Frances Ryan on X - "Breaking: DWP's “misleading and unfair” consultation on disability benefit reforms unlawful, the High Court has ruled. Ministers presented reforms as supporting disabled people into work, when savings was a “primary rationale”. Huge congrats to @EllenClifford1. A legend."
Sam Ashworth-Hayes on X - "You can't govern a state where the rules and processes are so unclear and so prone to activist interpretation by the legal profession that every action can be blocked by lawfare, and political decisions are removed into the realm of legal argument. It's a recipe for stagnation. Particularly when people opt into the profession on the basis of activist views. Drastically need to cut the courts down to size."
Time Capsule Tales on X - ""Lost German Girl", a beaten woman filmed on a country road near the Czech border during the surrender of German troops in May 1945. To this day, her identity & what happened to her before or after this is unknown"
Vagrant of Rhodes 🗡️🕯️ on X - "I feel the need to mention that I, like so many others, went my entire educational life never once being told about this. Countless hours in rigorous history classes at the AP level in high school all the way through a Masters degree. AP *European* History, even a directed study on refugees. Countless conversations with my parents. Hours of videos on YouTube in my spare time, movies, documentaries. I was fascinated by the world wars so I immersed myself in the subject frequently in my youth. Yes Dresden was sometimes mentioned, but always hand waved, justified and understated. The fate of the German people was never really acknowledged. Not a single time. When I learned of this and its true extent, it shattered me. My entire worldview, which used history as a guide, was built upon so many lies and obfuscations. This single fact may have cemented my radicalization journey far more than so many other events which, though they seemed more relevant to me and my life, did not have the impact of humbling me as much as this did. The depravity with which the German people were treated towards the end of the war amounted to a genocide unto itself. Yet no one, none of the historians I read, teachers I learned from, or filmmakers I watched dared to even mention it. I had to know why. Why lie? Why hide this? Was it shame? Was it malicious? What else were they hiding or lying about? The entirety of the global system and "new world order" (which I saw beginning to crumble during 9/11), the very historical legitimacy of democratic nations and liberal society, the Regime's own claim to power, was predicated upon the idea that Germans were cartoon villains who deserved what they got. "They were bad so they lost the war. It was brutal but fair" is the line. And maybe just "losing a war" works for that line but no one deserves this. No one. I should have known better, but when you're young you trust sources of authority around you. I was already starting to radicalize at this point but this set me over the edge. I think I felt almost a personal betrayal, on a subject I felt very strongly about, and had a vested personal interest: a deep hobby of mine (history) had been tarnished. As someone who always needs answers, this was like poison to me. There comes a point in a man's life when he realizes the stories of the world he learned in his youth are not what they appear to be. I knew that and had already dealt with some of it. But this really threw me, because it showed how little I really knew about the world. My radicalization had already begun, but I think this hyper accelerated it for me."
Nana Akua: London is becoming lawless and falling apart under Sadiq Khan's embarrassing guidance - "only the other day, Sir Keir Starmer blamed the grooming gang outrage on the far-right. So out of touch. Despite the Labour administration's very shaky relationship with the Trump camp following a high-profile spat with Elon Musk and a number of insults previously made by several of his cabinet, Sadiq Khan has decided to stick his oar in as well, further inflaming tensions... "The hard-right and far-right are on the march. These are desperately worrying times, especially if you're a member of a minority community." For goodness sake, what is he talking about? He clearly hasn't done his research. Not only did Donald Trump win the political vote, he also won the popular vote as well. Ethnic minorities voted for him in their droves. They deserted the Democrats. It was a victory. It was a landslide for the Republicans. May I make a suggestion, Sadiq? Knife crime is at an all time high in the capital. Only the other day, a 14-year-old was stabbed in cold blood on a bus - one of a few stabbings over the past few weeks in our once great capital. And of course, a murderer who featured on the BBC was put back behind bars for breaching his conditions after a music video of him bragging about his crime showed he was in Greenwich, a borough he is banned from in London. Attacks on women and girls have skyrocketed in our great capital. How about you focus on that? It's painful, isn't it? Sadiq, how about you get on with cleaning up the capital city that you are in charge of London? Remember that?"
It's a great way for politicians to distract from their failures by kicking up a fuss about some other nonsense
Rambo Van Halen on X - "5th grader just came to me and asked if he could download the Duolingo French app. (My kids have phones, but we have to approve app downloads.) I'm like, no problem--but why do you want to learn French? It turns out he and all his friends (boys and girls) have decided to learn French together. There's a large bilingual contingent in his class, and they like to talk shit in Spanish. So the White kids are fighting back by learning French. I told him, cool--let me know how I can help. I just wish I was there for the conversation where they decided on French🤷♂️"
Thread by @bendreyfuss on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "No one on the America left would ever actually move to China because the one thing they care about most of all is being able to whine about how they’re victims of oppression and that’s the main thing that you aren’t allowed to do in China. They’re too mouthy and they know it. They’d end up in a fucking police station demanding someone call the US embassy within a year. Only the west is prosperous enough to confidently allow our stupidest citizens to whine endlessly about bullshit. The right likes to cry about bullshit too but they only pull the “I wish I lived in Hungary” crap when there is a democratic president and their feelings are hurt. The lefties doing this china shit do it just bc that’s who they are. They wanted to move to Yemen a year ago lol. The democratic equivalent of conservatives who say they wish they live in Hungary is the annoying liberals who threaten to move to Canada whenever a republican wins. The lefties actually just are knee jerk America haters who get in bed with the villain of the week. Normie democrats need to defeat the left once and for all lol. They’re our problem. We have let this get out of hand and we have to take our rabid dog behind the barn and put it down. Or else we have to stop feeling superior to republicans for failing to stop the far right. The Democratic Party did a pretty good job for like 75 years of marginalizing the far left (with some occasional temporary lapses). It’s not like we don’t know how to do this. We did it until like a decade ago. They’re communists and we must not be associated with them. Whenever I express this opinion the far left is like “well then you can’t blame us when we don’t vote for your candidate!” Great. Deal. You aren’t worth the trouble. Go start your own party. Call it the New Socialism Party or The USA Sucks And Its Adversaries Have A Point Party. And while you’re at it you should take the Jews with ya! Haha just kidding A bit of cheeky antisemitism to lighten the mood. I know you don’t like Jews. I’m Jewish actually. We have popular opinions mostly. The Christians have grown quite fond of us actually. We get to stay."
Thread by @SwipeWright on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Fertility rates in the West are at all-time lows. I wonder what could be causing this?
ACADEMIA: "Is pregnancy a disease?" "We conclude that there are both normative and pragmatic reasons to consider pregnancy a disease."
Funding for this "research" came from "the European Union's @HorizonEU research and innovation programme." This program, which aims to "achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and boost the EU's competitiveness and growth," is funded to the tune of €93.5 billion from 2021 to 2027. Do you think most Europeans would approve of their tax dollars funding "research" disparaging pregnancy as a "disease"?
"Like a disease, pregnancy is caused by a pathogen, an external organism invading the host’s body." I'm sorry, but this is just nonsense. If the authors are referring to the fetus, then it's not the case that this is an "external organism invading the host's body." A fetus is fully internal. If they're referring to sperm, it's still wrong. Sperm are not "pathogens" and are not "organisms." They're germ cells—gametes. I don't suspect the authors have a very strong grasp of basic biology."
Is pregnancy a disease? A normative approach | Journal of Medical Ethics
Richard Hanania on X - "Is society better off if people marry and make having children a priority? Percent answering yes
All voters: 39%
Trump voters: 59%
Biden voters: 19%
Whites: 41%
Hispanics: 36%
Asians: 35%
Blacks: 34%
A low birth rate is not mysterious when we live in an antinatalist culture."
Meme - Defiant L’s @DefiantLs: "They only like you when they have use for you I guess."
Jack Hopkins @thejackhopkins: "I've been blessed to have known some actual battlefield heroes. I must tell you, though, John Fetterman checking himself into Walter Reed to treat his clinical depression, knowing what criticism awaits him...is one of the most heroic I things I've seen in a LONG while."
Jack Hopkins @thejackhopkins: "John Fetterman. What a fucking turd."
Thread by @molmccann on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "John Eastman has articulated many times the clear argument against birthright citizenship. His argument is straight forward, it rests on history and precedent, and it avoids the absurd result we have today. Here are his basic points: 🧵
The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The first problem is redundancy. If “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” simply means, as common parlance accepts, that one is subject to the law because of physical presence in the territory, that clause is redundant—"born in the United States” covers that base. An interpretation of a legal text that creates a redundancy is disfavored. “Subject to the jurisdiction thereof” should be interpreted to mean owing sole allegiance to the United States. This is confirmed by one of the primary drafters of the clause, Sen. Lyman Trumbull, who stated “subject to the jurisdiction” meant subject to “complete” jurisdiction—“[n]ot owing allegiance to anybody else.”
