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Explore thought-provoking insights on systems inherently designed to perpetuate injustice, challenging societal structures and advocating for change.
1 Seeing through the surface: When accepted norms conceal deeper truths.
To understand systems built on injustice, we must question not only what we’re told — but also what we’ve come to accept without noticing. Critical thinking begins where comfortable perception ends.
To be wronged in one’s capacity as a knower is to be wronged in a capacity essential to human value. When on is undermined or otherwise wronged in a capacity essential to human value, one suffers an intrinsic injustice.
Should we not create – should we not become – before we reproduce? Our responsibility to life is to bring forth the higher, not to replicate the lower. If something stands in the way, then it, too, must be overcome.
Kritisch Denken over Intrinsiek Onrechtvaardige Systemen
Door de oppervlakte heen kijken: wanneer gangbare normen diepere waarheden verhullen.
Om systemen te begrijpen die gebaseerd zijn op onrecht, moeten we niet alleen vragen stellen over wat ons wordt verteld, maar ook over wat we zonder nadenken hebben geaccepteerd. Kritisch denken begint waar de comfortabele perceptie eindigt.
Wanneer iemand onrecht wordt aangedaan in zijn hoedanigheid als kenner, is dat een aantasting van een wezenlijk aspect van menselijke waardigheid. Als men ondermijnd wordt – of op een andere manier onrecht wordt aangedaan – in een hoedanigheid die essentieel is voor menselijke waarde, dan is er sprake van intrinsiek onrecht.
– Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing.
Moeten we niet eerst scheppen – moeten we niet eerst worden – voordat we reproduceren? Onze verantwoordelijkheid tegenover het leven is om het hogere voort te brengen, niet om het lagere te herhalen. Als iets ons daarbij in de weg staat, dan moet ook dat overwonnen worden.
Post Office Scandal – Gareth Jenkins
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14 jul 2024
Some critical analysis on what might have been revealed by Gareth Jenkins’ testimony to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
00:00 – Start
02:10 – Dirty wizard or
absent-minded
professor
05:55 – 1. Move fast and break things
09:31 – 2. The moralisation of technology
11:46 – 3. Computer code is moral code
17:14 – Conclusion
Educational
At minute 18: moral code
Ex-Post Office boss cornered over possible cover-up of Horizon scandal in Inquiry hearing
Back to menu IMPORTANT CONTENT Listening recommended Must ***
David Smith faced the music at the Post Office Inquiry today, when he was quizzed on his knowledge of Horizon software defects after the publication of the Ismay report in 2010.
Educational
2 Judgment versus Knowledge: The Pitfall of the Obvious
In systems that appear orderly on the surface, injustice often hides in plain sight. It is not always the loud, visible cruelty that sustains such systems, but the quiet, everyday assumptions — the rules we follow without question, the stories we believe because they seem normal. Critical thinking requires that we pause and ask: Who benefits from this arrangement? Whose voices are missing? And what truths remain buried beneath what is widely accepted as “common sense”?
In unjust systems, it is not always a lack of knowledge that misleads us, but a lack of vigilant judgment. As the philosopher John Locke aptly put it:
“Knowledge being to be had only of visible and certain truth, error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment — giving assent to that which is not true.”
We may know facts, understand figures, and follow rules — and still contribute to injustice. Because it is our judgment that determines what we accept as true, fair, or simply “how things are.” And when our judgment stays silent where it should question, we risk giving unconscious assent to systems built on exclusion, distortion, or abuse of power.
In systemen die aan de oppervlakte ordelijk lijken, schuilt onrecht vaak in het volle zicht. Het zijn niet altijd de luide, zichtbare wreedheden die zulke systemen in stand houden, maar juist de stille, alledaagse aannames — de regels die we klakkeloos volgen, de verhalen die we geloven omdat ze normaal lijken. Kritisch denken vraagt dat we stilhouden en ons afvragen: wie profiteert van deze ordening? Wiens stemmen ontbreken? En welke waarheden blijven begraven onder wat algemeen wordt gezien als ‘gezond verstand’?
🧠 Oordeel versus Kennis: de valkuil van vanzelfsprekendheid
In onrechtvaardige systemen is het niet altijd een gebrek aan kennis dat ons op het verkeerde pad brengt, maar juist een gebrek aan waakzaam oordeel. Zoals de filosoof John Locke het treffend verwoordde:
“Kennis betreft alleen datgene wat zichtbaar en zeker waar is; dwaling is daarom geen fout van onze kennis, maar een vergissing van ons oordeel — het geven van instemming aan iets wat niet waar is.”
We kunnen feiten kennen, cijfers begrijpen en regels volgen — en toch bijdragen aan onrecht. Want het is ons oordeel dat bepaalt wat we accepteren als waar, rechtvaardig of vanzelfsprekend. En wanneer ons oordeel zwijgt waar het vragen zou moeten stellen, geven we onbewust instemming aan systemen die leunen op miskenning, uitsluiting of machtsmisbruik.
3 It’s Plain as Day
Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells refuses to comment on whether she misled parliament
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7 apr 2024
Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells refused to comment today when questioned by Channel 4 News if she lied to MPs.
It was the first time she has been seen publicly since this programme released damning revelations confirming Post Office management knew of issues with remote access to its Horizon system, several years before prosecutions were halted.
She will give evidence to the public inquiry next month.
Secret tape reveals Paula Vennells was told of faulty Horizon software | ITV News
28 mrt 2024
A secret audio recording obtained by ITV News has revealed Post Office boss Paula Vennells was told directly about problems with the Horizon system and warned not to cover them up.
In a meeting with independent investigators from Second Sight on July 2, 2013, Ms Vennells was made aware of allegations that sub-postmaster branch accounts could be accessed remotely.
This is something the Post Office had denied for years.
Post Office Scandal – can’t remember, don’t care
Post Office Inquiry – Closing Day One
31 dec 2024
My response to the closing statements of lawyers representing subpostmasters at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry in the UK. What I think was behind the statements of Mr Henry and Mr Stein.
00:00 – Start
01:34 – Mr Beer’s Opener
05:19 – Mr Henry’s Statement
21:36 – Guilt vs Shame
26:44 – Conclusion
A link to a paper on how Japan has been described as a shame culture:
https://journals.lww.com/academicmedi…
Psychology, Plagiarism and the Post Office Scandal Part 4 (finale)
11 mrt 2024 #criticalthinking #postoffice #plagiarism
00:00 – Start
01:13 – Thinking Critically
02:26 – The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act
06:02 – The Post Office Legacy – Crime Fighters
09:06 – Lesson 1: a different type of critical thinking
14:01 – Lesson 2: a different type of plagiarism
21:49 – The Exception: kinda
31:41 – Our Moral Response: How psychology gets in the way
Psychology, Plagiarism and the Post Office Scandal Part 3
24 feb 2024
This is the third of my four part series looking at the post office scandal. In this video I talk a bit more about who sub postmasters are, a bit more about what the Horizon system was and how one sub postmaster pushed back.
This is the final piece of the jigsaw and prepares us for part 4 where I connect to psychology and how we teach at university.
00:00 – Start
04:10 – What is a sub postmaster
08:09 – The Horizon System
Hyacinth Sends Richard Up a Tree | Keeping Up Appearances
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