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poo poo, I can't believe I overlooked this thread for a month, especially with one of my reading goals being more non-fiction (although I pulled a ton of recommendations from the history thread for that which is rad). I just finished reading On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail and I am finishing up The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. On the Road to Freedom was super interesting although I wish it had been more focused and less general (there are a lot of good stories but it doesn't dig deep into anything). At first I didn't like the narrative framework of a tour through famous CIvil Rights landmarks but I actually started to appreciate it later on as it was used to break up the chronology of some of the stories (since a lot of things would start in one city/state and end in another). The best were the quotes from the individuals who lived these stories, and I would have loved to read even more of those. The Big Short is a pretty good look into the 2008 financial crisis from the point of view of different investors who made money by betting against subprime mortgages. My main complaint is that it works a little too hard to glorify a group of people for knowing that the collapse was coming and essentially choosing to profit from it instead of trying to stop it. Obviously he does point out instances where they did try to warn people and they weren't listened to, but these guys still come off pretty sleazy themselves at certain points. This and a few of Lewis's other books (including Liar's Poker which is also about his time on Wall Street) are available as part of the Amazon Prime Kindle Library deal, so I will probably check out more of his stuff. Stravinsky posted:I just finished it, and while it is really well put together and had it's arguments clearly put out with evidence, I really do not think it would convince people who put a lot of stock into gender differences. While I don't think it would convince people who are extreme in their conviction (and honestly what ever does change the minds of zealots) I feel like it attacks that sweet spot of people who take this poo poo for granted because it's just common knowledge. I especially like the way she goes through the history of gender studies in science to prove the point that scientists have repeatedly worked backwards from "we know women are intellectually inferior, so let's see why - probably has something to do with head size". I also like how "women are dumber than men" gradually became "women's brains are better suited to different skills (but def not math you bimbos lol)".
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Mar 31, 2014 23:24
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Lead Psychiatry posted:Also Randi is a douche. In the last chapter he insinuates custodial staff at churches and theaters where these televangelist performances occur are drug addicts simply because he never found illegal drugs among the legal prescriptions tossed out after shows (Audience goers who think they're being healed throw their medications away). For all the pushing for evidence and such he could've at least stopped himself and maybe asked why he hasn't ever even seen illegal drugs being thrown away at any of the shows he attended as a spectator. Wait, so his theory is that the custodial staff is quickly snatching up all the illegal drugs for themselves, but not the expensive prescription drugs which they could turn around and sell for a profit (or, y'know, also just get high on as well) 
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Apr 4, 2014 19:04
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