I tend to give accounts like this some side eye:
>There are some doctors and nurses, who are just as bad - though none at our compound, which is run by this great charity that seems to be really on top of things. We heard horror stories of people graduating from nursing school without even knowing how to take a blood pressure - a nurse who used to work at the clinic would just make her blood pressure readings up, and give completely nonsensical numbers like "2/19". That's another thing. Haitians have a culture of tending not to admit they're wrong, so when cornered this nurse absolutely insisted that the blood pressure had been 2/19 and made a big fuss out of it. There are supposed to be doctors who are not much better, although as I mentioned our doctors are great.
Competent Haitians? Run by a great charity. Secondhand stories of incompetent nurses? Must be something about the culture.
Also (and to get more directly at what a higher up post alludes to) most Haitians are black but the charity mentioned is presumably US-based at least and likely run by white people. Coincidence? I report, you decide.
I didn't get to that bit before I got bored and went to do something else (fight with my flatmates cat) so I'm not gonna pass judgement: my general impression is that Scooter got old and reactionary after this (but before he got actually old)
yeah it's like an odd mix of charming and fun and depressing and pessimistic (or at least it made me feel pessimistic). I guess that's what you get when you actually treat the people in these countries as humans with complex inner and outer lives
Scott used to be capable of all sorts of observations. He came up
with a label for “epistemic learned helplessness” to describe how
persuadable he knew he could be.
Pity he doesn’t seem to be applying those lessons when it comes to
pseudoscience by racists.
I don't get how he never managed come up with 'any forum that isn't actively moderated to remain left will veer to the right' with the existence of the culture war thread (and the lack of 'don't fight the culture war here' moderation (which I think is in part impossible if you also let a self-selected group of people report on 'culture war'(*) stuff)).
*: nebulous term anyway.
Edit: scrolled the culture war thread, where somebody argued that not deadnaming somebody is less important than his right to know somebodies name. Sigh. (also how the fuck are they so utterly wrong constantly about trans issues?).
I get the impression I'm going to regret responding, not feeding the trolls and all that, but hey, I've got plenty of free time on my hands.
What's so interesting about cuba?
Not sure why I'm getting a stink eye here? This was aimed at Scott, not you (in case I was unclear).
The main interesting thing about Cuba in this context is [their highly functioning healthcare system](http://theconversation.com/is-the-cuban-healthcare-system-really-as-great-as-people-claim-69526).
This is genuinely relatively charmingly written and fun, thus far
Reads kind of like Journey to the End of the Night by Celine with all its captivating charm, scenery and slightly camouflaged repugnant morality.
Scott used to be capable of all sorts of observations. He came up with a label for “epistemic learned helplessness” to describe how persuadable he knew he could be.
Pity he doesn’t seem to be applying those lessons when it comes to pseudoscience by racists.
Good, now go to Cuba and compare.