Cafe Culture
I am a fan of cafe visits. It is a culture in France and Italy, but here in seacoast NH we also have a pleasant one 4 miles from home. Frappuccino and banana bread is my usual morning order. But there is a drawback at this particular cafe: the vibe is distinctly progressive, and I am not progressive. – not even remotely. Neither is Francesca, my wife. We both have science PhDs, and our views on many matters that trigger progressive alarm are based on sound science.
Recently we had just finished ordering when a middle-aged woman and her 11-ish year old daughter entered. They both were dressed in Covid-chic: heavily masked, the mother sporting Rachel Maddow glasses, and the daughter had some sort of splint on her lower right arm. My initial reaction was exclaiming internally, “Oh for fuck’s sake”.
Now to be fair, they may both be suffering from some rare disease that requires them to take steps to avoid as much as possible the exhalations of other humans. Not likely, but I have no way of knowing. The Rachel Maddow glasses, in my mind, did not support the rare disease hypothesis. And further filling me with doubt, they were both – as seems so often true of woke progressives – physically weedy, and clearly timid. In my biased opinion, MAGA people tend to be noticeably more vital than progressive wokes. Were a study to be done, producing trustworthy statistics, I would be very much surprised if it did not support my weedy woke, vital MAGA, conjecture, at least on average.
The Situation at Columbia MIX, and Elsewhere
Meanwhile, speaking of weedy folks, most academics seem to be of this sort. For example, P Woit at Columbia, who – as of this writing – has blogged (excoriated) 30 times about the evil dictatorial Trump administration’s efforts to rein in the anti-Jewish, keffiyeh wearing, antifas at Columbia. As is true of all such weedy fanatics, Woit seems to be completely immune to any evidence that does not support his views. For example, he eagerly quoted a NYT’s Op-Ed that said it was clear that Israel’s actions in Gaza supported the notion that Israel is involved in a systematic genocide of the Palestinian people. Then, a couple days later, the NYT published a counter Op-Ed saying that calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide was patently, and historically, absurd. Woit did not deem this worthy of mention. Interestingly, the list of people willing (or allowed) to comment on his blog entries has – or so it seems to me – diminished greatly.
Some time ago I got into a texting debate with my remaining sibling, an older sister, who was adamant that there was nothing wrong in trans-males competing against biological females. I quoted Francesca, whose chemistry/anthropology Harvard PhD was sufficient to cement my own opinions on the matter: anyone who goes through puberty as an XY will develop a bigger heart, lungs, muscles, and higher bone density, than a biological XX. This is confirmed science, to which my sister replied, “Well…”.
As to the views of J.K. Rowling, this beloved sister said: “She should mind her own business.” This, frankly, floored me. Why should Rowling be excluded from this debate? Why should anyone? Anyway, beloved sister is in her mid-80s, and her primary source of news and opinion has for years been MSNBC. Her sons are evidently even more woke, one having lost a cushy job at a private high school for teaching the spawn of these elites a woke version of history. Francesca’s niece went to this school and mentioned that everyone knew of the dismissal of this radical history teacher whom she named by name. She did not know that the offending former teacher is my nephew.
And then there’s my Swiss friend (former?), whose views on Israel’s conflict with Hamas are derived in part from the leftwing Israeli publication Haaretz. My views are approximately 180° out of phase with his. I am in favor of brain. One side in this conflict has a surfeit of brain; the other side has a surfeit of bile, with very little brain … and they seem to loath any people who possess brain. (While at Harvard Francesca learned that maybe 95% of the great achievements of the Islamic world are due to the Persians, a distinctly non-Arab people. The Palestinians have accomplished zilch. Everywhere they’ve gone as refugees they’ve caused civil wars. The Jordanians killed off 25,000 of them on Black September because they annoyed. Many were pushed into Lebanon where they started another civil war. Egypt, eager to avoid their spiteful, disruptive presence, built an enormous wall on the border of Gaza and Egypt. No one in the Middle East wants them, although many in the Middle East would like them to disarm, surrender, and shut the fuck up. (But, you know, I’ve not been there, do not intend to go there ever, and my knowledge – if knowledge it is – is second hand, at best.))
Speaking of Harvard (and I suppose Columbia), Francesca is strongly convinced that her Alma Mater has noticeably diminished. No more does she receive an annual letter extolling the virtues of the incoming class of Valedictorians (> 98%). When they started acceding to the progressive screams of more campus DEI, standards – as is always the case when DEI is forced upon an institution – plummeted. Francesca has zero sympathy for the travails that that university is presently undergoing at the hands of a very unsympathetic POTUS and his administration.
Common Thread
None of the people mentioned above – even Francesca and I – are persuadable. I have tried to persuade those with opposing viewpoints, because I am very stubborn, and perhaps an idiot. This morning a great miasma fell upon my spirit. It left me feeling disconnected to almost everything but Francesca. It was a good feeling. I must nurture this feeling. No more pointless debates. I will continue to text my sister amusing memes, mostly involving dogs. We both enjoy those. Common ground. And having recently lost her husband, she needs some brotherly levity (lovity).
Do you as well? If so, I leave you with this:
“Is there a nicer feeling than being in a room full of people and the dog chooses to come sit next to you?
“I think not.”