SleepingInTheVoid's recent activity

  1. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    But this is also ridiculous. You're expecting roughly the same makeup in a much more specific population as in the general population. Different selection pressures apply whereas the only pressure...

    For example, I don't expect there to be equal numbers of gay CEOs as straight CEOs. That would be ridiculous! However, if gay people comprise 5% of the general population, I would expect roughly 5% of CEOs to be gay.

    But this is also ridiculous. You're expecting roughly the same makeup in a much more specific population as in the general population. Different selection pressures apply whereas the only pressure required to be part of the general population is being born.

    In other words: "women are different to men, so we shouldn't expect there to be equivalent numbers of female CEOs as male CEOs". I honestly don't see any other way to interpret this.

    Maybe the predominant traits that show up in specific populations turn up in the amounts they do for many varied reasons and not merely sexism.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    No. The idea that equal opportunity will necessarily lead to equal outcomes is another fallacy. There's no good reason to believe that. You're not paying attention. The idea that any demographic,...

    I know, right? It's a little-known phenomenon called equal opportunity

    No. The idea that equal opportunity will necessarily lead to equal outcomes is another fallacy. There's no good reason to believe that.

    Your scenarios contain inherent sexism

    You're not paying attention. The idea that any demographic, not just women, will turn up in any arbitrary field in equal numbers as any other demographic is highly unlikely unless it were otherwise enforced.

    Each one makes assumptions that women can't or won't be CEOs, because they're different to men,

    Or because individuals are different from one another? And when you group larger numbers of them together and examine their behaviors en masse, those differences become magnified and outcomes for any particular grouping you want to select for will be distinct for any other grouping you compare it to.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    You're laboring under this bizarre assumption that because something affects both men and women, that it necessarily should or will affect men and women in equal proportion every time.

    You're laboring under this bizarre assumption that because something affects both men and women, that it necessarily should or will affect men and women in equal proportion every time.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    Someone can want to be an astronaut and never come close to being one even in a perfectly fair world where they tried their hardest. Or that person could've wanted to be a writer more than they...

    Are you going to try to tell me that women don't want to be CEOs?

    Someone can want to be an astronaut and never come close to being one even in a perfectly fair world where they tried their hardest. Or that person could've wanted to be a writer more than they ever wanted to run a company. Or they'd rather have a job that allowed them more time with friends and family. Saying "Oh, you think women don't want to be CEOs?" is kind of glib when there are any number of reasons someone might not be running a corporation.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    I think the real question is "What amount of women in job X would be considered perfectly fine?" When someone states there aren't enough of a specific demographic in a specific area, they...

    I think the real question is "What amount of women in job X would be considered perfectly fine?" When someone states there aren't enough of a specific demographic in a specific area, they automatically imply there is a number that would satisfy them. What is this number and how did they arrive at it? Is that number realistic? Are there enough people of said demographic studying in that field that could make the number achievable? Did they sit down and go over the logistics of how you could practically meet that goal? If not, how do they intend to fix the problem they've highlighted?

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Citigroup reveals female employees earn 29% less than men do in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    The fallacy reveals itself. Why would anyone expect two different demographics (who would have entirely different mixtures of job title, experience, education level, & total hours worked) to have...

    “The numbers are difficult,” said Sara Wechter, Citigroup’s global head of human resources. “We should obviously be at 100 percent parity, and that’s what we’re striving for.”

    The fallacy reveals itself. Why would anyone expect two different demographics (who would have entirely different mixtures of job title, experience, education level, & total hours worked) to have a 100% parity with each other? What would make sense is if the concern were over two people with the same job title, experience, and so forth who didn't make the same amount of money. But it's clear that's not what's being discussed. They're just doing a raw comparison between two groups.

    There's no sensible reason why women as a group would have 100% parity with any other group in a demographic pay comparison. Unless that other group magically had the same number of administrative assistants, bankers, accountants, and CEOs as the women's group did and all at the same level of experience and worked the same number of hours. Anything else would skew the numbers for or against one group or the other and cause the gender wage gap to not equal 100%!

    Instead of comparing the median pay for men and women, the banks “adjusted’’ the pay gap to account for job title, seniority, education and other factors that affect compensation. All the banks, including Citigroup, reported that after adjustments, there was almost no pay gap between men and women.

    Of course this is the case. And that's why outrage over the gender wage gap is completely misguided: the gap is almost entirely a naturally occurring artifact of comparing two different groups with different characteristics. But people assume it measures the disparity in pay between two groups who do the exact same job. That is false.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on Third-wave anti-racism makes sense, but it’s a dead end in ~life

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    "In fact, however, third-wave antiracism is a profoundly religious movement in everything but terminology. The idea that whites are permanently stained by their white privilege, gaining moral...

    "In fact, however, third-wave antiracism is a profoundly religious movement in everything but terminology. The idea that whites are permanently stained by their white privilege, gaining moral absolution only by eternally attesting to it, is the third wave’s version of original sin. The idea of a someday when America will “come to terms with race” is as vaguely specified a guidepost as Judgment Day. Explorations as to whether an opinion is “problematic” are equivalent to explorations of that which may be blasphemous. The social mauling of the person with “problematic” thoughts parallels the excommunication of the heretic. What is called “virtue signaling,” then, channels the impulse that might lead a Christian to an aggressive display of her faith in Jesus. There is even a certain Church Lady air to much of the patrolling on race these days, an almost performative joy in dog-piling on the transgressor, which under a religious analysis is perfectly predictable."

