First Looks category archive

Writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Clair Jack considers what motivates internet trolls and how best to deal with them. A snippet:

The research showed that trolls had high levels of cognitive empathy, which means they are fully aware of the impact of their actions on other people. However, they were lacking in affective empathy which is associated with “being able to feel like other people feel”: the ability to internalise other people’s emotions. Put simply, they know they’re hurting you but they really don’t care.

If you spend any time on the inner webs, and obviously you do or you would not be seeing this, I commend the entire piece to your attention.

What Noz said.

At the Hartford Courant, Heidi Stevens points out that, for “law and order” to be a meaningful concept, the scales of justice must be balanced.

Indeed, I would argue that, in American politics, the slogan, “law and order,” is commonly employed to mean order without (equal protection under the) law.

Here’s a bit of her piece:

When President Donald Trump accepts the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention — from the South Lawn of the White House, which itself violates the law — and says, “We must always have law and order,” we have to ask ourselves which laws he wants upheld, and what order looks like to him.

(snip)

A call for maintaining law and order, without the acknowledgment that neither is applied fairly and equally in this country, is little more than a call for maintaining the status quo. And the status quo has left far too many people out of America’s promise of equal protection, equal rights, equal opportunity.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

These are the true “outside agitators.”

Via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

From Pine View Farm turns 15 today.

Who woulda thunk?

See the study Farron references.

Juanita Jean has a suggestion as to an appropriate name for the malr equivalent of a “Karen.”

I just deleted a comment that Akismet, quite correctly, had idenfied as spam. It offered to provide umpty-ump comments for every $5 I was willing to pay.

I am quite happy sitting here shouting into the void from the relative obscurity of my third tier blog, and I will be damned if I will pay anyone to deceive my two or three regular readers into thinking I am anything other than who I am.

Furrfu.

Janine Jackson documents the decades long attempt to privatize the Post Office steal the Post Office from the American people.

This is too important not to give your attention to.

Via Job’s Anger.

I’ve removed Cheryl Turpin from my list of endorsements because she has withdrawn from the race.

I’ve known Cheryl for a long time and am saddened that she found this necessary, but life goes on, even when we don’t want it to.

(I’m researching additional endorsements. It’s my blog and I can endorse who I want to.)

Unappetizing frolics.

Sometime this week soon one of these days I shall be making adjustments to this site. It may be unavailable for a time. But, be assured (or be afraid), it will be back. (I must confess, sadly, that I am getting lazy in my old age.) I’m looking to implement SSL when I get a round tuit, not that this site needs it, as it handles no confidential or financial information, but it seems to be the in thing that all the cool sites are doing.

Via Job’s Anger.