Voters Love the Policies That Economists Love to Hate

Voters Love the Policies That Economists Love to Hate

Economists and ordinary people often seem to inhabit different planets, but seldom has the chasm been this wide.

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris compete for any possible edge in a tight election, they have offered a plethora of ideas that, while delighting voters by varying degrees, have appalled economists because they would distort markets or deepen America’s fiscal hole.

The Wall Street Journal’s recent poll asked 750 registered voters about the presidential candidates’ proposed economic policies. Then, at the Journal’s request, the University of Chicago’s Clark Center put exactly the same questions to a panel of 39 top academic economists.

Trump’s plan to stop taxing tips for service workers—an idea Harris adopted after the former president announced it—is supported by about four-fifths of voters polled by the Journal. But among economists, 87% disapprove, saying it would arbitrarily benefit a small subset of lower-wage workers, distort the labor market, widen the budget deficit and create incentives to game the system.

Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs of up to 20% on imported goods. Forty-seven percent of voters approve of the idea, slightly more than those who disapprove. By contrast, 100% of the economists, who span the political spectrum, said they “strongly oppose” the idea.

Trade is a bedrock of economic development that, in theory, enables each country to focus on what it is good at.

“When you put a tariff on something artificially, you’re going to make things more expensive, and if it’s an input, like steel for example, then you’re going to make the downstream companies that are using steel less competitive,” said Steven Kaplan, a conservative-leaning economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Peter Stewart, a manager at a chemical provider to the fracking industry in Texas who supports Trump, said he thinks tariffs would encourage Americans to buy more products made in the U.S.

“I wonder, some of these economists, what is their vested interest?” said Stewart, 49. “You never know whether you’re getting the truth or not anymore.”

The American Economic Association defines economics as the study of how people use resources, respond to incentives and make decisions. Economists use data and theoretical models to evaluate whether government initiatives make people, and society at large, better off.

The father of economics, the 18th-century philosopher Adam Smith, extolled the invisible hand of markets and decried spendthrift kings and ministers. With fiscal rectitude out and populism in, modern economists say Smith would be holding his nose if he were alive today.

“We’ve done a terrible job of educating the American people,” lamented Edward Glaeser, a center-right economist at Harvard University.

Eric Maskin, a Harvard economist and a 2007 Nobel laureate, said: “I also blame politicians who know better for not trying harder.” Maskin said he can’t recall an election cycle that reeked so badly of rotten policy. “I think this may be a new low,” he said.

Harris has proposed a ban on corporate price gouging for food and groceries. It is one of her most popular policies. The share of voters who approve it exceeds the share who disapprove by a margin of 49 percentage points.

By contrast, two-thirds of economists disapprove and just 13% approve. “ ‘Price gouging’ is too vague to be useful—and would be harmful if it was clarified enough to be significant,” said William Nordhaus, an economist at Yale University and a 2018 Nobel laureate. “I doubt if it will be taken seriously.”

History has shown that it is a bad idea for the government to attempt to regulate prices, which normally serve to balance supply and demand in a competitive market. “It interferes with the market system,” said Maskin, who described his politics on noneconomic issues as left of center. “Higher prices help to equilibrate supply and demand, and they also serve a useful incentive function.”

“It’s either a gimmick, or it’s a mess,” said Carl Shapiro, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in President Barack Obama’s administration.

There are areas where the public and economists agree. The public backs Harris’s proposal to cap insulin prices at $35. So do 64% of economists.

“I do not favor a general price cap on drugs,” said Kenneth Judd, an economist at the conservative Hoover Institution who studies imperfect competition, among other topics. Insulin, however, is an exception, he said. “Insulin is a very important drug, it has been around for many decades with great success, and there was no justification for the recent price increases.”

Both voters and economists disapprove of Harris’s proposal to tackle the housing-affordability crisis by giving first-time home buyers $25,000 toward a down payment. Economists think such a move would fuel demand for homes without addressing the low supply, helping a small subset of Americans while potentially making housing more expensive for everyone else.

A few of the candidates’ proposals are supported by most economists. These include Harris’s plan to provide a $6,000 tax credit to families with newborns, and to reverse Trump’s corporate tax cuts partially by increasing the tax rate on corporations to 28% from 21%.

“We cannot keep cutting taxes forever,” said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Taxes may be too high on some things, but they are too low on average.”

The irony of the 2024 campaign is that both presidential candidates majored in economics as undergraduates. Trump in 1968 received a bachelor of science in the field from the University of Pennsylvania. Harris in 1986 received a bachelor of arts in political science and economics from Howard University, where she headed the economics society.

Glaeser, the Harvard economist, said it should come as no surprise that politicians offer up proposals that the public likes, even if they might know the economics are dubious. Maskin argued that Trump’s tendency to offer simple-sounding solutions to complex problems—a hallmark of populism—encourages his rivals to do the same.

Some see the gulf between voters and economists on policy as an example of the public’s deepening distrust of experts and institutions. “The American public, they’re unhappy with stuff,” said Shapiro.

 

 

 

 

Links - 24th September 2024 (1)

Americans Struggle with Graphs - "much of “the public” struggle with even the most basic charts and graphs, let alone complex visualizations... do people in the mass-media “routinely” assume log scale axes are widely comprehensible? If it’s the latter, and they’re overestimating the world’s quantitative abilities, how many other important data stories are lost on general audiences?  I know from personal experience, this is an easy mistake to make. If a big chunk of your day is spent in a python notebook or your lunch conversations often veer toward what’s new on arXiv, you might be in the same boat.   Stanford/Duke professors Dan/Chip Heath call this the “Curse of Knowledge.”"

Paul Rivers on X - "Lol classic clickbait. Why don't people who live in dangerous areas go running?"
Alexander on X - "This seems to be a popular explanation for why low income people run less.  It seems like a lot of people implicitly associate low income with dangerous inner-city areas. While these are low income areas, most low income individuals are in rural areas. Yet we still see they run less - they also hike less despite being in more rural location!  This is also where the poverty-obesity link is strongest: the rural poor. They aren’t not running because their town of pop 10,000 is too dangerous.  “Too dangerous” isn’t even a great explanation for the urban poor, who also engage in higher risk behavior across the board. Why does someone choose to use recreational drugs instead of run? Not because it’s a safer hobby.  We have to ask why people make the decisions that they do, but most of the explanations along the lines of, “they would totally do that if they could, they really want to” are wrong. They don’t want to."

memetic_sisyphus on X - "There’s a debate style that just showers your opponent with endless words hoping they never pick up on one point and keep them constantly on the back foot. For many this style is highly convincing (see destiny’s audience). The same thing happens for people when they read a book. These types of people will immediately believe everything they read in a book, because it’s large and they think it’s impossible to publish a lie.   This is also why they’re so against publishing “bad” books. Because if they accidentally read one their whole world view would change."

