Posts by Neil
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So far some gains by the Dems but no huge push back against Trump. It’s going to be a fairly nasty next few years.
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I’ve already seen from the usual suspects comment along the lines of - if there’s one thing worse than a Dem defeat it’s a Dem victory.
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Hard News: The big vision and the small problems, in reply to dcnbwz,
It looks to me like certain factions of the National party are moving into Trump like politics
The most Trump-like politician in parliament is the current Deputy Prime Minister.
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Hard News: Lost Men, in reply to Sacha,
We have all encountered research about the gendered distribution of violence. ‘Vengeful’ or ‘obsessive’ behaviour I would like to see some evidence for.
There’s research availabile online and almost daily evidence of male violence motivated by revenge. But if you have a different view I’d be happy to engage.
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Inevitably on a change of government the opposition loses the magic wand somewhere under the opposition benches before taking office.
The out-going government, now opposition, happens across the magic wand but the price paid is it brings with it a two term curse of relentless negativity.
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As an aside, the Nouméa Accord plays out in New Caledonia this week with the referendum on independence. Sadly there’s a very real chance that the result may not be respected by the losing side. That could lead to the sort political violence seen in the 80s.
The Accord was supposed to allow time for the development of inter community rapprochement but it seems to have been too difficult.
A prominent Kanak woman politician appears to be not able to take part in the process which is a real tragedy.
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Hard News: Lost Men, in reply to ,
I’m just interested in how the mind works, with a particular focus on categories (and the role of story), and think that understanding male power dynamics is critical to dealing with the resurgent threats to liberal democracy.
And I think what we are is in large part the product of our evolutionary heritage which modern science such as brain scans continues to shed light on.
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Hard News: Lost Men, in reply to ,
I see myself using such information to help understand and deal with unwell males whose social dominance behaviour can lead to aggression.
Side stepping direct confrontation could be one strategy.
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Testosterone is interesting as the evidence points to it producing either pro-social or anti-social behaviour depending how the male sees themselves within a social hierarchy.
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Hard News: Lost Men, in reply to Emma Hart,
It’s a continuum, to quote from the article you linked to:
Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, head of the Gender Medicine Unit at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, agrees that things aren’t so simple. “There are differences between men and women when you look in large groups, and these are important for diagnosis and treatment,” she says. “But there are always more differences within genders. We always need to look at culture, environment, education and a person’s role in society,” she says.
If a neuroscientist was given someone’s brain without their body or any additional information, they would still probably be able to guess if it had belonged to a man or a woman. Men’s brains are larger, for example, and are likely to have a larger number of “male” features overall. But the new findings suggest that it is impossible to predict what mix of brain features a person is likely to have based on their sex alone.
On a population basis there is a significant difference but any particular individual will have some degree of mixing. However, a small percentage will show significantly less mix which in terms of male violence might be significant.
Social conditioning
The Dunedin Longitudinal Study has shown clear evidence for the interaction of genes and environment.