February, 2020 archive
“Open the Hangar, Here Comes the Airplane” 0
Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.
What Puts the “Anti-” in “Social” Media? 0
Gene Geher, an admitted Facebook Frolicker, suggest that “social” media presents us with an “evolutionary mismatch.”
He identifies ten specific problems; follow the link for a brief discussion of each one.
- People can be nasty behind screens.
- Social media creates unhealthy social echo chambers.
- Social media is not for the impulsive at heart.
- Infidelity rates have increased due to social media.
- Social media makes bullying easier.
- Social media creates permanent records—of just about everything.
- Cell phones are truly addicting.
- The natural world is suddenly less interesting than the virtual world is.
- Social estrangements are made too easy on social media.
- People can deceive in the domain of mating* like never before.
_____________________
*Not just in mating, folks.
A Note to Purity Testers 0
Shorter PoliticalProf: Vote in the real world.
A Distinction with a Difference 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of my local rag makes a fine point:
Accusations of socialism toward the Democratic Party confuse social programs with socialism.
Follow the link for the rest of the letter; it’s the fourth one down on the page.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
As all “responsible gun owners” (sic) know, politeness takes practice.
“A young man who was changing targets ran out to the target area and was shot,” Lewis said. “The victim was shot in the left arm, left chest area. He took the full blast.”
Lewis said the victim suffered serious injuries from the shotgun blast . . . .
“But It’s S-S-So Obvious!” 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Don A. Moore makes a strong case that common sense isn’t.
Originalist Sin 0
Joe Patrice explores the con that is “Constitutional Originalism.” A snippet (emphasis added):
It (originalism–ed.) has always been a lie of course, but it’s a pretty successful one.
The conservatives on the Court have all but given up the facade of Originalism, granting cert in a gay rights case signaling an intent to protect Catholic Social Services who got cut off by the Philadelphia adoption program for refusing to place children with same-sex couples. The basis for the looming decision, previewed over the last several years by Supreme Court Oracle Justice Alito, is that religious freedom requires government respect the religious freedom to violate discrimination laws. The only problem with this plan is that the conservatives have already ruled that the “Originalist” read of religious freedom is the exact opposite. Apparently there are more different “Originals” in the First Amendment than there are in Ray’s Pizza establishments.
Just the Vaxx, Ma’am, There’s No Vaccination for Stupid Dept. 0
NJ.com attempted to talk with two New Jersey State Senators their anti-vaccine stance. Here’s how it went (emphasis added):
He said he read articles on the Internet: “Social media is full of them.”
We wondered, if he doesn’t trust the overwhelming scientific consensus that vaccines are safe, does he believe the 97 percent of scientists who say human activity contributes to global warming?
“Am I Encyclopedia Britannica?” he countered.
The stupid. It burns.
(More stupid at the link.)
All the News that Fits 0
Will Bunch talks about the latest (!) white supremacist terror attack, this one in Germany, and laments the failure of the press to give it the coverage it deserves. A nugget:
That’s disgraceful — and arguably racist.
(snip)
It’s hard not to believe that — with our ADD-addled ability to focus only on the latest outrage of the last hour — we are missing the most alarming and important trend of the last decade. That would be the rise of violent, brownshirt-style, right-wing global extremism and the concurrent era of authoritarian-style rulers on every continent, whose angry rhetoric toward migrants, ethnic minorities or women inspires these terrorists. The world’s indifferent response to similar trends in the 1930s led to global conflagration in the 1940s. Are we repeating those mistakes in the 2020s as we fail to connect the dots?
Methinks he is onto something. We have forgotten the lessons of World War II.
I am not sanguine.
Epidemiology 0
A first-person account of the spreading epidemic–no, not the new coronavirus, but the old racism.
