in the capital, you've got higher variety. But then schools can only do so much. If you have it difficult at home, your chances are worse. So the equality of opportunity is a worthy ideal, but ideal nevertheless - it can't be reached.
I don't think you're addressing the actual phenomena though. In-group preference exists with all groups, be they physical or otherwise. With that study showing the difference between what would be called "black names" vs "white names" on the same resume did they hand these resumes to primarily small businesses owned by white people? What do you assume would happen if someone handed an Arabic sounding name to an Indian owned business? What about a white name to an Asian owned business? What about a Hispanic name to a black owned business? Studies like the one you used as a reference feel more like they're intended to further irritation and racial divide because it focuses yet again on everyone's favorite two groups of people.
This just feels like the same line of fallacious thinking that somehow everyone else but white people all get along; that somehow the only group capable of having destructive in-group preference is white people. The sins of the nation we are a part of seem more pronounced because we live here. I assure you that no nation on this earth is without blood on their hands. At the same time there is a disproportionate amount of focus on when a historical or modern perpetrator is white.
Personally, I don't see any solution that exists to in-group preferences outside of a post-scarcity society. More realistically, it will be fought with regular and frequent social conditioning. Even then, once people are stripped of one way to self-segregate they will find another mechanism for which to do so. It is rooted in a biological imperative after all.
The reason it doesn't want to go away is on a basis of biology and no one wants to admit that because once you forfeit the idea that _some_ of these biological differences exist, you must also open the door for _more_ potential biological differences to exist. If biological difference exists, that is something that you, and your personhood, would be actively threatened by another group which could be perceived as more fit than the group you were placed into (out of uour control). This is the basis of these fears.
I don't think the evidence supports that claim that all in-groups prefer themselves, muchless that they discriminate against other groups equally (as opposed to imagining, say, the latino feeling solidarity with a black person or vice versa). As opposed to us living in a white supremecist culture that trains us to think of white people as superior and more capable in specific, even on an unconscious level. The notion that ethnic groups simply can't get along with each other and that preferring your own ethnic group is somehow "natural" is just the logic that white supremecists use to advocate for ethnostates and ethnic cleansing.
@@LiterateMachine
That may simply be because the US is a white dominant culture. Is there anything at all that exists with the simple approach of seeing how other races are treated in other countries? Doesn't Disney have to censor black people off of movie posters in China because the people there don't like them that much? What happens when you take a small group of any other face and stick them in a location where they are a minority? What happens to people the moment they become a minority in a new country? It doesn't matter who the perpetrators are, everyone across the world is capable of doing so. I'm not excusing this fact, I am merely acknowledging that it is a biological fact of life thanks to selfish genes and thought experiments as simple as "Green Beard." Personally, I feel the only way to actually understand and combat this is to embrace the understanding that it is biological and has roots deep into human survival.
It feels like the resources you keep in high regard somehow treat the world as if these in-group preferences don't exist somehow when they exist with all races as a fundamental biological component. That's why I suggested that only a post scarcity society will fix this (or in a more totalitarian mechanism, harsh social conditioning) as a lack of removal of competition in survival based regard should also reduce survival-minded behaviors.
All non-black races are anti black. So you’re right that white people aren’t the only ones who are racist.
There is evidence that shows conservatism correlates with in-group preference and liberalism an out-group preference. The hypothesis for this is that conservatism is correlated with genetic similarity (picking mates based on genetic closeness) and liberalism with genetic variation (picking based on other factors? perhaps status, values, etc).
I think in a lower trust society, in-group preference is survival based. But when society is high trust, these instincts don’t go away.
Pretty interesting. I think that liberals reject biological differences because of all of the implications that come with admitting it. Blank slate equality is extremely intellectually dishonest.
Personally I find it to be a good thing that there are a variety of different survival strategies we are pulled toward. It makes humans more robust. But if subtle racism is essentially genetic, the implications for minorities I must admit do suck.
Clearly as you have said all races do have a strong in-group preference or the most important decision they make (who they have kids with), would not reflect that. So promoting this idea that we would be better off under the rule of another race is up to perspective. I don’t see the purpose of abandoning an in-group preference. It would be against group interests, which no one likes to admit is the larger scale competition going on genetically.
@@LiterateMachineno blacks were the main perpetrators of the more recent asian hate. Youll ignore that cause you hate white folk and will unironically say we live in a white supremist society while the government is unironically giving more hand outs to blacks solely cause their black…. Itd be hilarious if your werent serious
Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.
- Victor Hugo
Really well done
Thanks!