Initially, the Supreme Court agreed. Although dicta, both the majority and the dissent in the Slaughter House Cases agreed that the 14th Amendment’s “subject to the jurisdiction” clause excluded the children of citizens and subjects of foreign states who just happen to be born in the United States. SCOTUS confirmed this understanding in Elk v. Wilkins when it denied birthright citizenship to an Indian born on a reservation who claimed citizenship as an adult. The Court held that the claim of birthright required him not to be “subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance.” Astoundingly, the Supreme Court completely reversed course in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. In that case, a Chinese man born to permanent residents (who were barred by federal statute from obtaining full citizenship) claimed birthright citizenship, and the High Court held Wong Kim Ark qualified for the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship.
As Eastman points out, the gloss placed on Wong Kim Ark is much broader than even its holding, which addressed the child of legal permanent residents. Birthright citizenship should, at the least, be limited to children of parents here legally. The situation we have today is, again, absurd and untenable."
Meme - Jeremykauffman @JeremyKauffman: "I have a great idea for a maid company that only hires minorities You'll never guess the name though"
power poster @EffervescentCok: "Maid in China
No wait. You're gonna name it Ethnic Cleansing you sick fuck"
Mouin Rabbani on X - "I've finished reading two long exit interviews with Antony Blinken, one in NYT and the other in FT. To say the man is utterly delusional is a vast understatement."
Sam Haselby on X - "Anthony Blinken is a great representative of the American meritocracy: grew up in River House (one of the fanciest buildings in NYC), spent years living in Paris, went to The Dalton School, Harvard BA, Columbia JD, but is essentially an idiot."
Meme - Brian Lilley @brianlilley: "Canadian media have blindly praised Chrystia Freeland because she had been a journalist too. Except if you looked at her record in journalism, it was all sizzle, no steak. American outlets covered her disastrous run at Reuters. Here's a view from a woman who worked for Freeland."
Leah Eichler: "I don't normally write about Canada but ... Thirteen years ago, Chrystia Freeland fired me. I was running the Thomson Reuters online news service for the US and Canada, based in Toronto. I had a 5 week old baby but came back to talk to her about ways to cut cost for my 24-7 news operation, which included 40 dedicated multimedia journalists. I came prepared with ideas. But before I could speak, she shushed me and said, "It's never easy when the invading army overthrows the ancien regime." At 36 I didn't feel ancien of anything. I was one of a few female news leaders, consistently hitting above my performance target. She told me, essentially, to go home. I was replaced by a man in NY whom I had hired and they dragged their feet until the end of my mat leave to finally let me go, moving the entire digital news operation to Bangalore. I don't love what's happening to the government at the moment, especially with the historically low Canadian dollar and Trump's threat of tariffs. However, I would love to say to her, "who is ancien regime, now?" That's it folks, a 13-year old grudge released. Thank you for coming to the show."
Singapore adults' ability to read or write in English is below OECD average. What's the problem? - "As was the case in all countries surveyed, the Singaporeans adults with a higher education scored better than those of lower education levels: Adults with tertiary education scored 48 points higher than those with upper secondary education, who in turn scored 59 points above those with less than upper secondary education. But this pattern does not necessarily apply across borders. Tertiary-educated adults in Singapore scored lower for literacy than adults with only upper secondary education in Finland. Men in Singapore scored an average of four points more than women."
Related: Some English-speaking Singaporeans getting upset when the poor level of English skills in Singapore are pointed out
The headline is misleading as PIAAC is about literacy, not English skills
Crémieux on X - "Students misperceive the odds of actually going into particular careers. Many more students think they'll be artists than actually end up as artists. More students end up as nurses than initially think they'll be nurses. But engineers are mostly correct!"
What Jobs Come to Mind? Stereotypes about Fields of Study
Meme - Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok: "“Take the subway. It will help with congestion. It’s super safe and good. Oh you don’t want to? Ok I will tax you to drive and force you to endure this.” - Kathy Hochul basically"
*Someone sucking a dildo on the subway, with stuff strewn around her*
Use of Alternative Medicine for Cancer and Its Impact on Survival - "There is limited available information on patterns of utilization and efficacy of alternative medicine (AM) for patients with cancer. We identified 281 patients with nonmetastatic breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer who chose AM, administered as sole anticancer treatment among patients who did not receive conventional cancer treatment (CCT), defined as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and/or hormone therapy. Independent covariates on multivariable logistic regression associated with increased likelihood of AM use included breast or lung cancer, higher socioeconomic status, Intermountain West or Pacific location, stage II or III disease, and low comorbidity score. Following 2:1 matching (CCT = 560 patients and AM = 280 patients) on Cox proportional hazards regression, AM use was independently associated with greater risk of death compared with CCT overall (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.88 to 3.27) and in subgroups with breast (HR = 5.68, 95% CI = 3.22 to 10.04), lung (HR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.42 to 3.32), and colorectal cancer (HR = 4.57, 95% CI = 1.66 to 12.61). Although rare, AM utilization for curable cancer without any CCT is associated with greater risk of death."
Toronto Star on X - "CBC needed with Elon Musk ‘meddling’ in Canadian politics: heritage minister"
Jonathan Kay on X - "By the way, can we all take a moment to savour the delicious irony of the Liberals telling us how necessary the CBC is on the same day that Carney announces his big news on American television"
Christopher Bataluk on X - "It's so weird how Musk whom is a Canadian citizen who lives in the states is meddling but any lefty actor they can wheel out from Hollywood just loves Canada."
Dan Levy ✡ דניאל לוי on X - "& that they’re talking about a man - Elon Musk - who holds Canadian citizenship. Unless we are considering it meddling when Canadian citizens who don’t live in Canada opine on Canadian politics? Is that the new rule? I must have missed a meeting or a memo, if so."
Meme - "The Nile River: Us Egyptians can predict the flooding of the Nile using the Nileometer. We measure the height of the Nile which determines how fertile the land would be.
The Yellow River: The Yellow River has flooded. Billions have died. The people are revolting... The Mandate of Heaven has been lost...."
Meme - Man to woman in sexy armour: "DID YOU GET THAT "ARMOR" IN A BROTHEL? EH, WHATEVER."
*Unable to penetrate seeming bare skin with sword*
Woman in full armour after killing man: "WORKS EVERY TIME... I'LL ENCHANT THE SWORD WITH AN ILLUSION TOO WHEN I REACH THE CITY."
Meme - Mike Davis: "You defended your 49-year-old husband sticking a cigar in his 22-year-old intern's vagina off the Oval Office. Sit this one out, Hillary."
Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton: "If Republican leaders don't enjoy being called weird, creepy, and controlling, they could try not being weird, creepy, and controlling."
Meme - "Bonjour, mon amis, mon name is Monsieur Ken. I'm a 27 year old American ouiaboo (Francophile for you trangers). I bake croissants in my kitchen, and spend my days perfecting my confectionary and playing superior French games (Another World, Beyond Good and Evil, Rayman Legends). I train with my baguette every day, this superior bread can cut clean through hunger because it is baked at over a thousand degrees (Celsius), and is vastly superior to any other baked good on earth. I earned my baking license two years ago, and I have been getting better every day. I speak French fluently, both Metropolitan and Corsican dialects, and I write fluently as well. I know everything about French history and their Napoleonic Code, which I follow 100%. When I get my French visa, I am moving to Paris to attend a prestigious High School to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become an artist for Asterix or work at Ubisoft! own several berets, which I wear around town. I want to get used to wearing them before I move to France, so can fit in easier. I kiss my elders four times on the cheek when we meet and speak French as often as I can, but rarely does anyone manage to respond. Wish me luck in France!"
Meme - Woman: "I HAVE To BE HONEST... I'M NOT IN THE MOOD To DATE RIGHT NOW."
Man: "WHAT A RELIEF! ME NEITHER."
Woman: "OH, SHWOD!"
Woman: "LET'S WAIT AND TRY OPENING OUR MARRIAGE NEXT YEAR."
Man: "CHEERS TO THAT."
Meme - maggie zhu @zhuphilia: "you can actually observe americans' declining literacy in shooter manifestos from the past five years"
du cote de chez rob: "new classroom motivator just dropped: "you're telling me 500 words is a lot? do you realize that the unabomber wrote 35,000 in a hand-built off-grid cabin? you'd never have made it in the '90s!"
Meme - "Mommy loves Cream *pie*"
"Funny baby onesie $5"
Abu al-Daraja on X - "🧵 Why did Assad's army collapse so fast? Thread about the history of the Syrian armed forces. Of course, Assad was abandoned by his allies. That was decisive. But his own forces also put up no noteworthy resistance after the recent attack by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Why?"
