coldhearted scientist وداد

The Primary Contradiction and various commentators are suffering from self-doubt. It is always worth remembering that self-doubt, at least of the variety being described, is a result of oppression. In my para-Christian education self-doubt and humility were virtues, and they may be instructive indeed for the arrogant and the entitled. In other situations they are hardly the needed Rx.

It occurs to me that the standard advice of various types against which I rant and rave here and elsewhere is as irksome as it is not because it is wrong per se,
but because it already presupposes a situation of privilege. “Just do this and that, and everything will be fine” is only true if one is actually in a position to do this and that, and if something else is not also needed. In that situation, the “just do this and that” sentence grates. It grates because it asks one to squeeze into a paradigm built for someone else, and to close one’s eyes, unrealistically, to what is happening all around. That is nice, middle class work – if you can get it.

Axé.