And away we go…  

Richard Dawkins: No, Not All Opinions Are Equal—We Need Elites with Expert Knowledge

Comment Of The Week — Nick Armin: I agree that we want elite people to perform tasks of great importance. Buuuut, we shouldn’t continue along with a society that prefers classism and only benefits an exclusive few. 
Currently we are in a time when plutocrats rule because they found a way to consolidate power from our supposed democracies. I think a better way to term the thing Dawkins supports is a ‘technocracy’ which is a society that places specialized individuals into positions of leadership. 
But I think we can do better than that. We can develop a direct democracy (with proportional representation in the legislature) that takes its cues and gives deference to and from an erudite class. 

This is not to say erudite people, such as physicians, physicists and educators would be a new elite class, but they would be respected and have the floor in public discussions, rather than elitists in the business sector or politicians who rely on rhetoric and propaganda to disseminate their agenda to the public. 

The term elitism today is specifically aimed at the CEOs and politicians that support multinational corporations and the disparity in wealth and socioeconomic classes in the global economy. This distinction needs to be drawn before we use the term ‘elitist’.

Jeff Garlin: Political Correctness Can’t Beat Having Good Taste

Cara Ramsey: Substitute the phrase “being polite to other human beings” every time you want to piss on “political correctness”. “I don’t like political correctness” really means “I don’t like being polite to other human beings”. “Political correctness stifles free speech” really means “Being polite to other human beings stifles free speech”. “People have a right to ignore political correctness” really means “People have a right to ignore being polite to other human beings”.
It’s not hard to understand what “poltiical correctness” is when you strip it of right wing fascist attempts to “frame” it negatively and instead realize it’s about human beings.

Google’s AI Learns Betrayal and “Aggressive” Actions Pay Off

Michael D. Melecio:They were highly aggressive when forced into a position that made aggression necessary and they were cooperative when that was necessary. They set the parameters of the test to determine the most logical outcome of a very basic test. Stop making this sound like a bad thing.

(Good point! – Editor) 

Why People Want to Get Rid of Confederate Statues, as Explained by Plato

Michael Barreto:They’re an open symbol of bigotry and glorify those that fought to keep an entire race of people enslaved for the gain of an elite few… Is this really that fuckin hard to grasp?

And with the entirely opposite but equally valid opinion… 

Richard E. Parisi: Polls are showing that most Americans don’t want to tear down historic public art work. This is really just political correctness being taken too far. Besides, tearing statues down is not going to impact on anyone’s rights or anyone’s ability to earn a living or gain an education or be safe in their daily routine. 

Memes 101: How Cultural Evolution Works

Wesley Hovis: Trump won despite all conventional projections because of meme magic. The left needs to drastically step up its meme game if we’re going to save humanity.

Juka Lukkari: The Left can’t meme.