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Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Links - 20th February 2024 (1 [including Therapy, Barbie])

Muslims don't dare to eat, Chinese also don't want: Mookata stall owner says sales plunged after applying for halal certificate - "A mookata dining experience almost always involves grilled pork accompanied with alcohol.  Having it otherwise might even be seen as a paradox to some.  But for Jackeline Goh, that's the idea she's been trying to sell to sceptics since opening Chickata in 2016.  The restaurant applied for halal certification in 2017 before being rebranded to Chice in December 2020... "We are non-Muslims so people might not have confidence in us," the 39-year-old said.  This was especially true when Chice was in the midst of applying for halal certification back in 2017.   Transitioning from a non-halal to a halal food joint was a challenge as sales dipped to "almost zero every day", Jackeline admitted.  Not only was attracting customers an issue, hiring Muslim staff was a struggle as some might not feel comfortable with working at a place that has yet to receive their halal certificate...   Mookata literally translates to "skillet pork" where diners cook raw meat on a tabletop grill lathered with pork fat."

Matt Walsh on X - "One of the problems with therapy is that the source of your troubles in life is almost never some deep complex thing that you need years of therapy to uncover and understand. Any random dude on the street could listen to you whine for five minutes and tell you exactly what your problem is. But if therapists gave simple answers, they'd be out of a job. They need to keep you there and talking. That's the whole business model. In most cases, your life is screwed up because you're making bad choices. The answer is to stop making those choices. If you don't stop making them, your problems will continue. And that's really all there is to be said about it. Therapy quickly becomes an excuse to avoid actually doing the things you know you need to do."

Wilfred Reilly on X - "I basically agree with @MattWalshBlog  on (talk) therapy, actually.   Logically speaking, if talking to some other up-middle class citizen about your life for an hour a week......did anything - as vs comparators like sport and nature and sex and trying out sobriety - the last two generations of Americans would be the most mentally healthy people in history."

Matt Van Swol on X - "Suuuuper hot take: the normalization of therapy is becoming a bad thing for society.   I’m seeing more and more people:  1) use the fact they are in therapy as a “get out of jail free card” for awful behavior  2) believe everything their therapist says as Gospel Truth, with no further research required  3) equate the act of going to therapy with the actions of being a good person  I’m not saying therapy is bad for everyone.   But I am seeing a trend of less personal responsibility for bad behavior and a lot more talk about therapy as the only solution."
Amanda Goetz on X - "And weaponize “therapy talk”. I’ve seen some really horrible people use the language they get from therapy as manipulation tactics to sound empathetic to get what they want from someone."
Psikey on X - "I asked a therapist once at a party how many of her patients had ever been cured to the point they could stop therapy and live normally. She look confused by the question, then said “none”."
Patrick Metzdorf on X - "The worst part with some is that they feel like they are part-time therapists themselves, given they, you know, spent time talking to therapists. So they insist on knowing what your problem is and lecture you on what you should do (apart from going to therapy, of course)."
Matt on X - "That sounds no different from religion -Accepting everything as dogma -Using confession as a panacea for bad behavior -Equating attendance with being a good person It’s probably a net positive for society on the whole"

The dark side of environmental activism - "In times of growing concerns about climate change, environmental activism is increasing. Whereas several studies have examined associations between environmental activism and the Big Five personality characteristics, the potential “dark side” of environmental activists' personality has been neglected. Accordingly, this study examined associations between environmental activism, the dark triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism) and left-wing authoritarianism (i.e., antihierarchical aggression, anticonventionalism, top-down censorship). Data came from 839 employed individuals in Germany. Results showed positive associations between environmental activism and Machiavellianism, narcissism, antihierarchical aggression, and anticonventionalism. Most of these associations remained significant after controlling for Big Five characteristics, demographic characteristics, political orientation, and right-wing authoritarianism. These findings suggest that environmental activism, in addition to its potential positive outcomes, may also have a dark side in terms of activists' personality."
This explains why a lot of environmental activists are nasty

Meme - "Guys me and my sister did the 23andMe and it turned out me and my sister aren't related at all. We both speculated she was adopted and we started flirting and was 658KB PNG having sex within the week. A few months pass and our mom catches us fucking midorgasm. She spazzed out and started crying told dad and started vomiting. I told that that we know she was adopted and the 23andMe proved it. My mom said she wasn't adopted between sobs. I contacted 23andMe support and they apparently we got the results of someone else. I went to move in with my dad and I'm not allowed contact with my sister anymore. My sister is freaking out over the fact she fucked her bio brother. I still want to keep fucking her though. Do I have a lawsuit here against 23andMe? I feel like they are at fault here."

