Unfair of me, I know

is a fellow at Salon writing for science and health. He holds a BA in environmental studies from Oberlin College.

But doesn’t that just strike you as a really rigorous education? A significantly mushy subject at a very liberal liberal arts college?

20 thoughts on “Unfair of me, I know”

  1. Tbf, this is a good CV if your ambition is to be a sex slave for one of the punk-rock-aesthetic Australian biker gangs who will dominate the post-apocalyptic wastelands of the future.

  2. Dennis, Tiresome Denizen of Central Ohio

    He holds a BA in environmental studies from Oberlin College.

    As someone who is familiar with Oberlin (it’s in the ol’ backyard, to an extent), I can say with confidence that you have no idea just how worthless that degree is.

    He probably thinks the periodic table is something women have.

  3. “He probably thinks the periodic table is something women have”

    Bigot! It’s ‘menstruating People’s or ‘vagina owners’ if you please.

  4. Depends what he’s made of it. And what type of writing on science and health that Salon demand of him. Whether his degree is easy or rigorous is far from the whole picture.

  5. Dennis, More Transbored Than Transphobic

    Oh no! Carrie’s going to show up here and start ragging on me. The horror!

  6. He apparently thinks that “gasoline” (“petrol” to Englishmen) is the same as the “natural gas” that Russia exports to the EU.

  7. Dennis, Explainer of Slurs

    Probably shouldn’t have used the term “ragging”.

    Oh well, another day another unforgivable expression of heteronormative bigotry.

  8. Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious

    Depends what he’s made of it. And what type of writing on science and health that Salon demand of him. Whether his degree is easy or rigorous is far from the whole picture.

    He’s writing for fucking Salon. Salon! If that doesn’t say wasted education, nothing does.

  9. Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious
    “He’s writing for fucking Salon. Salon! If that doesn’t say wasted education, nothing does.”

    Well, if what you say about his college is anything like accurate, at least he hasn’t wasted very much education.

  10. ‘vagina owners’ if you please.

    Pendantically speaking that should be “ovary owners”. After all, a post-op will have a mock-vagina but infintitessimally likely to be menstruating.

  11. I had to check the actual title, but I did one year of Environmental Science at university, because it was maps ‘n’ stuff and I was (and am) into maps ‘n’ stuff.

  12. “He’s writing for fucking Salon. Salon! If that doesn’t say wasted education, nothing does.”

    Well, maybe he’s doing what he wants to be doing, or going where he wants to be going, and maybe him writing for Salon is only part of that.

  13. From what I’ve seen, with that kind of education, if you’re not among the 2% of graduates who end up as an esoteric scholar at some think tank, or at the UN working as some kind of diplomat, you’re probably going to be yet another marketing consultant. You’ll be plugging numbers into Excel and answering mundane emails like the rest of us. And the most you’ll get out of your degree is some of your peers politely acting impressed when you talk about it at dinner parties.

    I have many stories like this, but I went on a few dates with a chick who studied comparative literature at Oxford and once got a story of hers in Salon. Once I got to know her, though, nothing but mommy and daddy issues, a vape addiction and the inability to sleep uninterrupted for more than 20 minutes because of her anxiety. And yes, these factors affected the quality of her writing.

    That’s why it’s a pet peeve of mine when people say “Read more books,” as if that’s a symbol of intelligence with all the shite material that’s out there.

  14. I’m trying to think of where one would pass by Salon on the way to and … no I can’t. It’s too horrible to contemplate.

  15. I must say, however, with the greatest possible intended kindness, that “holding” a degree doesn’t actually definitively indicate that it’s his degree and that he was awarded it on whatever merit was required.

    Sam Vara, you point that degrees aren’t the measure of the man (etc) is true. I’ve know several blokes who had no degree but went on to very successful careers in high tech. But the point here is surely that he thought it important enough to put in the blurb; so the mockery is justifiable.

    But the question isn’t how he talks, or what he looks like, or whatever degrees he may or may not have had – what’s the writing like?

    Well, first, it’s in Salon, so one’s expectations aren’t high.

    And he manages to avoid exceeding expectations.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *