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Friday, August 6, 2021

A SAD DAY

Yesterday, at about noon, a vet came to our apartment to put our little kitty to sleep. She has been with us for three years and was the source of more joy and solace that it would be possible for me to describe. She had something called feline leukemia, had stopped eating, and was slowly starving to death.


I never thought of our kitty as an intellectual, but she had good taste in books, preferring those written by myself, although this may simply be the ones she could reach by climbing the ladder in my study. Here is a picture of her taken a year ago. Clearly, she is inspecting the titles of the books in order to decide which one she wishes to read next. I would have given a very great deal to save her, had it been possible.




42 comments:

Another Anonymous said...

Prof. Wolff,

Condolences on the passing of kitty.

I appreciate how wonderful a pet a cat can be. I have only learned this within this past year, when our daughter returned home during the past year and brought her cat, Kevoth, with her. He stayed with us after she returned to her apartment, and he has become a devoted companion, following me around the house, snooping into every crook and cranny, meditating at distant sights that I cannot perceive, and playing tag with me while I am working at 3 A.M.

I am confident that there is another feline out there that can continue to bring you and your wife joy.

Chris said...

My condolences. I agree with AA that another fine feline is out there.

Jon Rosenthal said...

We miss the cats that have been with us. Among the best was one who just walked in the door and stayed with us for close to ten years. He set the standard; we have yet to find his successor. Uncanny who much they become part of your life. We know what your loss means. Be open for another friend.

aaall said...

Condolences, the current boss hereabouts sized me up for several weeks while I walked the dog and then let me know I was hired. Another is out there.

Anonymous said...

We were gutted when we lost our cats. My condolences Prof. Wolff.

-Tyler

Michael Kates said...

So sorry to hear that, Prof. Wolff.

F Lengyel said...

Please accept my condolences. Losing a beloved pet is like losing a family member--and sometimes worse.

Matt said...

I'm very sorry to hear it. My cat is about 16 now, and though he seems to be in good health, he had hype thyroid, controlled by medicine that lowers the white blood cell count. Inside cats can live up to 20 sometimes,or even longer occasionally, but I do worry how much longer he has left. I don't like to think about it. In any case, if you do feel like taking in another cat, there are probably senior cats at shelters that would be very happy to have a loving home.

jgkess@cfl.rr.com said...

My latest cat, a white pearl of the purist extraction, is a most confounding creature. Aloof and indifferent for a large majority of the time, yet capable when necessary of a remarkably curious measure of dispensation of solace.

Another Anonymous said...

Per my comment on a previous post regarding distrust between the races, in which African-Americans are frequently the target, a story has been reported today of an African-American realtor and the African-American father and son to whom he was showing a home in Wyoming, Michigan, being arrested after the police received a phone call from a neighbor. In the interest of full disclosure, apparently someone of unidentified race had been arrested the previous week for also being in the home.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/07/us/black-realtor-and-client-handcuffed-michigan/index.html

In the video interview accompanying the story, the father offers advice to the rest of us that we should restrict telephone calls to the police when we see a crime, not when we see African-Americans doing the normal things that the rest of us do.

Regarding my tendency to speak to strangers, yesterday while shopping at the local grocery store I saw an African-American man wearing a University of Michigan football jersey. I said Hi and asked him if he had played football for U of M. He answered No, I’m just a fan. I asked him if he thought that Harbaugh was being overpaid (U of M has lost the last four games to Ohio, it’s main rival; Harbaugh is being paid something in the vicinity of $7 Million per annum), and he informed me that Harbaugh has agreed to a pay cut. We parted with friendly cheers of Go Blue!

I would encourage everyone to strike up conversations with strangers of all races. It is not difficult. It can’t hurt, and can even help to reduce the tension and distrust that is eating away at our democracy.

anon. said...

Well, it's an awfully long and disconnected way from mourning a beloved pet to an encounter in grocery store, but I have to ask AA whether he would have asked a white man wearing a university football jersey whether he'd played football for that university?

Another Anonymous said...

Absolutely, why not? I have struck up conversations with strangers of all races and ethnicities, Caucasians, African-Americans, Indians, Sikhs (you can tell who is a Sikh by their turban), Filipinos, ….

But let’s say your implication that I especially go out of my way to speak to African-Americans were correct, and that I do that to pat myself on my back and prove my liberal credentials, so what? The fact that you could even raise this as a possible explanation, in order to trivialize this conduct, says more about you than it does about me.

And not all of my conversations are good-natured. I have two pet peeves: people who leave their shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot, rather than walking it over to the cart corral; and people who park in handicapped spaces whose vehicles do not bear a handicapped sticker. I have frequently confronted individuals who engage in both behaviors, shoppers for not simply walking the cart over to the corral, and drivers who park in handicapped spaces without a handicapped sticker, depriving someone else who needs the space. I am an equal opportunity scold, and have chastised both Caucasians and African-Americans for engaging in this selfish conduct. My friends have warned me that one day I am going to wind up getting shot, but I will die knowing I was doing the right thing, for a higher cause. (Joke.)

anon. said...

My implication was not that you went out of your way to speak to African Americans. I was actually wondering whether the question you asked of a particular person was informed by some degree of stereotypical thinking. But I'll accept that you are an equal opportunity conversationalist who, as I myself do, sometimes ends up in embarrassing situations.

F Lengyel said...

Prof Wolff wrote, "I never thought of our kitty as an intellectual, but she had good taste in books..."

I once had a learned cat who was my intellectual equal. We never once discussed the compulsion to prove one's liberal or PMC bona fides—he never felt the need. When asked what he was doing to oppose systemic oppression, my cat replied to the accusatory didactic tone of what he took to be a motte and bailey argument. "F— you, feed me!" he said.

My learned cat later explained that the motte was systemic oppression, a macro phenomenon held not to supervene on individual action; whereas the bailey is the strategically inserted ontological assumption of methodological individualism, together with a parallel moral theory that attributes blame to the individual for their role in either perpetuating or benefiting from systemic oppression. It isn't clear he said, which alternative was intended and asserted without evidence, but in any case he wanted to be fed.

Another Anonymous said...

le terreau du mal,

I propose a transposition of the phraseology “motte & bailey” to “bailey & motte,” since rhetorically, as well as alphabetically, the bailey precedes the motte.

F Lengyel said...

Another Anonymous, an excellent proposal. I will stick with the prevalent usage, but I encourage you to persevere in yours.

My fable could use editing. Mostly cutting. The tone of the question was peremptory. One should speak of assigning blame. The phrase "without evidence" could be cut, since this is understood. It would then withstand translation into numerous languages.

Another Anonymous said...

Your fable was very amusing and captures the personality of cats, which (who?) demand that their superior needs be met immediately. I have had experience with only one cat, Kevoth, who my daughter left with us during the pandemic, and if she demands his return, she will have to hire a lawyer, because I intend to contest custody. Kevoth is amazingly amusing, whining in the most sorrowful tones, even after he has been fed both wet and dry food, and making undecipherable demands on our attention. He has the ideal life, sleeping during most of the day, cleaning his fur incessantly, and watching the birds, squirrels and rabbits through our living room window door, fantasizing, I assume, about toying with them in a game of catch and release. He then spends the night stalking me, tagging me from behind with both his paws, and then scurrying away to a safe haven. He comes with the added benefit of not having to walk him in the freezing cold to relieve himself. I have been converted from a cat disdainer to a cat lover.

Jim said...

Professor Wolff --

We once spoke about the loss of your cat Christmas. While indoor cats can live up to 20-plus years, it is rarely more than that. As a consequence, if we live upwards of 90-plus years and happen to own cats, then we will inevitably go through the process of losing them. I find solace in knowing that we gave them probably the best life they could have otherwise.

I wish the blog allowed me to upload a photo of our beloved cat Burnie who passed away from an aggressive case of leukemia over 20 years ago. She liked to squeeze in to temporary spaces on the bookshelves when available. For some reason, she would often wind up next to Bernard Bell's "The African-American Novel and Its Tradition." I liked to think she simply had good taste in books.

-- Jim

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Jim, if you send me the picture as an email attachment I will post it on my blog and give Burnie some measure of immortality.

Anonymous said...

@le terreau du mal

There is some irony when a mouse (anonymous on top), like yours truly, appreciates your cat's insightful answer when so many cat lovers fail to do so.

Indeed, on the one hand, macro, systemic oppression (i.e. therefore independent on individual actions) and, on the other hand, individuals who are blamed for perpetuating said macro phenomenon ... through their actions or even their unconscious biases!

----------

I remember some years ago someone broached that subject in this same blog, using however a somewhat different terminology. At the time, if memory serves, the observation was about methodological individualism versus structures as the methodological basis for the social sciences.

From memory, our host answered that comment with the idea that, in his opinion, both structural considerations and an understanding of the roots of individual behaviour were required. In fairness, he admitted that it was complicated and nobody had achieved such a synthesis.

What he did not seem to consider then is that perhaps such synthesis is not possible because it leads to contradictions.

- The AnonyMouse

F Lengyel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
F Lengyel said...

My cat was a distant relative of Pushkin's feline, and died in 2013. I believe he was a Straussian, but I had to discern this between the lines. He would have appreciated your comment, which must have been what he had in mind. His grasp of philosophy and statistical and mathematical social science far surpassed my own—and still does, despite my obdurate efforts to advance in these subjects. For example, it was from my cat that I learned that controlling for a variable means adding it to the model, at least in the case of linear models. Often a social scientist won't have the variable to be controlled for, but will use instead a so-called proxy variable. He seemed to have a feeling for these matters. There was no trace of confusion about any of this on his furry face, as far as I could tell.

I don't recall the discussion you mention. I think my cat would have agreed with professor Wolff that the methods of statistical social science aren't refined enough to state the Motte and Baily theses above precisely enough to be sociologically substantive, and even if they did admit a more precise formulation, the question of blame is an additional moral "structure" that comes afterwards. Then my cat would have gone on about the meaning of explanation in the social sciences. Perhaps that's what he would have said. Being a cat, he would have had the intellectual distance afforded by the difference in our species, as well as the luxury and time to pursue ideas.

LFC said...

Structures don't exist without individual behavior of some kind. Structures exert effects on individuals once the structures are well-established, but in the end social phenomena are a result of what people do or fail to do. "Systemic" oppression is rooted in systems and structures, but those structures are in turn ultimately rooted in individuals' acts, failures to act, and attitudes. Again, the structures, once established, can affect those individual acts, so it's a reciprocal kind of relationship, which is one reason why structures are often difficult, though not impossible, to change.

As Wendt notes (in Social Theory of International Politics), structures "are both not reducible to and yet somehow dependent for their existence on" agents (individuals). He uses the words "macro-structures" and "micro-structures" in this sentence, but I think it's clearer using "structures" and "agents." Giddens (e.g., The Constitution of Society) is also pretty good on this.

LFC said...

P.s. Sorry the above comment makes no mention of cats.

In my not-so-humble, I suppose, opinion, the basic sociological propositions here are not that obscure or difficult, though they remain of course at a level of generality that some may find frustrating.


F Lengyel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
F Lengyel said...

My comment above was in reply to AnonyMouse.

LFC, thanks for setting me straight on structures. My cat would have wanted to know what a structure is and would have wanted examples. Maybe he would have done this because he was a cat, since I agree with you that the propositions aren't that obscure or difficult, but then try formulating them as falsifiable statistical assertions. The Motte (systemic oppression) isn't in dispute, it should be said.

My cat suggested another approach to "macro-structures": understanding the structure of belief in large groups. In that connection, he made some remarks on coalitions and why democracies don't function very well. He said that because of Arrow's Theorem, there is no "we", only a collection of groups with their own interests. I wasn't entirely convinced by this, or by his remark that the tendency of coalitions to form in games with more than two players goes back at least to von Neumann and Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. He countered by citing

List, Christian, and Philip Pettit. "Aggregating sets of judgments: An impossibility result." Economics & Philosophy 18.1 (2002): 89-110.