John Arnold on X - "Two Harvard Crimson articles, one from 2006 and the other from 2023, describing the legendary Math 55 class showcase how much college has changed in less than a generation.
'06: “This is probably the most difficult undergraduate math class in the country,” reads a page on the Mathematics Department Web site.
'23: “Our slogan is, if you’re reasonably good at math, you love it, and you have lots of time to devote to it, then Math 55 is completely fine for you.” -- article published by the math dept titled, “Demystifying Math 55.”"
Nicholas A. Christakis on X - "I am increasingly forming the opinion that the grade inflation being seen at many elite universities, including at Yale, is another reflection of the way universities have become alienated from their core mission. The focus is on student experience rather than on student learning."
When students are customers...

wanye on X - "See, a big part of what it means to me to be a conservative is understanding the motivation for the exact opposite conclusion. Republicans really can make life worse for people in direct, immediate, obvious ways. If you’re on food stamps and your food stamps are taken away, then that’s a new hardship that wasn’t there before.  And that’s bad, I agree that it’s bad, and I don’t want it to happen.  But the badness is local and targeted and manageable and while I agree that it’s bad  — I really do! — it’s not what keeps me up at night.  I am much more worried about the effects of drug legalization and normalization, of massive waves of destabilizing immigration, of diminished support for the rule of law, of losing entire generations to the pathetic and demoralizing view that our country is evil and racist and illegitimate (and little more), of rules and regulations that prohibit the capitalist innovation that’s made us the envy of the world, etc, etc.  The incredible wealth-generating machine our ancestors created is so remarkably fragile and unprecedented. And it can all go away. It really can.   It’s true, things really can get worse. Way way worse than you’re imagining."

Meme - "Me: we're gonna have to perform a cavity search
Her: but the detector didn't even-
Me: ma'm it's just protocol *sexy woman*"

TIL That in 2007, Rockstar Games allowed fans to call a number and rant about what they thought was wrong with America. The best calls were featured on a radio station in "Grand Theft Auto IV" : todayilearned

There might be rants in here - "I remember reading this story of this guy who met his wife at a Star Trek convention but she spoke Portuguese and he spoke French but they both could speak Klingon and that’s how they communicated through the first few months of their relationship until they learned each other’s languages "

Meme - "Mr. Santa Claus, why do you never bring presents to me?"
"That's because your family is poor"

Meme - "This year has been all about personal growth
The growth:
M. EU 36. UK 10. US 6 -> XL. EU 48. UK 20. US 16"

Meme - "What's one thing an Uber driver said to you that you'll never forget?"
Gina: "nothing, that's what. i was crying, heaving and bawling my eyes out in the backseat and he turned on the music"
If he'd said anything she might have complained, so smart move

Meme - "Ingredients in the McCrispy
Crispy Chicken FIllet
Potato Roll
Crinkle Cut Pickle
4-AcO-DMT"

American Horses | Horses in North America: A Comeback Story - "Ancient horses roamed the North American continent for millions of years. And many, many years later, horses played an integral role in building the foundation of the United States. However, there was a period in time when horses vanished from the continent, and the reason remains unknown... In the late 1400s, Spanish conquistadors brought European horses to North America, back to where they evolved long ago. At this time, North America was widely covered with open grasslands, serving as a great habitat for these horses. These horses quickly adapted to their former range and spread across the nation. Around 1550, the first known feral horses escaped Mexico City, and more followed over time. Native Americans began to capture and ride the horses, spreading them further across the continent."

‘Far worse than you can imagine’: How Iran’s regime has ‘spread its tentacles’ in Canada - "Hamed Esmaeilion has to watch his back wherever he goes — unable to escape the oppressive and violent regime that rules his homeland of Iran, even when he’s in Canada.  When he first arrived in 2010 with his wife Parisa and daughter Reera, Esmaeilion thought he had come to the safest country in the world.  “But it’s not,” he says...       He says the worst part is, he was told police resources are stretched too thin to protect him... the threats against Esmaeilion are not unusual for critics of the Islamic Republic, especially among the Iranian diaspora in Canada... “Islamic Republic agents are everywhere in this country. Everywhere,” Esmaeilion says. Prominent Iranian American journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad tells The New Reality she was given a bone-chilling warning from the FBI: don’t travel to Canada... Alinejad told The New Reality that if she absolutely insists on travelling to Canada, the FBI advised her it would need months to arrange her security.  Noronha says that threat assessment is more consistent with the preparations necessary to visit countries in the Middle East where Iranian affiliates are known to operate freely... Gabriel Noronha says in the past 44 years the regime has “conducted over 360 terror assassinations” outside of Iran.  The U.S. security expert says the Islamic Republic has proven over and over again that it will kill its critics anywhere in the world, and no one is safe."