Certainly if anything you claim in this video has any universal applicability, I look forward to your videos on the bigger pictures like ones which might explain the relative successes and failures of countries (and genetics) from around the world such as Haiti, South Africa, Zimbabwe, China, Japan, India, etc.
I mean, I think the relative successes/failures of various countries have basically nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with history (Haiti, for example, was fucked six ways from Sunday by its history). I do talk a bit in Gravity's Rainbow Over Palestine about the problems of using genetics and "nationality" as a way of talking about the behavior of groups of people.
The point is that DEI programs combat unconscious biases. Typically they're not about promoting a less qualified person over a more qualified person (this is a mistake Elon Musk makes repeatedly and egregiously) but about when you have two equally qualified people, and one's a minority, and particularly if you don't have many other minorities in your organization, maybe you should give the role to the minority which will be better not only for them but for your organization in helping to combat unconscious biases. The anti-DEI crowd seems to want to pretend unconscious biases don't exist and aren't a problem (and fundamentally I think this comes down to them believing, on some level, in natural hierarchies and that some types of people are simply better than others).
@ Nobody wants or needs government policing our biases, conscious or not.
@@DisruptarianRadio same old story. We’ve tried this failed experiment for at least my entire life (over half a century) and the outcomes haven’t changed. What other cope do you have to present at this time?
@@LiterateMachine people who are worthy of merit are harmed by programs that artificially prop up the so-called underprivileged groups. Members of such groups who are actually qualified due to their own merit are then seen as being artificially promoted and their actual merits are cast in doubt. In fact, the DEI casts a shadow of suspicion on the entire system and makes it nearly impossible to distinguish those with talent from those who lack talent.
You are doing great work here man!
Thank you!
I kinda like the static hum of your microphone turning on and off. It adds a sense of rawness and urgency to your presentation. Kinda hope you don’t improve it
Interesting video, though I’m surprised you didn’t touch on how the term ‘meritocracy’ was coined by a dystopian novelist who viewed it as a bad thing.
That's a good point!
🔥🔥Keep up the amazing content 💪💯
Looks like I've found a great channel here
Thanks!
Really fantastic video!
You had me until Star Wars. Literally no one is pretending to hate the Sequels because their casting is diverse, which it actually isn't, all the important characters are cis-het whites. The one major nonwhite character was Finn, who was sort of the fan favourite when TFA came out...then got demoted to the white main character's sidekick by Rian (sic) Johnson. They got a chilly reception from fans because they just weren't very good.
I mean, I agree that the sequel movies weren't very good. However, "Literally no one is pretending to hate the Sequels because their casting is diverse" is demonstrably false, it's very easy to find TH-cam videos of conservatives complaining about their "forced diversity" and that they're gonna "go woke go broke" etc etc.
Amazing video. I’ve been going down the Adrian Dittmann/Elon Musk sock puppet rabbit hole recently, aghast at what kind of personality and worldview all of what he does suggests, and you’ve articulated everything I’ve noted vaguely so brilliantly and clearly.
@DisruptarianRadio It’s concerning to see the impact of systematic discrimination based on identity. Goals are always the primary factor in any system. Let us merit a better world by making Justice our goal and standard.
Funny how you don't address any of the points in the video about unconscious bias that DEI seeks to redress. Anyway, an actual system based on merit would have a 100% inheritance tax. And even though wouldn't mitigate the effects of nepotism and familial connections, not to mention the connections and education a rich person can make going to a school a poor person can't afford etc etc. Meritocracy is a myth that allows the rich and powerful to stay rich and powerful, but then that's the whole point of the video.
Thanks!
Wonderful video ❤
Thank you!
Tony Stark was born with a super intellect.
@@DisruptarianRadio DEI is literally shit. its giving someone something for literally nothing while discarding someone who possibly worked their ass off because they are the wrong color. thats all DEI is, its reverse racism.
You know that's not how DEI works, right? It's more you have an all-white company and you have two candidates with equal qualifications, but one's white and one's not, maybe give the job to the non-white person because they're going to have a different perspective on things and it's better for everyone. But never is it give something to someone who isn't qualified, that's a myth.
@@LiterateMachine so all things equal but one isn't white so he gets it.... Nope not racist at all. What if the white candidate is more qualified should the non white person get it because of a possible different "perspective". Maybe the white person has a different "perspective" to. DEI is nonsense racism, nothing more.
This was fantastic! Sending it to friends.
Thank you!
There are many kinds of intelligence.
For example, there is a kind of physical intelligence that is needed for someone to become an Olympic gold medalist. Also, the athlete has some physical gifts of strength and other physical advantages. And yes, the Olympic champion athlete spends hours in training and has expert coaching.