One of my other cats reminded me that had the former one survived, he would have suggested

De Freitas, Julian, et al. "Common knowledge, coordination, and strategic mentalizing in human social life." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116.28 (2019): 13751-13758.

I'm at a loss to understand how two cats could possibly have suggested another approach to political understanding in line with Prof Wolff's notion of "pebbles in the aggregate." In any case, they are much better readers of Prof Wolff's blog than I am.

Another Anonymous said...

My cat’s favorite homonym joke:

Who chases cats?

Mrs. Cats and her lawyer.

Where my cat spells “cats” as “Katz.”

LFC said...

@ le terreau

I didn't click on your motte and bailey link, I must confess. Maybe I will at some point.

Your former cats were more up on aggregation problems than I am, so I won't comment now on that. (Despite having had one personal interaction with the late Kenneth Arrow in the course of my formal education, such as it was, I never had occasion to read any of Arrow's work, except for one short article not directly on point here.)

I will close with the observation that, imo, there are quite a few significant social-scientific (in the broad sense) propositions or arguments that can't be formulated as falsifiable statistical assertions. But I stopped having to be in touch with this stuff quite a while ago, and there's not much point in rehashing the method battles here, esp. since your cats may not be reading the blog any more.

LFC said...

"my cat would have wanted to know what a structure is and wd have wanted examples"

Fair enough. I'll skip a formal definition; for purposes of this discussion, one example of a structure, I think, is the Jim Crow laws in the segregation-era South and the particular society that they contributed to creating and perpetuating. Plantation slavery in the antebellum South also wd be a structure. (Etc.) These, I think, are "macro-structures" (in Wendt's terms, though he isn't concerned with these particular examples).

LFC said...

P.s. The current U.S. prison system, with its disproportionate incarceration of African-American men (and those from other minority groups), would be another example.

Not all structures are bad, of course. These are just a few examples that came to mind in the context of some comments above.

Anonymous said...

@LFC

Structures don't exist without individual behavior of some kind. Structures exert effects on individuals once the structures are well-established, but in the end social phenomena [structures] are a result of what people do or fail to do.

No wonder nobody has achieved a synthesis between structures and methodological individualism.
But it's fun to see people trying.:-)

- AnonyMouse

Another Anonymous said...

Since this thread has diverged from discussing the merits of cats to questions of social dynamics, I have a question I would like to raise regarding the standards by which we judge our governmental leaders accused of wrongdoing. Are they entitled to the same presumption of innocence that we apply to defendants charged with crime? Aside from notions of fairness to the individual, are there potential detriments to government itself which counsel against not applying such a presumption, or do different considerations justify not applying the presumption?

I am of course alluding to Gov. Cuomo and the accusations which have been leveled against him by, at last count, 11 women that he sexually harassed them, and the chorus of demands that he resign. If he were not a governmental leader, and such accusations were levelled at him, as they were against Bill Cosby, until and unless he were indicted based on the accusations and was afforded a trial by a jury in which the accusers would have to testify, in which the rules of evidence precluding the use of hearsay would apply, and he would enjoy the presumption of innocence, does the fact that Gov. Cuomo is not being tried in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion, call for a lower standard? In a court of law, the fact that 11 individuals have made similar accusations would not, in and of themselves, warrant a verdict of guilty. As an attorney, I have personally experienced cases in which individuals have been wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit. Does the fact that in Gov. Cuomo’s case 11 different individuals have made comparable accusations warrant greater per se credibility without the individuals being subjected to cross-examination – something which has not been done in order to insure the accuracy of the New York Attorney General’s report.