Richard Hanania on X - "The correlation between stereotypes and reality are "some of the largest relationships ever found in social psychology." "Misinformation experts" never go after people who deny the truth of stereotypes, because it's a political movement."

Meme - "Making Up by Aiden
$ Im rich$
Imagine that you have broken emma's toy. What can you say to make her feel better? Draw yourself in the box below. Then write what you would say in the speech bubble."
"You broke my toy!"
"you shoud be lifting weights you soyboy booger cuck bitch"
sigma"

Company’s HR Sends E-mail To Employee Asking Why They Haven’t Upgraded Their Car - "To be clear, it has not been confirmed that this letter is 100% authentic. It was found via Reddit and the original poster swears it is. The original poster, Dorf-1, reached out to Jalopnik and said, “It’s legit. I personally saw the email on his screen, and he clicked the from name to show the email address under it. Knowing those two VPs, I totally believe it.” That being said, if it is real, it’s completely appalling.  It starts out just a boring email from an HR department to an employee, no big deal. Around the middle is when it turns offensive.  The type of car isn’t mentioned specifically in the letter however from the information mentioned in the original post, it seems to be a 2005 Toyota Camry...
As you may know many companies still use credit checks as part of their hiring process. This is to ensure that the employee can be trusted to make sound financial decisions, has the maturity to manage his/her own financial affairs, and to show signs of financial distress that might indicate risk of theft or fraud. While we do not conduct these checks at this time the gist of the check is valid to us.  We have noticed for some time the condition of your vehicle and wanted to discuss the matter with you. We will follow up this email with a personal meeting but wanted to document the discussion beforehand.  Since of course your annual salary is known to us and a newer and more appropriate looking vehicle should be within your financial reach, it is our concern that perhaps you are having a difficult time financially. Frankly the concern is that if you cannot afford a newer vehicle then either you may be susceptible to fraud or that you are not responsible for the position you maintain. To be even more frank, it just looks bad.  Please let us know if there is a reason that you have not upgraded your vehicle before now. If it is a financial matter then we will need to know the details of the problems you are having. Perhaps it is as simple that you did not know the concern you are raising. Otherwise please address this situation as quickly as possible. We will be happy to refer you to dealerships who we have worked with in the past...
Basically, the author of the e-mail is saying that not driving a newer car somehow suggests financial irresponsibility. For their information, the average car in the U.S. is 12 years old."

24-year-olds are more likely to own homes than millennials and Gen X when they were that age - "The real estate company found that 24-year-olds in 2023 have a higher rate of homeownership, about 27.8%, than millennials and Gen Xers when they were 24. At that age, only 24.5% of millennials and 23.5% of Gen X owned a home, according to Redfin."
Weird. I thought young people were becoming more and more screwed

I'm glad I won't live to see my school's next Ofsted inspection
When teachers just want to do whatever with no oversight. By this same logic, students shouldn't have to undergo any exams since some of them will kill themselves and it hurts learning  

Dutch farmers party gains popularity ahead of November elections - "Van der Post now fears he might be his family's last generation of farmers. The manure and urine his cows produce is rich in nitrogen compounds that contribute to smog, harming the lungs of his country's 17.5 million residents. Van der Post's cows are among tens of millions of animals nationwide that are contributing to what environmentalists call a nitrogen crisis.  The Netherlands, only the size of Maryland, is the world's second-largest exporter of food. It's one of the most intensely farmed countries in the world, and its soil has high levels of environmentally damaging nitrogen compounds from both animal manure and fertilizers.  A series of court rulings has forced the Dutch government to come up with ways to reduce nitrogen pollution, among them cutting animal herds by half by the end of this decade...   Dutch farmers, though, would prefer to maintain the status quo. They've shut down the nation's highways with their tractors to protest the proposed nitrogen rules.  In the past four years, these rallies have evolved into what's called the Farmer-Citizen Movement, a political party that shocked many earlier this year when it won 16 of the 75 seats in the Dutch Senate, more than any other party... the proposed nitrogen ban would reduce emissions in the Netherlands, but it wouldn't reduce global nitrogen emissions.  "We produce more per hectare than other countries with the same amount of manure," he says. "The footprint is one of the lowest in the world. If we reduce the agriculture sector here in the Netherlands, other countries will have to produce more. But there, the footprint is higher.""    
From September 2023. When you want to destroy your economy and agricultural sector to strengthen other nations. No wonder the "far right" PVV won the most seats in November

Men who set up illegal streaming of Premier League matches jailed for 30 years
Man jailed for just three years for raping 12-year-old girl in park - "Myles Harris was 18 when he assaulted the child at Gala Policies park in the Scottish Borders town of Galashiels last year...   The court heard that Harris, who has since turned 19, had "no memory" of the offence as he was heavily intoxicated at the time.  Defence counsel Lili Prais explained Harris had started misusing substances aged 12, a problem which escalated as he grew older...   Judge Scott said a custodial sentence was justified considering the seriousness of the offence.  "You raped a child when you were 18 and she was only 12," he said. "You knew her age."  He also told Harris that being under the influence of drink or drugs at the time of the offence made no difference to his deliberations."