    8 votes

  9. Comment on A growing share of Americans say it’s not necessary to believe in God to be moral in ~humanities

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    A theist will tend to assert that an atheist's view of morality is entirely based on personal opinion and is therefore less valid. The problem with this is a theist's view of morality is also...

    A theist will tend to assert that an atheist's view of morality is entirely based on personal opinion and is therefore less valid. The problem with this is a theist's view of morality is also based on personal opinion but they simply add a layer of metaphysical indirection and then claim that they've solved any moral dilemma by doing so. Invoking gods doesn't add any real insight. So whereas they might say an atheist's view on whether the death penalty is moral is their own opinion, all a theist does is give their opinion on god's view on whether or not the death penalty is moral. So you're left with your opinion about god's opinion as opposed to just your opinion. How is that better?

    3 votes

  10. Comment on The humanities are in crisis - Students are abandoning humanities majors, turning to degrees they think yield far better job prospects. But they’re wrong. in ~humanities

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    It made little sense when the middle class was still doing fine and makes even less sense now that we have an Internet. Very few people can make lucrative careers out of what are essentially...

    Why get a degree in a subject that you can learn entirely from pirated books and streamed talks? That doesn't make a tonne of sense to me—anyone else?

    It made little sense when the middle class was still doing fine and makes even less sense now that we have an Internet. Very few people can make lucrative careers out of what are essentially hobbies. Work has always been work and loving what you do for a living has always been the exception. Why people think that would be less true these days is a mystery.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Trump: Impeach me and the market crashes in ~news

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    Why does it need to be permanent this time and what are we doing afterward to make things better?

    Why does it need to be permanent this time and what are we doing afterward to make things better?

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Black Mirror S2E02 "White Bear" discussion thread in ~tv

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    The repeated & voyeuristic public spectacle aspect is where the meat of the critique is, for my taste. If it were not for that, it'd be a simpler examination of the eye for an eye view on capital...

    The repeated & voyeuristic public spectacle aspect is where the meat of the critique is, for my taste. If it were not for that, it'd be a simpler examination of the eye for an eye view on capital punishment (punishing the perpetrator by inflicting the same thing they put their victim through). The writer deliberately makes it more difficult to sympathize with the protagonist than some here are making it sound by making her crime so heinous. Maybe it'd be too convenient of a dystopia if this sentence were being inflicted on, say, political protestors or someone else who clearly didn't do something wrong?

    But I feel like this series has failed in its goal when it has to resort to hackey narrative devices like having a character wake up with amnesia to make its point. I was actually more disturbed by the concept of futuristic torture as presented in Altered Carbon, which is not a very thoughtful show.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Samantha Bee: My critics ‘should be embarrassed by their own conduct’ in ~tv

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    I liked her when she was on The Daily Show but her Full Frontal persona is very one-note. Just cloying sarcastic and angry.

    I liked her when she was on The Daily Show but her Full Frontal persona is very one-note. Just cloying sarcastic and angry.

  14. Comment on This photographer documented three couples having sex on their period in ~arts

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    Dude, can we stop with all these new tech acronyms.

    AFABs
    WLW

    Dude, can we stop with all these new tech acronyms.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on What if a female CEO acted like Elon Musk? The Tesla CEO’s tearful New York Times interview reveals a lot about the double standards men and women face. in ~finance

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    Not that I can think of. Which makes this article more ridiculous and unnecessary clickbait.

    Not that I can think of. Which makes this article more ridiculous and unnecessary clickbait.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Political correctness: Where do we draw the line on drawing lines? in ~talk

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    I just view PC as the left-wing counterpart to fundamentalist religion. They share more in common than their adherents would like to admit.

    I just view PC as the left-wing counterpart to fundamentalist religion. They share more in common than their adherents would like to admit.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on What if a female CEO acted like Elon Musk? The Tesla CEO’s tearful New York Times interview reveals a lot about the double standards men and women face. in ~finance

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link
    TSLA dropped almost 9% today after that interview came out (the largest drop in nearly 2 years for the most shorted stock out there) and we're talking about how women might be penalized more. Can...

    TSLA dropped almost 9% today after that interview came out (the largest drop in nearly 2 years for the most shorted stock out there) and we're talking about how women might be penalized more. Can anyone name a female CEO who caused their company to lose $5.5 billion in value in one day because of what they said in an interview?

    8 votes

  19. Comment on What do we want as a community? in ~tildes

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    Yes. Discussions about views orthogonal to the mainstream without jumping to the ad hominems and moralistic chest-beating are a nice change of pace.

    Yes. Discussions about views orthogonal to the mainstream without jumping to the ad hominems and moralistic chest-beating are a nice change of pace.

    5 votes

  20. Comment on Black Mirror S1E01 "The National Anthem" discussion thread in ~tv

    SleepingInTheVoid
    Link Parent
    And, in fact, it's much more Black Mirror than the consistently overrated San Junipero.

    A lot of people think this episode isn’t really Black Mirror, or isn’t as impactful as other episodes, but I’d disagree.

    And, in fact, it's much more Black Mirror than the consistently overrated San Junipero.

    3 votes