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Deplatforming Isaac Newton

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In a long and interesting essay on upper class angst about Woke schools, Bari Weiss mentions, in passing, that Newton’s Laws are now to be called the “fundamental laws of physics” to avoid Eurocentrism. That won’t work, of course, because students would still need to learn the laws. Fully Woke teachers and students have moved well beyond such dogmatic authoritarian thinking. Just look at how the laws (1687) are phrased:

An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless an external force acts upon it.

When a force acts on an object, it will cause the object to accelerate.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Such statements are reprehensible because they imply that the students are not capable of coming up with creative ways of understanding physics via acting out and dissing the teacher.

Weiss, by the way, was the journalist that the New York Times hired to help broaden their thinking in 2016 but by 2020, she was outta there. She’s probably better off watching the education meltdown unfold than dealing with the nasty little trolls occupying desks at the Times today.*

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727).jpg
Newton in 1689

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail offers a more conventional kick at Newton (1643-1726) who was, by all accounts, a genius but not a very nice person:

He was generous to friends and relatives, constantly handing out money, but a vicious feuder. [Biographer Patricia] Fara describes him as a ‘serial slanderer: as soon he had vanquished one opponent, he moved on to the next.’ He used to play backgammon with John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, but they fell out over the ownership of astronomical readings that Flamsteed had made, and friendship swiftly declined to bitter enmity. If Newton didn’t like you, he didn’t just seethe impotently. He tried to destroy your life and your career. Often he managed both.

Marcus Berkmann, “From gravity to depravity: Isaac Newton was a scientific genius who saved the nation’s economy – but he also ruined careers, viciously feuded with friends, and was plagued with obsessive thoughts of sinful sex” at Daily Mail

One suspects that disliking Newton wouldn’t mean embracing widespread innumeracy. But the trend to deplatforming major math and science figures will likely end no other way. Why study what one is taught to despise?

See also: In Big Tech World: The journalist as censor, hit man, and snitch Glenn Greenwald looks at a disturbing trend in media toward misrepresentation as well as censorship.

and

Yes, there really is a war on math in our schools. Pundits differ as to the causes but here are some facts parents should know.

Hat tip: Ken Francis, co-author with Theodore Dalrymple of The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd

Comments
Newton lived in a time similar to ours, with insane monarchs hiring and firing favorites daily, for no reason except evil pleasure. He maintained his power and fortune by playing Deepstate blackmail games expertly, just as Gates and Bezos and Elon do now. There are other scientists or businessmen who develop the same ideas, but without the gangster personality they don't get rich and famous in a gangster world.polistra
March 12, 2021
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Seversky: Socialists sees humanity through a very narrow lens, which is so focused on whatever narrow thought they believe will deliver humanity to the safe bosom of communism, which is still believed to be able to work regardless of the 100% failure rate. Amos Oz is a hero of socialists who was, until his passing, a world renowned Israeli author who preached socialism. His daughter, Galia Oz, recently released a book detailing the kinds of abuses she suffered growing up in his house, which has resulted in socialists reacting the way they always do when one of their own is less than perfect. They are doing everything from making excuses for his abhorrent behavior to blaming his daughter. Had he been more in line with Likud, those same people would be toasting her. Socialists do not tolerate much of anything unless they are dealing with other socialists, then they tolerate just about everything. There is evidence of more than sexual misconduct with Governor Cuomo, but serious issues with nursing homes which did contribute to deaths of elderly people. It took numerous women, not just one, to come forward before Democrats started to call for an investigation, unlike Kavanaugh.BobRyan
March 12, 2021
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Human beings are generally are much more complex and multi-faceted than cartoon versions of history can handle. Newton, for example, is credited with the invention of the cat-flap and someone who goes to those lengths for a beloved pet cannot be all bad.Seversky
March 12, 2021
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