Ilhan Omar speech proved to be mistranslated but outrage continues spread - "Despite attempts to clarify Omar’s message, several Republicans and right-wing figures seized upon the video without verifying the misleading translation, to launch a fresh attack on Omar, including Elon Musk, whose own ties with third countries were questioned by Joe Biden. On his X account, Musk posted: “The United States or another country. Pick one.”"
Once again we see asinine nitpicking used to deflect from real problems - the problematic content that "Republicans and right-wing figures" seized on is not made any better after the alleged mistranslations are corrected

Meme - "7 reasons Barbie isn't woke
1. Ken believes patriarchy will get him any job, but every job he applies for rejects him, proving that (according to the movie), the patriarchy doesn't exist.
2. Barbie goes to find who she believes is her owner. Owner calls her a "fascist" the same thing woke culture calls people they don't like.
3. Barbie becomes real and gets a vagina. But woke culture says a vagina does not make someone a woman.
4. 2023 is the 30th anniversary of 1993 "gay ken". It's an official Barbie product, but wasn't mentioned in the movie at all. A woke movie would have mentioned gay ken.
5. Doctor Barbie is played by a transgender actor. Movie hides that and never attempts to point it out.
6. When Ken takes over Barbie land, the Barbies are actually happy to be serving the Kens.
7. Barbie being in charge isn't "woke". It's Barbie land, Barbie dream house, Barbie car, etc. Barbie is the boss of everything Barbie. Ken really is just an accessory."

Shannon Watts on X - "Greta Gerwig: Made a critically acclaimed, culturally profound, feminist movie about Barbie and the patriarchy that made a billion dollars at the box office. Oscar nomination goes to … Ken. #Barbie  #Oscars2024"
Memes That Will Help You Clean Up Your Friends List | Facebook - "I went through the whole movie thinking it was an anti feminist satire. Considering how the Barbies were more or less without virtue at any point in the film and Ken had the most character growth."
8 nominations, including for best supporting actress, is not enough

Meme - Jenna Maroney News: "a native american woman is (almost certainly) going to win best actress for the first time in history and instead of like celebrating that countless film journos are implying that margot robbie not being nominated in the same category is somehow a loss for feminism"

Meme - "The same same people big mad about Ken winning over barbie are the same assholes who applauded a man winning woman of the year."

Meme - shoe @shoe0nhead: "this shit was 9/11 for affluent liberal white women whose main takeaway from the Barbie movie was "women should win everything always""

Meme - "He's an Oscar nomines. She's just Barbie"
"Martin Scorsese had to wait 14 years from his first film to his first nomination, and 26 years from his first nomination to his first Oscar but I'm sure he never said or thought "It's impossible to be a man""

Ryan Gosling is slammed for 'virtue-signaling' statement criticizing the Academy for Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie Barbie Oscar snub - "Ryan Gosling has been slammed for his misplaced virtue-signaling after issuing an extraordinary statement criticizing the Academy Awards for not nominating Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie for their roles in 'Barbie.'... The Ken actor went as far as expressing his fury that his female colleagues were snubbed - but he stopped short of giving up his own Oscar nomination in protest... Academy Award-nominated actress Sharon Stone reposted a post noting how life imitated art in the female filmmaker and actress being snubbed while the male star was recognized.  The original tweet read: 'No Oscar nomination for Greta Gerwig. No Oscar nomination for Margot Robbie. Ryan Gosling gets an Oscar nomination. This is actually the whole plot of Barbie.'"
I thought the plot of Barbie was that the women oppressed the men and didn't grant them equality

Meme - "Barbie's Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig fail to make the cut and miss out on Oscar nominations *crying Barbie*
"Ryan Gosling gets well deserved Oscar nomination for stand out performance in Barbie *proud Ken*"

Millions in India Could End Up in Modi’s New Detention Camps (2020)
4 years later, the panic seems to have been a nothingburger and only a double digit number of foreigners (who it seems really came from overseas) have been detained in that new centre, from the reports

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