However, there is something unjust about athletes earning 100,000 times as much as the person who cleans the toilets in the stadium. The gold medal should be enough.
It is absurd to claim that there aren't people with amazing gifts. It is logical to question what gifted people should do with their gifts.
If white over representation in positions of power and influence is not due to merit, what about Jewish over representation? Is that merit or no?
See my discussion of this here:
th-cam.com/video/3bRJjQw8Nnk/w-d-xo.html
great video, your channel should really be more popular. i don't think you clearly stated it, but it all ties to the idea of cultural hegemony (gramsci), which you alluded to at the very end, i think. i also find it fascinating that it shows just how much we need to have these icons to worship. we love superhero movies, we worship these heroes and the representations in itself serve as a message like "you could be like them, if only you work hard you can be like them". then arrived musk, who embodied that idea of real-life tony stark, an icon to worship, made people feel like they lived in their favorite superhero universe. but it's all a sham, an idea to be sold to masses. we produce these heroes as a means of perpetuating the cultural hegemony, they legitimize the shit they want people to believe in. it's a kind of modern religion, like nationalism, they need someone to worship, to unite them under a common ideology, to make sense of the chaos that is our modern world. and this idea of heroism is so ingrained in us, we are socialised into it, that when a real-life hero comes along we don't stop and think "hey, maybe heroes don't exist in real life like they do in hollywood films", no, we think "finally, someone i can look up to, finally someone to bring me hope for the future".
Thanks! I mention Gramci and cultural hegemony directly in Star Trek into Socialism, but you're right that it's relevant here. As Marx said, ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class, and it's so embedded in our culture, like water for fish, we can't even see it when it's right in front of us.
Gosh, I had no idea you can learn so much from comic books and cartoons!
@14:30 That's not funny, that's accurate. You could apply it to just about all of the Words Of Power that are used to end discussion (fascist, socialist, communist etc).
In order to be taken seriously, you have to get beyond politics.
We need to think in terms of distributed agency as the foundation of expanded commonwealth but there are rules here, as long as the reality is that we live in an environment of economic scarcity rather than abundance. Abundance is a function of imaginal competence where bets on the future, i.e. invested future purchasing power, are met by realized needs being met effectively ie within the constraints of freely priced utility exceeding freely priced costs. This notion of cost and price factor 'freedom' is the devil-in-the-details, always elusive in the fullest sense of the word, yet, the key to the transformational remediation that is the foundation of distributed problem-solving and optimal resource development and realization. AI could be the great equalizer. No wonder Tucker suggested that it was a baby that should have been strangled in its crib. Anything that has the potential of realizing unlimited commonwealth necessarily terrifies his ativistic ilk.
are there any movies that arent about special people with special gifts?
instead are about collaboration and working together to save to day?
movies about collective effort and collective action
overcoming a big bad
but not lord of the rings
not specially gifted heroes,
not heroes
or super powered
or geniuses.
not about leaders,
not about individuals
about groups
groups of equals
not privileged people, ordinary normal people
not dramas, i like genre
fantasy, sci fi, horror, historical
not "talkies", yapping, politics
not pedestrian or mundane
not just movies, any media?
i wanna see them
Its sad we. In Sweden are getting closer to you guys. In the 70s/80s. Tesla factory or gig work would never been accepted. But now only goal is increasing gross income.
I deeply appreciate the meta-perspective used to frame these topics - refreshingly above the red/blue Chuck-E-Cheese cognitive septic tank
- this rare level of clarity and intellectual autonomy always leads back to the increasingly blunt (re)observation that the ruling class simply recycles (and rebrands) the same old eugenic/elite myhtology/divide-and-rule social and institutional algorithms with new ass-clown personalities written into teenage-level script writing (e.g. rockets!!, lab meat!! shiny electric dumpster truck!!)
and the masses eat it up the same way the zombiesphere thinks Taco Bell innovates with their menus by simply reorganizing the same 6 toxic ingredients with a new name
hope I'm not naive in feeling some optimism about a broader and accelerating crumbling of these clownish narratives from the McEstablishment
- even the idiots are starting to figure it out, no?
- regrettably, the Baja Blast is not a remarkable beverage breakthrough
Your videos depress me. They are good, but hard to contemplate without feeling angry.