Mickamious on X - "Australia is seriously screwed. First Dutton asks you to dob in your family or friends for anti-government views or if your views have shifted in nature…. Now this.. Government can under new surveillance laws MODIFY your social media posts. Its an information war, make no mistake"

Andrew Hammel on X - "Most 🇩🇪 central stations are surrounded by junkies, lunatics, drug dealers, rough-sleeping drunks, and beggars. Germans know their politicians will do nothing, so they've given up. But visitors wonder why 🇩🇪 can't solve this humiliating problem & lose respect for the country."

Police station mocked for photo of knife haul – that includes a spoon - "A British police station this week lauded themselves with a picture on Twitter designed to showcase their efforts at tackling knife crime — but didn’t quite scoop up the coverage they were hoping for thanks to the presence of a rogue spoon in the image.  The Regents Park Police force announced that it had “conducted weapons sweeps, dealt with a person injured from a van reversing on them, reported a burglary, and collected all these from @scope charity shop who diligently didn’t want them to get into the wrong hands & disposed of correctly & safely,” read the tweet.  But with that glaring spoon, cue the chorus of internet mockery.  Journalist Tim Pool pointed out a butter knife also made the cut."

Meme - Hackney MPS @MPSHackney: "Haggerston SNT have conducted a weapons sweep on Stonebridge Estate finding a number of items. #GDSW #OpEquinox"
stevefromaccounting @holloworot: "Your doing Gods work out there. Lost my mother to a bike wheel"
Hackney MPS: "Thank you. And we're very sorry to hear that."

Olivia (she/her) on X - ""Can my husband find out who I am voting for in the Presidential Election?" 🗳️ We've been getting this question a lot, so we rounded up some helpful facts. Please share this 🧵"
very moisturized on X - "This is a 33k like thread inventing a fake abusive relationship with a (Republican) spouse who will beat you for voting Dem and talking to him in HR lady speak about keeping your vote “private”. These people really beat off to weird fantasies of political victimhood."

Wolf of X on X - "5. This is 7 yrs old Tom. One day he told his schoolmates that his uncle was Superman. Kids made fun of him and no one believed him. Then his mother made a call, and asked her brother-in-law to take him to school one day. And Henry Cavill, of course, was delighted to do so."

Meme - "When the plan B doesn't work. it's time for Plan C *Boxer getting ready to punch woman in stomach*"

Meme - "I forgot to turn off the flash *4 young girls looking at photographer*"

Visegrád 24 on X - "Many are shocked by the news that Iraq’s parliament is about to lower the marriage age for girls from 15 to 9. There are examples from other countries too. In Sudan it’s 10 In Afghanistan & Yemen, it’s from “puberty” but in reality 6, 7 and 8-year-old girls are also married off"

Thread by @wanyeburkett on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " In an every day sense, people who live in bad urban neighborhoods in the United States are less affected by actual violence than they are by young men who have hardened themselves to violence. The issue is one of the almost constant implicit threat of violence. If you’re paying attention, what you notice in nicer neighborhoods or in suburbs is that nobody in your every day life is posturing in a way that’s designed to indicate to that they are ready for physical violence if necessary. I have a theory that men are more sensitive to this than women, which might explain why some conservative men appear to liberals to be more, “afraid” of big cities. I think what’s happening is that these are men who are especially attuned to implicit threats of violence and who are correctly picking it up everywhere they go in urban areas. When my wife and I are out in a city I will often clock a guy doing this and then it will distract me for as long as he is present in my environment and my wife can sometimes get kind of annoyed because I seem distracted and she’s not sure why. This is another case of perception being reality. That distraction I’m feeling, that sense of uneasiness, that’s an actual thing that actually exists in the actual physical world. It is in principle measurable, though it appears in no statistical record. In fact, pretty much every middle-class norm is designed to make strangers feel comfortable, to signal loudly and repeatedly, “I am not a threat to you.” In bad neighborhoods the opposite is pervasive. Young men, even those who might not necessarily want to harm you, nevertheless signal by default that they are ready for violence if necessary."

Church Kicks Out Woman And Gives Her Donation Back Because She Wants To Separate From Her Husband
Meme - "Islandton Church of God of Prophecy
Dear Brooke,
This letter is to inform you that it was unanimously decided in our Feb. 9th business conference that your membership in our local church should be terminated. Since you refused to accept the letter that we sent you in November, that outlined the reasons for this action, I will briefly review them here.
1) You initiated the separation in your marriage to Josh, without good cause, stating that you wanted to begin a relationship with another man. It seems you have no desire to keep your family together, and this has caused a great deal of hurt to you, your husband, your children, and many others. [This is being unfaithful to the marriage vow that you took before God.]
2) You have continued to post many un-Christian, and even indecent pictures and messages on various social media sites over the past many months. You have also been very negative and critical of many of our church family, I believe, to try and take the attention off of your real needs, which you deny.
3) You have refused counsel or advice from your husband, your pastor, and many of your close church family, who really care for you and have tried to help you. Brooke, contrary to what you try to convince us, you are really not in a very good place right now.
Brooke, taking this action was not an easy thing for the church to do. There have been many prayers said for you and your family over this past year plus. There wasa great deal of sadness in our meeting over having to do this. You and your family have been a very important part of our church for many years, and I know that we still love each of you very much. We are hoping that God will show you His will in all this, and that you will also desire to do His will. Please let us know if that happens.
Sincerely,
Pastor Bernie Levesque
Note: We all felt it best to return the tithe check you recently gave to Jeanette."

António Guterres on X - "Nearly 80 years have passed since Nagasaki was incinerated by an atomic weapon. It is not enough to remember what happened. We must never allow such devastation again. The only way to eliminate the nuclear risk is to eliminate nuclear weapons."
Patrick Fox on X - "If you eliminated every nuclear weapon on planet earth tomorrow, the world would see the return of conventional wars on a level it has not known since 1945. The fear of nuclear weapons has ushered in a previously unheard of period of relative peace between the great powers."

