Posts by Lucy Stewart
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Give me strength - trying to write and the end of lectures party started 4 hours ago.
Cops have been to my street twice and I have heard a fire engine once.
All has been quiet for the past couple of hours - eye of the storm.
I trotted off merrily across campus to get some stamps, got in sight of the fences and portaloos and screaming hordes, and turned back post-haste.
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I wouldn't be surprised to say that western views on non-western astrology aren't on one level racist.
Fair enough, there's no rule against both those things being true. But the thing is that scientific inquiry has ruled out astrology being true in a very comprehensive manner; you can't ignore that. If you're going to pick a belief that has been the subject of unfair prejudice, pick something a little less obviously wrong.
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For example, he thought that negative opinions about astrology and the effectivity of rain dances were not justified by scientific research, and dismissed the predominantly negative attitudes of scientists towards such phenomena as elitist or racist
...astrology. Astrology.
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What were people saying about subconscious memes?
That it was still entirely possible she existed, actually, but I'm going to take Stephen's advice.
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I'm not saying you have to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet, but ...
There is never a bad time to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet.
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I'm not the evil Chimpy McBushitler either and haven't declared war on Canada, yet -- can I have a million bucks and a medal too?
The best assessments I've heard mirror this - that it's sort of like when the school bully stops beating kids up; they get way more accolades for stopping than the rest of the school ever did for not starting, because everyone's hoping the positive reinforcement will work.
(Alternative explanation: the Nobel committee set it up so they could all get autographs.)
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Did he do something?
I'm blaming my cold for the fact that I can't tell whether this is beautifully cynical commentary or a genuine query.
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One of the more bizarre figments of the Christchurch Civic Creche case was the supposed victims' accounts of ritual abuse sessions with 'asian tourists' during their outings with Peter Ellis
And it's highly unlikely those kids were thinking "oh, yeah, Asians, Asians are evil."
This isn't about accusing people of conscious, direct racism. It's about othering. It's about it making sense at some level of the psyche that someone Other must have been seen, because this was an investigation about a little girl going missing. Only Other People hurt or take little children. Asians, in modern New Zealand society, are still highly othered. So the idea spreads, and becomes a focus of investigation, because at some level it just makes sense. And it doesn't mean the witnesses are liars, or racists, or the police are racists. It's about a meme.
And that's how you get questions about whether Aisling was kidnapped to order, and headlines highlighting that, when the police never suggested it in the first place.
Of course, there is still the possibility that the woman exists and did see Aisling and will be found. It's just that at this stage, given what we now know happened to her, it seems unlikely - thus the reminder of the historical pattern.
Hey Lucy, is there anything else you've said today that we can misread spectacularly and then moralistically wag our fingers at you about? I don't think we've quite covered all the bases yet.
I'm sure if you work at it there'll be *something*. Have I subtextually accused anyone of misogyny yet?
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A lack of ability to be more specific is zero evidence of anything when dealing with children. Keep that in mind, Lucy, before seeing bad faith and ill-will around every corner.
Jesus Christ. Let me be clear: *I do not think the people who reported it were lying*. I do not think that they were motivated by any sort of subconscious racism. I think that the reason the 'Asian lady' story has gained so much ground *generally* is because it fits into an old trope re: missing kids, probably because it's so vague.
Which, clearly, is going on; witness the talkback nonsense LegBreak heard. But far be it from me to question the general high-mindedness and non-racism of New Zealand society.
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Belief ... presumption ... what if. This is all guesswork.
The fallibility of eyewitness reports is well-understood, and given the fact that it looks increasingly like the "Asian lady" may not exist - it's not unreasonable to speculate to what extent that aspect is related to traditional memes of missing-child cases. Of course it's speculation. Your point is?