The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 10
We have to talk about 2+2. Unfortunately. Most unfortunately. This is because what looks like a simple and profoundly stupid Twitter fight must be understood in the full context in which it is playing out. This context is, in fact, the most important and least reported part of the origin story of the Great 2+2 War of 2020, and few realize that this ridiculous discourse didn’t come out of a vacuum. It arose in reaction to something James Lindsay posted on Twitter, as has been reported, but more specifically it is the product of a Washington State Ethnic Studies program director, Shraddha Shirude, jumping into that fray with a request to make 2+2=5 “into a true statement” in order to defend her Ethnic Studies education program in that state (and beyond). This “ethnomathematics” program has deep ties into the academic literature within the critical study of mathematics education and is now currently being implemented in Washington and may spread to California and New York soon, and from there, beyond. It is also part of a deliberate attempt to destabilize our ability to identify and name objective truths so that the activists pushing these agendas cannot be criticized and so they can advance their agendas unimpeded. Join James Lindsay on the New Discourses podcast for a deep, sometimes emotional dive into the real story of the 2+2 discourse.
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10 comments
Three true answers:
2+2 = 4 in base systems 5 and above.
2+2 = 10 in base 4
2+2 = 11 in base 3
Source: GlaDOS
Essentially, artificially bolstering “self-esteem” in minority youth sets them up for failure in later life. Blacks aren’t genetically disfavored as to intelligence, cultural factors here come into play, and the very great majority are allowed to coast through without ever having been held to any standard thus never having been compelled to actually learn anything, or to know the effort and persistence required to learn things – the “subtle racism of diminished expectations”…
There’s always subtraction of finite resources. The radicals may make some headway but it’s always going to be happening in tandem with the ability to re-state “I had four english muffins, I ate two, and I’m trying to gauge whether I should go shop today or tomorrow.” Everyone runs those little complementary expressions in their heads: had four, took away two, have two. Have two, used to have four. 4-2=2, 2+2 =4. Maybe this will ameliorate the damage a bit? I’m not saying they won’t make a whole program out of it, but it’s going to coexist with the constant everyday ways of reproving it. Had four quarters, spent two in the laundry machine, do I have enough left for a soda? It’s still a problem because the _1984_ characters could reprove things in those small ways too, and then be chilled and scared into submission. They knew in their heart but it was a social climate of corroborating the wrong answers.
Mathematically rigorous systems in which 2+2=5: Analogies with non-Euclidean geometry
https://www.academia.edu/43900105/Mathematically_rigorous_systems_in_which_2_2_5_Analogies_with_non_Euclidean_geometry
Philosophical bafflegab i.e. bullsh*t.
This simply relabelling the numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7… to 1,0,3,2,5,4,7,6… in order to be able to write 2+2=7 (which means 3+3=6) where different symbols have be used to represent the numbers 3 and 6. We know 3+3=6 whether those numbers are written in Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan, or Roman numerals. The statement is independent of the glyphs used. The analogy with non-Euclidean geometry is just an attempt to clothe this slight-of-hand in a cloak of respectability.
Reason Magazine, a Libertarian publication, reported on racist math and Shirude, earlier in the year. Math racism is silly.
I’d like to have Shirude explain just how comfortable she’d be driving across a long bride designed by someone who never learned cal. because it was developed by Newton and Leibniz were both white. Leibniz was a Germana and probably a pre-nazi or something like that too.
Yes, I know their work was built on previous theory from Greeks and others.
Lovely clear explanation of what has been happening in this debate and why it’s important. Thank you for the great work you’re doing, Jams Lindsay!
It is very Simple- Let Shraddha Shirude Demonstrate conditions under which 2 + 2 , in fact, equals 5.
The name of the game is Put Up or Shut Up, sweetheart!
Exactly! Perhaps Laplace faced similar resistance when he first suggested his now famous transforms. Put up or shut up!