When a person runs for office, and takes an oath to uphold the law, does that person thereby accept that they will not be afforded the presumption of innocence? Does society suffer the potential loss of effective leadership, in Gov. Cuomo’s case, for example, given the acknowledged effective leadership he provided the State of New York during the pandemic, if he is not afforded the presumption of innocence which he would be afforded in a court of law? It is not inconceivable that the accusations of all 11 women are not accurate; that, as Gov. Cuomo claims, he is a touchy-feely guy who treats men in a comparable fashion. This, of course, would not excuse squeezing a woman’s breasts, but is the accusation self-confirming? And while the likelihood of accuracy increases as the number of individuals making comparable accusations increases, there is historical precedent for the multiple congruence of shared experience under circumstances which call the congruence into question, e.g., the visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. I make this allusion certainly not to trivialize or condone sexual harassment, but to just to note that mistakes and errors of perception do occur. If Gove. Cuomo resigns, will this not be interpreted as an admission of guilt, an admission he would not be required to make in a court of law? I have to say, although I like Pres. Biden, I found his call for Gov. Cuomo to resign a bit hypocritical given the fact the he was the subject of a similar accusation during the campaign by at least one woman, and there have been accusations of sexual harassment by female members of the Secret Service when he was Vice President and was known to swim naked in the Vice Presidential pool.

F Lengyel said...

Another Anonymous, for a related view that I endorse—and certainly that my cats endorse, see this short comment. Since it takes effort to click a link, I quote:

...and now we are going after Cuomo. Meanwhile the governors who are encouraging their people not to wear masks, or not to be vaccinated are still in office.

When are we going to learn that the transition from a) "it's not acceptable" to b) "we're outraged and we are going to take big action" is foolish?


Who knows whether we'll learn this— it seems to be the raison d'être of the woke.

Another Anonymous said...

le terreau du mal,

Thank you for providing this comment. (I was unable to open the link, since I do not have a Facebook account. Are you the author of the comment, and if not, who is?)

We have been castigating the Republican leadership for kowtowing to Trump and repeating the Big Lie. What about the Democratic leadership, which has thrown Cuomo under the bus in order to placate their liberal, Me Too Movement base? Folly of follies, all is folly.

Another Anonymous said...

This, in my humble opinion, is not the statement of a man who would intentionally engage in sexual harassment.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/08/10/andrew-cuomo-resignation-message-daughters-vpx.cnn

I would have preferred that he had fought the accusations and required that the legislature impeach him and prove the truth of the allegations.

F Lengyel said...

Cuomo has resigned.

aaall said...

" What about the Democratic leadership, which has thrown Cuomo under the bus..."

AA, this was a classic case of wind sowing. There are several issues here besides the harassment - nursing homes, book deal, etc. That and conspiring to sabotage Democratic control over the state senate.

"...in order to placate their liberal, Me Too Movement base?"

The quickest road to defeat is to internalize ones enemies memes.

Another Anonymous said...

aaall,

I am not sure that your reference to “wind sowing” is what you intended. Who is sowing the wind, Cuomo or the Democratic Party? The source of the phrase is from Hosea 8:7: “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” It means that those who engage in ill-advised actions will suffer the unwelcome consequences. What you have written can be read as a criticism of the Democratic Party’s throwing Cuomo under the bus, an ill-advised action which will ultimately have, in my opinion and in accordance with the proverb, unwelcome consequences for the Party.

Regarding the other accusations you raise – the nursing home issue, the book deal – they are just that – accusations. Accusations are not self-authenticating. I raise the same question regarding these accusations as I do with respect to the allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo – what has happened to the presumption of innocence? Does it only apply in court, or does it, should it, also apply to accusations levelled against public officials. As Mark Twain wrote, “A lie can travel half-way around the Earth before the truth even has its shoes on.” (The attribution to Twain has been questioned.)

Regarding internalizing the memes of the opposition, I have not done so, and certainly not without some reflection. I believe the criticisms on the right of some of the demands by the left on public discourse as meritorious. More and more I am seeing the illiberal influence of the far left, the ME Too Movement, the LGBTQ community, on free speech and free thought. In the last two months, a member of the Ann Arbor City Council was castigated, because, in discussing the conduct of journalists with a journalist, he offered the following quotation from Hunter Thompson’s “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas”:

“The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.”