FischerKing on X - "This is an excellent documentary. It follows a single cow. You watch her give birth to a calf, provide the milk we drink, you see her graze in the fields and socialize with other cows. And then when she shows signs of age and illness, you watch her human handlers, whom she trusts, shoot her in the head.  I’m not a vegetarian, but I see the occasional discourse about it on here. I think if you don’t have some misgivings about killing nice animals and eating them you’re probably a little heartless. At the very least people should have better understanding of where their food comes from."
ib on X - "I don’t begrudge anyone who eats meat, but it does strike me as odd that even this level of sanitized violence is too much to even watch, let alone carry out, for so many who do"
memetic_sisyphus on X - "When my father in law got his first couple of cattle and it came to the slaughter, he said the other cows just watched their fellow cow, they had spent all their lives with, get killed and simply went back to chewing on grass. He said he never felt better about eating beef."

Meme - Jonatan Pallesen @jonatanpallesen: "A three strikes law for violent crime would prevent more than half of all violent crime in Sweden.  This is because most violent crime most crime is committed by just 1% of the population."
Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630: "Almost all felony crime - 66% in the recent New York study, 78% in the "Bukele test" is committed by ~1% of free young males. If that's an exaggeration at all, it's not much of one.  What we do with that information, as a society, is up to us.
This is actually why "not all men" (Blacks, teens, "rednecks," etc) is not just a deflection.   It's totally fine for older women - say - to point out that they are simply not  in the group that commits 80% of murders.   But, it is...ALSO logical for young guys to point out that literally 99% of them are not murderers either, and they are heavily over-represented among the cops who catch killers."

The Left Has an Authoritarian Problem (but Doesn’t Know It) - "The hidden truth of authoritarian psychology is that there are always people like that. There are always people who will fill the power vacuum, who want to rule and order and dictate. Every movement has authoritarian leaders. Every movement has people who want to gain power and use it harshly. Every movement has leaders who wish to control, manipulate, and crush. So to spend time talking about authoritarianism as if what changes is in the leadership is futile. Nothing changes in the leadership. What changes is in the people they presume to lead.  Indeed, leaders are irrelevant if no one will obey them. It requires a lust in the masses for authoritarians to punish their enemies, to create and enforce norms for which dissent is not allowed, to promote intolerance and hatred. Authoritarian leaders are pathetic stooges if the masses are uninterested in them. So “Are there authoritarian leaders?” isn’t the primary question—the primary question is “Will the people submit?” It doesn’t matter if Congresswoman Maxine Waters tells protestors to “get more confrontational” if they don’t like a trial verdict; it only matters if everyone thinks that kind of authoritarian fear-mongering is okay. Will they submit? Do they want leaders to boss others about, to lead them to aggression? This truth maps onto decades of authoritarianism research in my own field of social psychology. That research has largely been built around personality and attitude scales that measure authoritarianism. These scales are not built to measure authoritarian leaders; rather, they are built to measure authoritarian followers... Thus, most of what we know about authoritarianism—most of the actual data used in the primary questionnaires that have come to define what we think about authoritarianism—is about the people who follow, and not the people who lead... Our work over a thirty-year span suggests that changes in the authoritarian status of governments were predicted by the predisposal of the populace to authoritarian followership traits like collectivism; but authoritarian governmental changes had comparatively little effect on followers’ psychology. This work suggests that certain psychological features predispose followers to accept authoritarian dictatorships. This empirical fact is quite remarkable. So many things influence the rise of dictators that have nothing to do with the internal culture—military power, foreign politics, the status of a nation’s immediate neighbors—that it would seem like the cultural beliefs of the followers in the populace hardly matter. And yet not only do they matter, they matter primarily. They are central. An authoritarian dictator may take over a country, but if the people never wanted that to happen, it won’t last. A democracy may be installed from the outside, but if the people want authoritarian leadership, it won’t last... Authoritarians don’t merely enforce reasonable rules or obey those rules—they want a strong leader to crush and silence their opponents. They want that leader to hurt people for the benefit of their group. The authoritarian is thus vastly different than the person who merely complies with authority. In fact, merely obeying authority is largely a positive thing as far as it goes. If students in my classes refused to do what I ask of them, no one would ever learn. If they interrupted my lectures to discuss Taylor Swift, or yelled at their fellow students about line dancing, or wrote “Luke stinks” on top of the notes I was trying to write on the board, then there would be little point in my class. Their obedience accomplishes a positive goal. We teach children to respect their teachers because it is a positive thing to respect their teachers. Similarly, we want people to obey the law. We want them to respect the authority that tells them “do not murder.”... The classic definition of authoritarianism is that authoritarians want a strong authority figure to hurt others (called “authoritarian aggression”), to enforce radical group norms (called “authoritarian conventionalism”), and to require submission to those norms (called “authoritarian submission”). Authoritarians want to obey strong authority figures, but they are largely motivated by a desire to have their group dominate other groups... The distinction between good and bad authority can be seen in remarkable work on parenting by Cal Berkeley professor Diana Baumrind. This work suggests there are two primary dimensions of parenting: Responsiveness/Warmth and Authority/Control...  parents who score high on authority but also score high on responsiveness are Authoritative. They expect obedience but they listen to their children and show warmth to them.  In my experience, it occasionally surprises some Americans that lots of research suggests kids have the best outcomes under Authoritative parents. Indulgent and Neglectful parents tend to raise unhappy and unsuccessful kids. So parents with no authority at all don’t do very well. Parents who have nothing but authority—cold authoritarians—also don’t do well. But parents with a combination of authority and responsiveness raise successful kids at very high rates. This work highlights an important point for our larger study of authoritarianism. The proper substitute for authoritarianism isn’t chaos. The proper substitute is good authority that is responsive to the populace. We need leaders. Authoritarianism is essentially a desire to put strong-but-bad leaders in power. The proper substitute for authoritarianism isn’t to put no leaders in power, but to put responsive and warm leaders in power. We shouldn’t want less leadership; we should want better leadership.
Left wingers keep getting upset at the idea of left wing authoritarianism, and insist it doesn't exist
Left wingers hate authority and want to punish their opponents, so you get the worst of both worlds

Thread by @owenbroadcast on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "theres a 4chan post about how super intelligent characters on TV shows often make no sense, because its usually a normal writer imagining what its like to be super intelligent, which is impossible  likewise this type of comedy is normal people imagining what its like to be weird
"being weird" is characterized by being unintelligible or off-putting to the average normal person. so when a normal person tries to be weird, they naturally just become unintelligible and off-putting - because from their point of view (outside of it), thats what being weird is. thats why in proto-internet "XD i'm so random" was how people presented as weird or interesting. being weird or interesting has an element of randomness or not adhering to strict social codes, from the outside. but thats not what it actually is."

Anonymous 2 hours ago No.48556304 >Meme - "SHERLOCK. So apart from tumbir fanbase, why doesnt /tv/ like this show?"
"its a sitcom not a detective show."
"Because it has smart characters written stupidly.
Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men is a smartly written smart character. When Chigurh kills a hotel room full of three people he books to room next door so he can examine it, finding which walls he can shoot through, where the light switch is, what sort of cover is there etc. This is a smart thing to do because Chigurh is a smart person who is written by another smart person who understands how 'smart people think.
Were Sherlock Holmes to kill hotel room full of three people. He'd enter using a secret door in the hotel that he read about in a book ten years ago. He'd throw peanuts at one guy causing him to go into anaphylactic shock, as he had deduced from a dartboard with a picture of George Washington carver on it pinned to the wall that the man had a severe peanut allergy. The second man would then kill himself just according to plan as Sheriock had earlier deduced that him and the first man were homosexual lovers who couldnt live without eachother due to a faint scent of penis on each man's breath and a slight dilation of their pupils whenever they looked at each other. As for the third man, why Sherlock doesnt kill him at all. The third man removes his sunglasses and wig to reveal he actually WAS Sherlock the entire time. But Sherlock just entered through the Secret door and killed two people, how can there be two of him? The first Sherlock removes his, mask to reveal he's actually Moriarty attempting to frame Sherlock for two murders. Sherlock however anticipated this, the two dead men stand up, they're undercover police officers, it was all a ruse. "But Sherlock!" Moriarty cries "That police officer blew his own head off, Iook at it, there's skull fragments on the wall, how is he fine now? How did you fake that?". Sherlock just winks at the screen, the end.
This is retarded because Sherlock is a smart person written by a stupid person to whom smart people are indistinguishable from wizards."

Taylor Swift Data on X - "🚨 Taylor Swift 𝘐𝘚𝘐𝘚 attackers were hired as security guards for concert They had chemical 𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘴 and planned to drive car into 20,000 fans before attacking with machetes and knives"
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "This is what terror supporters mean when they talk about “Globalising the Intifada”"

Dr Charlotte Proudman on X - "Men have tried to silence Taylor Swift by ‘slut-shaming’, criticising her for being single, unmarried & childfree. When that failed, they resorted to violence and terrorist threats. Now they’ve succeeded—she won’t sing in Vienna. This is how misogyny works, and it makes me sick."
Wilfred Reilly on X - ""Men."  This approach is unbelievably annoying, and maaaay be quietly radicalizing me. There are essentially no normal men issuing terror threats to the concerts our ladies go to on girls' night. In EVERY case, the people doing stuff like this - recent Islamic migrants, ghetto and Antifa thugs, "trans women" - are members of some tiny, dysfunctional pet group that every mainstream feminist/left-wing organization coddles and cossets.  I mean, just sayin'."

Opinion: The Canadian dream is on life support - The Globe and Mail - "For much of the past decade, I spent time going back and forth between the United States and Canada. It used to be the case, especially after the election of Justin Trudeau in 2015, that when returning to Canada I was greeted by good news. The country was imbued with a sense of optimism. The beginnings of an economy that worked for everyone. A renewed confidence on the world stage. The country felt ready for the future... The Canada of 2024 feels like a different country.  When I returned to Canada in late 2023, I was shocked by what I saw and heard. It felt as if almost everyone I encountered now, of all ethnicities, backgrounds and ages, were angry. Friends complained about the impossibility of buying a home − homes that had been affordable when their parents came to Canada. Family members worried about car thefts and other crimes. People were making plans to leave − even those who had recently arrived. Nor was this limited to my immediate circle. In conversations at the local YMCA, the coffee shop and around Toronto, there was a genuine, visceral frustration. People felt stifled by the dismal state of the economy and the poor state of housing. They were working harder and, thanks to inflation, making less. The price of food (and everything else) was rising. They worried about their kids’ safety. There was a ceiling on their ambitions. The political leadership of the country had failed them, time and again, and was now unable to address ordinary people’s concerns... Driving through the Greater Toronto Area, I saw how much more congested everything had become. There were too many people with too few places to live. The increasing number of homeless people on the street. The rise in violent crime. The staggering toll of the opioid crisis. The unprecedented wave of international students, many of whom were sold a bill of goods that turned out to be faulty. The hangover from COVID-19 restrictions, almost a form of national PTSD. The pervasive feeling that success is out of reach in Canada, and even if you work hard and are successful, the government will come collecting more than they need − and then proceed to waste it, overspend it or lose it. What I realized soon thereafter was that this country was witnessing a systemic political failure, a complete inability of politicians to get change done in ways that manifested at the dinner table. An extreme form of PR and image-management had begun to take over delivering on policy in concrete ways − and the entire country was noticing. Nor was this an accident, the unfortunate consequence of polarization or inequality, but the deliberate result of multiple policy failures − as well as failures of will.  I realized that this systemic government failure amounted to something worse than just incompetence or ineffectiveness. It was a betrayal of the Canadian dream... Canadians are not fools; their discontents have good reason. “Canada’s per capita GDP has been shrinking 0.4 per cent a year since 2020 − the worst rate for any developed country in the top 50,” noted the esteemed investor, Ruchir Sharma, in May. Investment and job growth is driven mostly by the government, while “private sector action is confined to the property market.” So the government spends, is unable to restrain itself or get results, while speculation and real estate investments drive the economy. Along with the systemic political failure, this may be an economic crisis in the making.  For many Canadians, the cost of living has become unaffordable... more than half of Canadians are living paycheque-to-paycheque. Many in my generation have been entirely shut out of prosperity − betraying the promise of progress for millions.  One sees neighbourhoods plagued by drug abuse and crime. Statistics Canada has reported that we are witnessing a 16-year spike in violent crime. The homicide rate in Canada today is the highest it’s been since 1992. And Canada maintains one of the laxest criminal justice systems in the Western world, one where someone can cause the death of another and leave prison after six months. If America went too far in the direction of mass incarceration, Canada overcorrected in the opposite direction with mass leniency. One thing, though, is still a constant: The disproportionately largest victims of violent crimes, and specifically homicide, are Indigenous people and racial minorities. At some point, one would think that the deaths of so many innocent and vulnerable people would elicit outrage − yet life goes on as normal. Each life is precious, and when violent criminals get off easy, or without punishment at all, they learn the terrible lesson that this country does not take its own laws seriously, so why should they? When the law loses its power to deter crime, either because of prosecutors not moving forward with cases, or because of a general laissez-faire attitude toward violent crime happening in other neighbourhoods, it is the marginalized who are harmed most.  Yet, Canadians cannot even read or share news on social-media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It is an Orwellian experience − in the literal sense − to see one’s own articles censored and silenced in a country calling itself a democracy. This is the result of an ineffectual attempt by the Canadian government to force the biggest social-media company on the planet to pay for articles. Either Canada should not have taken on such a fight, or if it did, should have dealt more tactfully and strategically with a company known to leverage its strength. Normally, in a democracy, social ills can be addressed by public officials. But Canada’s own political institutions have been riven by corruption and personal ambition. And now also potentially by foreign influence. Each controversy and scandal leads people away from crucial time and policy attention that could have been spent on fixing the country’s major issues. At the parliamentary level, most members of Parliament are so frightened of speaking for themselves that they are rendered powerless. This defies the very essence of the British parliamentary system, upon which Canada’s system is based, which empowers MPs to speak on behalf of their constituents and represent their true voice in the people’s chamber... The social situation deteriorates. The housing shortage is chronic. Economic stagnation is severe. The political crisis may be even worse. At this moment, there is a backlash building. Evidence for this is everywhere − most recently in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s, which just elected a Conservative MP for the first time since 1988 − and it would be wise for leaders in office to take notice. They should admit something went wrong, re-examine old assumptions and pivot."

Links - 23rd September 2024 (2 - Trans Mania)

Biden tried to rewrite Title IX. These women athletes are pushing back - "In an effort to score political points among the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden earlier this year used his executive authority to fundamentally change the point of the Title IX civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs that take federal dollars.   The 1972 law has been a game changer for women and their access to college sports. Yet, Biden’s Title IX rewrite turned the law on its head by prioritizing gender identity over sex – opening the door for transgender athletes in women and girls’ sports teams and locker rooms. Thankfully, women athletes and advocates – and now the courts – are standing up to this detrimental development.  One group of women who care deeply about preserving the original intent of Title IX have hopped on a bus and are touring the country this month to let people know why the issue matters... The “Take Back Title IX” bus tour has crisscrossed the country, targeting states with competitive congressional races. Our Bodies, Our Sports – a coalition of women’s advocacy organizations that includes the Independent Women’s Forum, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and Concerned Women for America – is hosting the tour.   The women will head to Washington, D.C., next week to mark the 52nd anniversary of Title IX – and its original intent. They want to send Biden a message. “If you have a president, someone who’s leading this country, who can’t answer what a woman is or denies that there’s a clear biological distinction between the sexes, there are no limits, there is nothing that he won’t deny,” Riley Gaines, an ambassador with the Independent Women’s Forum and host of OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast, told me... Biden’s revamped Title IX regulations have garnered numerous lawsuits, and the courts are siding with these concerned women.   In the past week alone, two federal judges have temporarily halted the implementation of the new rules, affecting 10 states: Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana... International sports organizations also are siding with keeping women’s sports for women. The Court of Arbitration for Sport this month upheld the policy by World Aquatics, the international swimming federation, that prevents transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty from competing in the women’s category. Thomas, the transgender swimmer who competed against Gaines, brought the challenge. For athletes like Madisan DeBos, a cross-country and track runner at Southern Utah University, these are hopeful developments. Yet, she’s still concerned about what could happen if Biden’s regulations stay in place.  “I think that this could lead to no women’s sports at all,” DeBos told me. “That is extremely disheartening and we work so hard to get to where we are, and I see every single day what athletics have done for not only myself but for my teammates.   “I’ve seen the opportunities and the confidence and all of that stuff that is instilled in them, and I think we just are going to take those opportunities away from women if we can’t define the difference between a man and a woman.”"

Ontario transgender woman loses fight to have province pay for facial feminization surgery : r/canada - "Look, I support the LGBTQ community but this should absolutely not be covered. That argument doesn't make any sense either. I can't just walk into a hospital and tell them "I want cosmetic surgery or I'm going to kill myself" and then expect to get it for free.  Healthcare is suffering right now. This is not the stuff we should be focused on."
Ontario transgender woman loses fight to have province pay for facial feminization surgery : r/canada - "And threatening it all the time goes directly against clearly established procedures that state that talking about suicide will increase the chances of suicide."

Meme - "HOW TRANSWOMEN LOOK AT YOU... WHEN YOU USE THEIR CORRECT PRONOUNS. *Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men*"

Meme - Dr Octopus with blue tinges to hair: "Rowling deleted her tweets. We won."
JK. Rowling @jk_rowling: "'It's important to highlight that launching a PR campaign and applying layers of thick makeup requires far more time and effort than simply making DNA test results public." @SwipeWright" *Spider-man swooping in*
Dr Octopus with blue tinges to hair: *shocked*

Trans Lives are Sacred | Hamilton Artists Inc. - ""Trans Lives are Sacred" is an illustration inspired by and in hopeful collaboration with the artist Kait Hatsch's mixed-medium embroidery pieces ‘Sacred Love/Sacred Lives’, celebrating the sacredness of disabled, trans, and queer folks. Trans-ness, as the need to control one's own body, identity, and appearance is defensive, a guard developed to keep from being grabbed and forced into some desired form. This trans reflex of resistant self-definition can extend into an appearance of vicious defense - monstrous tattoos, barbed piercings."
When you kill religion, most people still have a religious urge, so the left looks for new things to sacralise
This also says "Trans joy is sacred", so autoerotic gynephilia is covered off too

Meme - Brandon Fellows @BrandonF65664: "Finally was able to get my DC ID today, and, I'm now a woman. Thanks 2 DC recognizing I'm a woman, I intend on basking in the benefits of being a woman, including but not limited 2 business grants and loans for females. For legal purposes, I DO identify as a female."
"July 31, 2024. BRANDON FELLOWS. WASHINGTON, DC. ID Card Number: ***. DOB: 04/11/1994. Sex: F. Height: 5-10. Weight: 175. Organ Donor: No. Veteran: No. Selective Service: No"

Meme - "Common sense in the 1960's. Hate speech in the 2020's
*Berenstain Bears*
"I'm a father. I'm a he. A father's something you could be.  I'm a mother. I'm a she. A mother's something you could be."

Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 on X - "A military family had their 16-year-old autistic son taken from them, because they refused to transition him.  The boy went to Children’s National Hosptal in DC after self-harming, folowing a breakup with his girlfriend. The hospital decided he had gender dysphoria, used emergency powers to hold him, and contacted CPS.   The boy was moved into foster care and has never been home since.  “The parents, who are in their 40s and African-American, say their son was at risk because his condition means he is vulnerable to social manipulation.”  They have been in a legal battle ever since and are suing the hospital.   Children’s National is the same hospital which told @ChayaRaichik10  on a recorded phone call that they offer ‘gender-affirming hysterectomies’ to minors."
Washington DC family lose custody of their autistic son, 16, after refusing to let him transition to a girl
It wasn't that long ago that left wingers were pretending that you couldn't have your children taken from you for not supporting trans mania

Elon Musk on X - "Earlier this year, a friend of mine almost had his young daughter taken from him in California just because he wanted her to wait a few years to permanently transition. He talked the police out of taking her when they came to his house. That day, he left California with his family"

Meme - "r/MtF
Doctor made me take a pregnancy test
I had a physical with my new doctor, and she said I need to take a pregnancy test. I was like "I don't think that's necessary," and she said, "Well it's part of the usual checkup. We need to make sure you're not pregnant because it might affect certain medications." and I said, "I'm literally trans I don't have a uterus," and she said, "You are??!?! Alright then." She comes back a few minutes later and says, "Looks like you do need to take the test to get your medication, since your legal gender is female. Sorry, it's just policy. I hope it's not too much trouble.""
Clearly, the poor medical care trains get is due to transphobia, and even more money needs to be spent

Meme - Jesse Singal @jessesingal: "amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history
Denying Women Human Rights. Under the Taliban, women and girls were discriminated against in many ways, for the 'crime' of identifying as a girl. The Taliban enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law. Women and girls were banned from:
going to school, studying;
working;
leaving the house without a male chaperone;
showing their skin in public;
accessing healthcare delivered by men (with women forbidden from working, healthcare was virtually inaccessible);
being involved in politics or speaking publicly."

'Parents Should Not Brainwash Kids Into Their Religion,' Says Progressive Mom Of 3 Trans Kids | Babylon Bee - "At publishing time, Brane had gone on a crusade against her local school board for keeping bigoted, biased things like the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms instead of depictions of the Gender Unicorn."

Thread by @babybeginner on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Thread. So, you know that “women’s” soccer team with five men on it?  Well, it turns out that that the club banned camera’s larger than a phone from recording during the match.  They can’t let you show the world what’s going on. They MUST do this in secret.
Not only this but one of the 6’2 men on their team broke a woman’s leg in two places. Do the organizers care? Nope. They don’t care at all that women are hurt.  24 of the injured woman’s teammates quit. Does it matter? People keep telling women that this will all stop if they just quit. Well, six of the Flying Bat’s victories came from women’s teens who forfeited. Six. Know what happened? Nothing. They just won more easily. The organizers of the tournaments notified the teams that forfeiting games would result in disciplinary action and could even be seen as an act of discrimination. It’s possible that reference to “an act of discrimination” is a legal threat. In a recent lawsuit, an app owner was sued and lost by a man demanding access to a female only site.
None of this stuff comes about organically, easily, or takes place if they are truthful.  They won’t even let the players be named. What kind of sports doesn’t name their players?  They know what they are doing is wrong.
The charmers at the LGBTI rights Australia group on another app, posted a message congratulating the team. Calling anyone who noticed the men terf N@zI$.  That is also a part of this.
They know no one accepts this. So they have to
1 play matches without cameras so no one sees,
2 hide the names of the players
3 penalize you if you dare not play
4 or sue you if you participate in the dangerous farce.
5 call you terrible names to intimidate you."

Judge calls for review of social work response to boy who lived as a girl - "A High Court judge has told a council to review its social work response to a case where a series of concerns about the welfare of a seven-year-old boy who was living life “entirely as a girl” were “disregarded”.  The boy was removed from his mother’s care after Mr Justice Hayden ruled the woman had caused her son “significant emotional harm” in her determination that he should be a girl. He said whether the boy chose to present as a girl or not, ought to be his choice.  The judge said the boy was now living with his father, who is separated from his mother. He lived life as a boy and asserted “his own masculine gender”. He still saw his mother. Hayden said some young children may identify strongly with their opposite gender. However, he found the child had been deprived of the space for his gender identity to develop and instead was “pressed into a gender identification that had far more to do with his mother’s needs and little, if anything, to do with his own”.   Transgender equality had received much attention in recent times and the sensitivity of the matters raised by the mother had “blinded” some professionals from applying their training, skills and common sense to the case, the judge said.  The judge said the woman was “absolutely convinced” her son should be “regarded as a girl” and she claimed he had been diagnosed as gender dysphoric. Hayden found professionals failed to properly investigate the mother’s assertions, partly “because they did not wish to appear to be challenging an emerging orthodoxy in such a high profile issue.”  He was also highly critical of social services’ investigations in the case. He said that the local authority, which he ruled could not be named, had received concerns from a wide variety of sources, including staff at the child’s school who were “alert” to the child’s presentation and the mother’s “confrontational and inappropriate behaviour”.   “I am bound to say that had their concerns been given the weight that they plainly should have, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that [the child] could have been spared a great deal of emotional harm,” he said.  Further concerns were sent by doctors, the police, the NSPCC and the council’s housing department, adding to what the judge described as “a clamour of concern” around the child... The judge said the conclusions of the section 37 report were “entirely lacking in any logical, coherent analysis” and it was “striking” that the council had moved into “wholesale acceptance” that the boy should be regarded as a girl...   Giving evidence, the senior social worker who had since taken over responsibility for the case said it was “difficult to justify some of the decision-making that took place”."
From 2016. Weird. I thought this never happened. Clearly the judge is transphobic in claiming that the boy's mother groomed him into becoming a girl, because we know kids can only have their trans identities suppressed by evil conservatives and can never be groomed or pressured into becoming trans

Why is there a shortage of estrogen patches in Australia again? - "Transgender women and non-binary people also use estrogen patches as feminizing hormone therapy for gender affirmation.  Australia isn't the only country to run out.  Global shortages are also affecting countries like the U.K. and the U.S. with reports of people traveling overseas to get hold of the patches or turning to the internet to order dubious replacements online."
So much for rights being like cake - more for one doesn't mean less for others. When you consider that left wingers want to declare tangible goods like housing and food rights too...

Meme - "THEIR TROUBLESOME CRUSH. XAN WEST
In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner's birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant's birthday party and trying to do a really good job."