Timothy Bates on X - "Interesting work on the heritability of BMI: It doesn't have one value, but distinct causes at low, medium, and high BMIs. High BMIs were largely governed by environmental effects (.60). Mid-range BMIs largely reflected genetic effects (heritability of .78 at BMI 21). Shared environment also peaked in this range. Curiously, low BMIs reflected strong dominant genetic effects (peaking at 0.73)"
The heritability of BMI varies across the range of BMI—a heritability curve analysis in a twin cohort
Devon Eriksen on X - "If you keep equating every good thing to Nazis, then pretty soon people are going to start saying "you know, maybe those Nazis weren't all bad after all". Some of them already are. And maybe it's time we took another look, and understood what the Nazis really were, instead of picturing them as some sort of Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain version of the ultimate evil, someone who wants to blow up the world just because. Here's how I think fascism works. Not politically, but psychologically.
Fascism is a spiraling hypersensitivity to disgust.
Disgust is a natural human reaction with a healthy aim... to make us avoid unclean, polluted, toxic, infectious things. We couldn't survive without disgust. But when this healthy response, to that which is legitimately disgusting, become the focus of a monoculture which creates a purity spiral, then two things happen:
1. Responses to legitimately disgusting things become more and more disproportionate.
2. The definition of disgusting becomes broader and broader, encompassing things which only bear a chance resemblance to that which is actually disgusting.
It seems to me that if you look at the history of the Nazi movement, it starts with a healthy rejection of disgusting things, of which there were many to be found in the Weimar republic, and moves to radical responses, and to finding more and more things disgusting. Which leads, by degrees, to wiping out entire populations and declaring war on the rest of the world, because they don't live up to your newfound standards of moral, social, psychological, sexual, and and political hygiene. Now, for the 80some years since the war, we've certainly had a lot of focus on the disproportionate responses and how bad they were. But we're also had a lot of pretense that they happened suddenly for no reason at all. Which is not the kind of attitude you want to have, if you don't want Nazis, because it ignores how you got Nazis in the first place. If you don't want Nazis, don't glorify disgusting things. And don't call natural and healthy things fascist. Because then people will embrace fascism just to replace disgusting things with natural and healthy ones."
The Moderating Role of Psychological Distress in the Relationship Between Postmodernism and Left‐Wing Authoritarianism - "In recent years increased interest towards the growth of political polarisation in many Western countries has focussed on extreme conservative views. However, less is known about ideologies on the opposing end of the spectrum that may also lead to antisocial activist behaviour and suppression of dissenting viewpoints. This study aimed to explore the factors associated with these beliefs with a particular focus on postmodern beliefs and the role of psychological distress as predictors of what has been termed left-wing authoritarianism. A total of 365 participants completed measures of ideological beliefs, left-wing authoritarianism and psychological distress. The study found that postmodern beliefs and distress predicted left-wing authoritarianism. Contrary to expectations, the effect of postmodernism on left-wing authoritarianism was stronger when distress was low. Future studies could extend these findings through a greater focus on other potential influences, and the possible moderating role these have on belief development."
Meme - Spergler Acolyte @SperglerAcolyte: "I think good handwriting is a sign of vanity. In school, girls would often write carefully since they worried how others would perceive their penmanship and, by extension, their character (neurotic trait). Boys on the other hand couldn't care less about something so superficial."
Meme - Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil: "The biggest reason for disability payments to workers in 1961 was stuff like heart disease and stroke, but nowadays, far and away the biggest reason for disability payments is back pain and related problems."
Meme - Ben @BWoodzy99: "Question: Why does the British museum exist? Answer:"
"2,000-year-old statue found in rubbish bag in Greece. A local resident stumbled across the statue in a bin"
Meme - ~~datahazard~~ @fentasyl: "Reminder that the modern degenerate NGO industry was created by Reagan's tax reform and has privatized $10,000,000,000,000 of assets in the past 20 years. Nonprofit indeed.
More than 10% of the US workforce is employed in the nonprofit sector. In 2012, they made up:
- 27% of DC's workforce
- 18% of NY, MA, ME, VT, RI
- 16% of PA
Be sure to follow @fentasyl for more fun facts about the bloated nonprofit albatross."
Time for left wingers to demand that churches be taxed again