The councilman was charged with “using” a homophobic slur and there were calls for his head. He was stripped of his committee assignments, pressured to resign from office, and subjected to a recall petition when he refused to resign. What these idiots did not understand is the use/mention distinction which is known by all philosophy majors. By quoting Thompson’s use of the word “faggot,” he was not himself using the word; he was mentioning it. And under the 1st Amendment, this distinction is significant – a public official’s/employee’s using a homophobic slur may be, but not necessarily always is, protected by the 1st Amendment, depending on the context. However, mentioning a homophobic slur – or any other slur – is absolutely protected by the 1st Amendment. By stripping this council person of his Committee assignments and demanding his resignation, they were violating his 1st Amendment right of free speech. And I am getting sick and tired of this speech fascism being perpetrated by the illiberal left, just as I am sick and tired of the lies and distortions being perpetrated by the conservative right.

Another Anonymous said...

While researching the source of the quotation attributed to Mark Twain regarding the speedy dissemination of lies versus the sluggishness of truth, I came across this quotation of Johnathan Swift, from “The Examiner” in 1710:

“Besides, as the vilest Writer had his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believed only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no further occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to undeceive’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect.”

Sound familiar?

I was struck by the capitalization of the nouns, and wondered if this was the standard of the time, and if so, whether it derived from the protocol in German, which still exists, of capitalizing all nouns, and when did English cease doing so?

By the way, the consensus appears to be that Mark Twain is not the source of the adage about a lie traveling halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on. Various versions of the saying existed decades before Twain is supposed to have said it (it does not appear in any of his writings).

aaall said...

Cuomo (like Christie and Giuliani before and - hopefully - Abbott and DeSantis in the future) is doing the reaping. The charges would have been handled in an impeachment (may still happen). He chose to try and avoid that impeachment. Politicians like Cuomo (and the other four) choose to be thugs and bullies. That works until it doesn't. When it stops working it often isn't pretty. I found the AG's presentation and the instant reaction pretty telling.

Then there's this:

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-port-authority-staff-laguardia-airtrain-protest-20210810-lljd2ohofzaolkzgvj4jvb52eq-story.html

ABack in the day a client of mine who is a clinical psychologist and whose practice included a number of high profile (business, politics, entertainment) clients used to tell me that if folks knew these folks demons... My experience is that people who lack an internal censor (like your councilman) often have pretty serious personality disorders. My experience has been that dealing with them is exhausting and usually a waste of time. I imagine the other council members are operating on their very last nerve.

Raising First Amendment and philosophical issues seems inapt. He quotes HT hating on journalists with what seems to be approval. This, in itself, is unproblematic as being able to write to a narrative and a deadline too often trumps intelligence and knowledge in our current journalism. There are many ways to communicate dissatisfaction. That he found the homophobic reference acceptable is on him. Doing a little googling I found him also repeating racial slurs. Small town politician with issues behaves like a jerk, dog bites man...

" And I am getting sick and tired of this speech fascism being perpetrated by the illiberal left, just as I am sick and tired of the lies and distortions being perpetrated by the conservative right."

This is curious - motes vs. beams - "both sides" is part of the kayfabe. Conventions are always in flux and currently racial and homophobic slurs are unacceptable. This is hardly fascism. Those who feel constrained might benefit from some introspection. Apply Chef's maxim - "There's a time and place for everything and that's college" and not much is left of this "illiberal left."

On the other hand, "Lies and distortions" are not the problems we face from the right which has morphed into a fascist death cult. Merely annoying (maybe) and boot on face - two different things. i

Another Anonymous said...

He did not “use” a homophobic or racist slur. The use/mention distinction, which you are ignoring, is important, both philosophically and for 1st Amendment purposes. Repeating another’s use of the word “faggot” is not using the word “faggot,” it is mentioning the word “faggot,” and mentioning the word “faggot” is protected by the 1st Amendment.

Nor did he “use” a racist slur. He mentioned it, trying to explain the difference between using racist/homophobic slurs, versus mentioning them, by pointing out the title of John Lennon’s song, “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World,” a title which is intended to illustrate how women are mistreated. To castigate him, strip him of his committee assignments, for mentioning this title, which did not constitute using the N- word, while ignoring the significant point the title of the song is making, violated his right to free speech under the 1st Amendment, something fascists do. And when so-called liberals like yourself fail to see the distinction, but react to the emotive effect of mentioning the words, rather than the message that is being conveyed, then we are in a sad state of affairs indeed.

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