Meme - "HOGWARTS LEGACY SEQUEL ONE OF WARNER BROS "BIGGEST PRIORITIES""
Clown: "*People who organised the boycott campaign"

Meme - Hank from King of the Hill: "You know what's cool, Bobby? Transphobia"

School called CAS on parents questioning child's trans identity - "Julie’s life turned upside down after COVID hit. Barely ten, and physically isolated from much of the world, in early 2021 she installed TikTok and began spending hours online, falling down social media rabbit holes. She eventually “discovered the LGBTQ+ community” and started questioning her identity... “Transgender activists were actively posting videos about ‘safe’ breast binding and how euphoric testosterone makes you feel and how it makes all your problems suddenly disappear. The more I was brainwashed by these videos, the more I started to resonate with them,” she wrote.  Julie began identifying privately as non-binary in 2021, at the start of Grade 5. She came out to her class at the beginning of 2022.  With the help of a teacher in York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB), her parents were kept in the dark about her use of “they/them” pronouns and a new masculinized name in the classroom. Only in June 2022 did her parents learn what was quietly going on in school. When they objected and asked school leaders to include them in conversations about their daughter, the school called the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), which investigated the family. In December 2023, Julie detransitioned after realizing she’d been swept up in a social fad that overlooked her underlying mental health issues. Now, her family is raising the alarm about the power schools have to keep parents in the dark... “I was a bit of a tomboy,” Julie wrote in an essay, shared with the Post, reflecting on her childhood and this confusing period in her life. “I loved sports and I had friends who were boys, but I never experienced gender dysphoria. I loved dresses and I felt comfortable being a girl.”  Julie said she started to go through puberty when she was 10 years old, earlier than her peers, and she felt like an outcast.  “I didn’t have many friends at the time, and I was being bullied by people in my class so, of course, I wanted to be part of a community that loves me,” Julie told National Post in an interview. Her bodily discomfort coincided with several classmates identifying across the gender identity spectrum. “I think, unfortunately, that started it,” Julie said. Christina said at the time she was unaware that her daughter’s school board permitted children to socially transition without the consent or knowledge of their guardians... “When assessing a concern raised about the well-being of a child or youth, child welfare agencies must ensure they are adhering to Katelynn’s Principle, which puts children and youth’s voices and identities at the centre of all decision-making.”... The parents felt the teacher’s failure to inform them undermined Julie’s well-being.  They eventually requested a meeting with school leaders, after which, according to Christina, school administrators agreed to stop using they/them pronouns and only refer to her by her legal name. However, Christina said the school failed to uphold their promise.  Julie’s physical discomfort with her body worsened over the summer break. Within weeks of starting Grade 6, in September 2022, Julie began identifying as a trans boy for the first time. She used a male name and became interested in beginning testosterone treatments and undergoing a double mastectomy. Christina and her husband were alarmed by Julie’s change in gender identity and how much she knew about surgical options and hormonal therapy. “I was shocked how much a child knows and where this information is coming from,” she told the Post.  Julie began wearing a chest binder constantly, which led to a heated fight with her parents. Her skin was bruising because of it and Christina feared that it would have long-term health implications. Then, Julie ran away in mid-September. She was hospitalized after running away with the intent to self-harm.  Julie’s interactions with medical professionals throughout this time were overshadowed by gender-affirming advice, she said.  When she was just 11, Julie wrote, her family doctor assured her that “binding is perfectly healthy,” and asked if she was interested in learning about puberty blockers. A psychiatrist warned her parents that if they did not affirm her trans identity, she could kill herself, Julie said. “At that age, I can’t make a conscious decision about medical interventions with an extremely high risk of life-threatening side effects that could make me unable to ever conceive a child,” she wrote in her essay. “All accepted that I’m a boy and never tried to dig up any underlying problems that might be causing these suicidal ideations.” When Julie ran away, her principal called CAS, relaying Christina’s opposition to Julie’s transgender identity as a potential “culprit of conflict,” states a report from the Children’s Aid Society... This was the first of several calls the school placed to CAS over the coming months, resulting in at least five home visits, Christina said. The school pinned Julie’s struggles on Christina’s failure to affirm her new trans identity... By January 2023, Christina was still seeking assurances from the school to ensure Julie’s legal name was being used by teachers and administrators. According to an email exchange shared with the Post, the principal responded by telling her that such demands were causing Julie “trauma” and that her “role as an administrator is to support the students in my care.”  Within days of the exchange, the principal placed a third call to CAS in five months, sharing her concerns about Christina’s parenting style. “Caller said ‘she knows that the family loves their child and want the best for the child but they are doing a lot of damage emotionally at this time,’” the heavily redacted CAS report says... Throughout Grade 6, Julie’s pattern of running away, periodic self-harm, and hospitalizations continued. Julie said that the lack of support her parents initially showed was distressing. However, she said that the decision by school administrators to exclude her parents from the beginning greatly exacerbated her issues... Julie’s life turned a corner in November 2023, when her father brought home a copy of Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier. The book argues that many young girls experienced rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) as a result of social contagion. Julie’s father bought the book for himself and warned Julie that she wouldn’t understand it and would be “triggered by it,” she wrote. Although Julie thought the book was “transphobic,” she decided to read it out of curiosity.  “After reading about detransitioners and how they came to identify as transgender, I understood I was heading in the wrong direction and needed to turn around before I hurt my loved ones or myself,” she wrote.  Soon after, Julie ditched her chest binder and began reverting to her female identity. However, the stream of applause and support she’d received after initially identifying as non-binary, and then as trans, was nowhere to be seen after desisting, she said.
Weird. We were told that it was a myth that you could have your kids taken away from you for not unconditionally supporting their transitions
Clearly, even asking questions about your "trans" child means you're a far right extremist who is unfit to have children
Obviously, he only detransitioned due to transphobia. He needs to be freed from her transphobic parents to become who he really is and live his truth
If a child doesn't want to do homework, his wellbeing is at risk and if his parents make him do homework, that is child abuse and child welfare agencies must intervene
Even though this was the Catholic school board that did it, this doesn't stop left wingers from hating them just because of the name