🫂
I think you are missing a point (although I just might not have clearly understood you), talent and giftedness exists. Those people who work very hard on something to be come the very best at it were often also very very gifted. I tough a technical class for a while and I saw how much difference in raw talent can there be between people. Sometimes people that had never touched the subject before outsmarted some that had worked on it for years. I think the major issue is that WE JUST DO NOT REWARD hard work or even natural gifts and the people with the most skills end up doing some "low" paid underappreciated job! People with power have taken something real and abuse it for their own benefit.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Oh about guns manufacturer you mean like Erno Goldfinger or Barry Goldwater.
yes, of course, getting the ball down the field is a team effort that includes the players on the field, the coaching staff, the owners in their sky box and even the 12th man in the stands, but if you think that all players, including the 12th man, offer to the effort equally, you are sadly mistaken.
Can you elaborate please, regardin your example garen't we still talking about gifts of opportunity?
Have we decided yet if the myth of hardship instilling qualities (if not opportunities) for success has legs? Perhaps the idea is given credence by the inverse scenario of wealth, with its attendant opportunities, nonetheless does not necessarily yield greatness or success?
@shannonm.townsend1232 we are not all built the same. Life is competitive. You will have a natural distribution of skills. It isn't that hard, don't over intellectualize it.
A point that doesn't change anything said.
it says that some people have honed their efforts more than others.
Superb! Bravo
Thank you!
Elon is Misterio
So do you see the value of meritocracy, but say we’re not living in one? And if both sides of political parties and corporations prohibit people with wealth and the cycle of history repeating I don’t think you could ever have a perfect meritocracy. Or anything perfect for that matter. My hope rest in Jesus and the afterlife, but I appreciate this video. I thought it was very Informative about intelligence and Elon Musk.
I mean, the short answer is I see value in "to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities". (See my "Star Trek into Socialism" for my opinions here in more detail.)
Impressive that you avoided actually mentioning Musky Husky for fully 27 minutes 🫡
Hehe... I actually worried about that when I realized how long it was taking to get to him, but then the idea of putting him at the title and then putting him off for so long kind of tickled me. And I think it works once you finally get there because it pays off everything leading up to it.
IIRC, the IQ test measures problem solving ability, not actual intelligence or knowledge. In other words, an octopus would score amazingly high despite being, well, an utterly illiterate cephalopod.
Meritocracy is an inherent aspect of any system and cannot be fully eradicated. Even if someone deceives others into believing they are the best, their success in doing so reflects their skill in navigating the meritocratic landscape. Meritocracy encompasses more than just conventional notions of good or bad; it includes the ability to effectively compete and achieve recognition within any given context.
Hierarchical power structures is the root cause of all evil.
Absence of hierarchy is a power vacuum. Coordination problems have to be solved, one way or another.
@@samuelskinner7704 Are you religious? If not, there's a theological vacuum. Any day now, some religion is going to size that power and you'll find that you're following their rules.
@@cariyaputta
Religions keep trying. Next thing you know people are disagreeing about who the rightful caliph is or fighting over the location of punctuation. Attempts to replace it with ideology result in the same thing, but less ornate hats.
At some point there has to be a person in the loop, someone to be in charge, to take responsibility, to command, to lead and to have a descendant who takes everything they have built and messes it up.
You should probably change the title so TH-cam can boost it
Chnage the title to what?
@@LiterateMachine
"Uncover the Hidden Truths: 3 Things They Won't Tell You About Meritocracy"
"The Dark Side of Meritocracy: 3 Eye-Opening Facts You Never Knew"
"Exposing the Myth: 3 Surprising Realities About Meritocracy"
"What No One Tells You: 3 Shocking Facts About the Meritocracy Myth"
"Debunking Meritocracy: 3 Startling Truths That Change Everything"
"The Hidden Flaws of Meritocracy: 3 Facts That Will Shock You"
"Meritocracy Exposed: 3 Facts That Will Change How You See Success"
"The Ugly Truth: 3 Things You Didn't Know About Meritocracy"
"3 Astonishing Facts About Meritocracy That Will Leave You Speechless"
"The Real Story Behind Meritocracy: 3 Facts They Don't Want You to Know"
Something in that vein.
@@LiterateMachinedis nuts
Thank you man. I am a poor first gen American in south central that tries to preach this to people and they look at me crazy.
Keep preaching!
I enjoyed this video but I disagree on the Maher take. Yeah, he probably is a ‘dickwad’ but he calls BS on the left and right. We need more of that.
Doesnt Nikki Haley go by her middle name because she knew she wouldnt win with her birth name? Idk, i could be reading into it to far, but it seems like she knew this country is racist and would judge her immediately.
And i dont mean for political purposes, i mean she knew she would stand out too much and used it because she knew she would be ostracized. Same way over people try to "fit in".