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In pomo and critical theory style writing, when imaginative seeing, precise language, and fertile topic blend properly, you get genuinely enlightening writing unlike anything ever written before 1950. It’s like next-level alien poetry. Sadly that’s like 5% of it at best.
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The other 95% of the time, you get a thick sludge of unimaginative dimwit thinking meeting dull topics with overpowered language that overwhelms weak attempts to wield it. It reads like a weakling struggling to lift a heavy sword to attack a bunny.
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I don’t know why they train vast hordes of average intellect undergrads in this language. It’s beyond 95% of them intellectually, but nobody will ever cop to perpetuating the impedance mismatch. It’s like pretending weekend Python bootcamps can get you to full-stack ninja.
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It’s like perversely pretending students who struggle with high-school algebra can do algebraic topology just because both terms contain “algebra.” This pretense is one reason the whole intellectual enterprise has the reputation of the worst sophomoric instances at it.
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Which isn’t to say the worst grade is written by actual sophomores. Half the faculty writing seems about that level.
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True, but most genres don’t blur grades of quality and levels of competence to this degree.
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Replying to @vgr
Is there any genre of writing that does better than 5%? Sturgeon’s Law (90% of anything is crap) is close to ironclad, and possibly too generous.
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The problem is, all 100% gets deployed in production, so to speak. There’s a lot of hello-world essays being deployed in real conversations like they should be taken seriously t.co/rEZfdeNwlt
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People asking for examples of the the 5%... definitely not sharing my picks 🤣 That’s just asking for arguments. Not like I’m a connoisseur of the genre anyway.
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