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Victim Blame

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  • January 20, 2020 at 10:20 am #955135
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    OldRidgeback

    There is a lot of patronising

    There is a lot of patronising twaddle in his article. There’s also a lot of arrogant twittery and comment about cyclsits being the architects of their own misfortune.

    However, take a step back and think about some of the points he makes. Key issues are that he says drivers are not looking for cyclists and that cyclists are relatively small and hard to spot. This pretty much falls into line with the thinking that while most drivers aren’t actually gunning for you if you’re on two wheels (whether on a bicycle or motorbike too for that matter), they often don’t expect you to be there, don’t look properly and may miss seeing you and don’t appreciate that a two wheeler behaves diffferently to a four-wheeled (or more) motor vehicle.

    In other words, while it may not be your fault that a motor vehicle driver crashes into you, don’t expect that they won’t. As a rider you have to assume that motor vehicle drivers have not seen you and if they do, they still won’t appreciate how you will behave.

    January 20, 2020 at 10:17 am #955133
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    bikeman01
    Mungecrundle wrote:
    bikeman01 wrote:
    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

     

    Mrs Mungecrundle has a PhD in Botany, I’ll have you know. Furthermore I am incredibly proud of her achievement in working hard for that qualification and encourage her to use it professionally.

    There is little enough respect for people who have actually studied and understand complex aspects of the world around us, how we got to where we are and more importantly what might be done to fix the problems of our own making. Being an “expert” is bandied about as an insult whilst megalomaniac dotards wield vast power and celebrity half wits get paid more for a story on who shagged who in the swimming pool of some poxy island resort than any number of people who are actually useful to society get paid in a year. Don’t even get me started on how much kicking a football about is valued in relation to a nurse or engineer….

    So, yeah, if someone has earned a PhD then they have earned a level of respect.

    Now people who put BSc or BA after their names….

     

    Let us know when she gets something more challenging than working in the garden centre.

    Bikeman Bsc Hons

    January 20, 2020 at 10:06 am #955131
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    hawkinspeter

    I’m just glad that no-one

    I’m just glad that no-one mentioned being a doctor of squirrel related studies.

    https://phys.org/news/2020-01-strongly-squirrels-good.html

    (Seems a good deal – get a PhD in psychology and then spend most of your time watching squirrels)

    January 20, 2020 at 9:00 am #955129
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    Mungecrundle
    bikeman01 wrote:
    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

     

    Mrs Mungecrundle has a PhD in Botany, I’ll have you know. Furthermore I am incredibly proud of her achievement in working hard for that qualification and encourage her to use it professionally.

    There is little enough respect for people who have actually studied and understand complex aspects of the world around us, how we got to where we are and more importantly what might be done to fix the problems of our own making. Being an “expert” is bandied about as an insult whilst megalomaniac dotards wield vast power and celebrity half wits get paid more for a story on who shagged who in the swimming pool of some poxy island resort than any number of people who are actually useful to society get paid in a year. Don’t even get me started on how much kicking a football about is valued in relation to a nurse or engineer….

    So, yeah, if someone has earned a PhD then they have earned a level of respect.

    Now people who put BSc or BA after their names….

    January 20, 2020 at 8:36 am #955127
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    Hirsute

    bikeman01 wrote:

    bikeman01 wrote:

    hirsute wrote:
    No, you didn’t mention IT at all or that it was lowly. Nor that it wasn’t a botany department. You seem to be reading a lot of what you want into the situation.

     

    I said ‘ junior departmental admin staff’ 

     

     


    Yes, so nothing that you claimed in last half hour.

    January 20, 2020 at 8:30 am #955125
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    bikeman01

    hirsute wrote:

    hirsute wrote:
    No, you didn’t mention IT at all or that it was lowly. Nor that it wasn’t a botany department. You seem to be reading a lot of what you want into the situation.

     

    I said ‘ junior departmental admin staff’ 

     

     

    January 20, 2020 at 8:28 am #955123
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    Hirsute

    No, you didn’t mention IT at
    No, you didn’t mention IT at all or that it was lowly.
    Nor that it wasn’t a botany department.
    You seem to be reading a lot of what you want into the situation.

    January 20, 2020 at 8:24 am #955121
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    Argos74

    Well, from reading the first

    Well, from reading the first two paragraphs, it looks like he just not qualified to be an expert witness in anything other than what flavour of crisps to buy. And even then, a certain level of cirumspection would be judicious.

    I then read the rest of it. Jesus is disappoint.

    January 20, 2020 at 8:23 am #955119
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    bikeman01

    vonhelmet wrote:

    vonhelmet wrote:
    bikeman01 wrote:

    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

    Why do you think someone with a PhD in botany shouldn’t call themselves a doctor in an academic environment? Do you not think that might be relevant to their botanist colleagues?

    I thought I was clear in that these PHD Drs worked in lowly administrative positions in support functions like IT rather than in a department relevant to their PHD subject. I’ve no doubt that their peers who did work in their subject departments also looked on them with a wry smile.

    Appologies for singling out botany, I could have said art history, or  viking and old norse studies – I’m sure they are all really challenging subjects. 

    January 20, 2020 at 8:23 am #955117
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    Hirsute

    One of my friends years ago
    One of my friends years ago was running in town (I think he was on his way back from the park) and was approached by police due to a nearby robbery.
    “Can I have your name sir?”
    “Yes, it’s Dr Owen.”
    “Right you are sir”

    January 20, 2020 at 7:31 am #955115
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    vonhelmet

    That’s all well and good, but
    That’s all well and good, but that thread of discussion was started by a dumbass claiming outrage at academics using their academic titles at their academic institutions, so not exactly lacking in context.

    January 19, 2020 at 11:12 pm #955113
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    FluffyKittenofTindalos

    hirsute wrote:

    hirsute wrote:

    bikeman01 wrote:
    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

    How dare they study for 3 years to get a PhD and call themselves Dr.

     

    What’s your highest qualification? 

    What subjects are in this ‘shitty’ list?

    No idea what system of values would call botany ‘shitty’. That seems a bit weird to me, it certainly wouldn’t be on my list of “academic disciplines I am a little suspicious of”. That’s one of the more respectable ones.

    But personally I do think it is a bit pretentious to use the title ‘Dr’ if it’s not directly relevant. Friends and fellow-students (from my own dropped-out-and-gave-up PhD days) who actually got theirs don’t use the title unless it is relevant to some employment situation.

    For one thing, you run the risk of co-workers or social acquaintances asking you about their weird skin condition or chronic stomach pain. Or expecting you to treat an RTC victim (‘stand aside and let me through, I’m an expert in medieval art’).

    January 19, 2020 at 10:30 pm #955111
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    Hirsute
    bikeman01 wrote:
    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

    How dare they study for 3 years to get a PhD and call themselves Dr.

     

    What’s your highest qualification? 

    What subjects are in this ‘shitty’ list?

    January 19, 2020 at 9:27 pm #955109
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    Podc

    Sounds like a Mr Loophole
    Sounds like a Mr Loophole type using his qualifications to give an air of respectability to his jaundiced and prejudiced views.

    January 19, 2020 at 9:27 pm #955107
    0
    vonhelmet

    bikeman01 wrote:

    bikeman01 wrote:

    ktache wrote:
    I am also suspicious of anyone who has to big up the fact they have a phd.

    A while back I contracted at Oxford University. It always made me laugh how many junior departmental admin staff had PHDs in shitty subjects like botany and insisted on using the title Dr.

    Why do you think someone with a PhD in botany shouldn’t call themselves a doctor in an academic environment? Do you not think that might be relevant to their botanist colleagues?

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