Thread by @Rob_ThaBuilder on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Welp, @ElleCanada is certainly getting a richly deserved ratio this morning. If you're not caught up on this story, here's a quick recap. If you haven't heard this one yet, it'll make your blood boil 🧵
It started yesterday when trans activist Fae Johnstone tweeted out his thanks to Elle Canada for including him in their story on "women breaking the glass ceiling", which raised some eyebrows because Fae is well known to be male, wtf is he doing in a story on the glass ceiling?  Ppl were naturally quick to jump on the Elle article, pointing out how awkward it was to centre two men in an article about "breaking the glass ceiling", a metaphor used to describe the difficulties ACTUAL women tend to face climbing the corporate ladder. And then ppl started posting some tweets of "Fae's",where he proudly displays his hatred of women, specifically the ones below where he makes some unbelievably misogynistic comments that really show how deep his hatred of women runs, specifically:
Like this one, where he makes clear that he is fighting to create a political environment where women who don't bend the knee to his ideological beliefs that men can become women be hounded and bullied out of the public sphere, too intimidated to "speak their views publicly"  Or this one, where he angrily demands that WAGE (a government organization) "shuts down!", any women who refuses to "unequivocally affirm that trans women are women".  IoW, if women refuse to believe that men can become women, they shouldn't be allowed to speak in public.
And so Elle is getting dragged so much today because not only did they centre two men in an article about female excellence,they centered a man whose primary political activism is geared towards silencing and shutting down any woman who dares to advocate for her sex-based rights It's bad enough @ellecanada centres men on a story about female excellence, but to centre men who actively hate women and whose main political goal is to silence them & keep them in their place - UNDER THE GUISE OF FEMINISM, no less - is just absolute peak gender insanity."

Wesley Yang on X - "58 percent of women and 34 percent of men aged 18-34 think that saying "there are only two genders" is a red flag in a partner The public at large has never been propagandized to believe made up nonsense so rapidly"

Jonathan Kay on X - "CBC: federal workers aren’t sufficiently enjoying the process of sterilizing themselves because they have to do paperwork before getting reimbursed by taxpayers"
Gender-affirming coverage a constant fight, federal trans employees say | CBC News - "Hawk's excitement quickly changed to frustration as some costs weren't reimbursed, she said.  "I haven't even been able to enjoy the process or the journey because I've been so worried about dealing with Canada Life," she said."

Meme - "it isn't rocket science
*2 drag queens* SEE NOBODY CARES
*drag queen with baby* NOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM"

Meme - Rabies Lestrange: "🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ Hello! My partner and I became homeless yesterday and we are looking for a couch to crash on for a couple days, or at least a driveway to park in (and access to a shower if possible.) We have one car. We are both employed and we have the money saved up to pay deposit and first month for a new place. We are just struggling to find a place because it has to be a private landlord (an ongoing financial dispute with our previous landlord prevents us from being approved by property management companies) and it has to be one room we can both move in to. I’m sure we’ll find a place soon but for now we are trying to keep ourselves safe while being homeless. You must have at least enough respect for trans people to not be transphobic, hateful, or violent towards us because we are both trans.
EDIT: Comments are filled with bigotry. I’m closing the comments. Please message me privately if you might have an opportunity for us."
Rabies Lestrange: "I'm looking forward to the day, if it ever comes, where two homeless trans people can look for housing without it being the most controversial post of the week."
Robert Leib: "Pretty sure almost no one hates you. Of course there are a few stupid people in every group. However, as a landlord anyone who has to tell me their sexual preferences up front spells victim which means no rental. I'm sure I will get jumped on now because I tell the truth. I've got two weeks left in Bellingham and we are outta there so whatever."
Vannessa Rawks-Cecil: "Super weird demands/requirements for freebies, not to mention your rental history issues is a HUGE red flag. You have money, go stay in a hotel... one thats "trans friendly" lol weird times we live in.... intitled and demented ppl!"

TDS Case Study: Project 2025 and the Draft

Trump Derangement Syndrome really short circuits reasoning skills. One particularly egregious case, which I have just encountered, involves Project 2025 and the draft.

Now, left wingers have been peddling a lot of fake news about Project 2025, and have been getting really hysterical over it, for a long time.

However, in this case, what strikes me as particularly deranged is that they provide a reference (which does not say what they claim) - and still double down on their madness (and mock those who disagree with them as being unconvinced by evidence).

Here is a post shared by The Other 98%:

"Project 2025 opens up the draft to all public school seniors for a 2 year commitment. Private school kids are exempted."

Let's ignore for starters the fact that as it is today, "Almost all male US citizens and male immigrants, who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service". As we know, the left don't care about men.

In the comments of the post, lots of left wingers claimed that the bit of Project 2025 that was proof of this claim was pages 102 and 103.

But here is what Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise actually says:

"Improve military recruiters’ access to secondary schools and require completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)—the military entrance examination—by all students in schools that receive federal funding."

Notice that there is nothing about the draft in here, much less a 2 year commitment.

"Schools that receive federal funding" is also not the same as "public schools", as private schools can receive federal funding.

Of course, facts don't matter when it gets in the way of the left wing agenda.

Links - 23rd September 2024 (1)

Steven Pinker on X - "The Great American Crime Decline seems to be resuming after the regressions of 2014 and 2020. The key in Boston: data-driven policing, focused deterrence, community engagement, & some luck. Boston police, community aim for peace as violent crime plunges"
Boston police, community aim for peace as violent crime plunges

Here’s the story behind the pole-dancing robots everyone’s talking about at CES - "The robots were an obvious gimmick during one of Las Vegas’s busiest weeks of the year — the 50th Consumer Electronics Show, a massive annual tech trade show full of geeky gadgets and gizmos, from touchscreens to cars to fancy electric trashcans. The Sapphire Gentleman’s Club, a strip club right off Vegas’ main drag, paid to showcase the robots as a way to drum up interest from press and customers... The robots look nothing like actual humans, thank God. They had CCTV security cameras for faces, and you could see their metal interiors and wires as they moved up and down the pole. (They were, however, wearing high heels.)"

Philosophers are studying Reddit’s AITA “Am I the Asshole?” - "The researchers found that the most common dilemmas had to do with relational obligations: dilemmas about what we owe to others. Next, they wanted to find out whether certain types of dilemmas were more likely to pop up in certain types of relationships. Will some dilemmas arise more often with your sister, say, than with your manager?  So the researchers examined how often each dilemma popped up in 38 different relationships. Surprise, surprise: The likelihood of encountering different dilemmas, they found, does depend on whom you’re dealing with. If you’re hanging out with your sister, you’re more likely to be worrying about relational obligations, while interactions with your manager are more likely to get you thinking about procedural fairness...  what does it say about modern philosophy that it’s largely ignored relational context?... “Moral philosophy has for so long been about trying to identify universal moral principles that apply to all people regardless of their identity,” Yudkin told me. “And it’s because of this effort that moral philosophers have really moved away from the relational perspective. But the more that I think about the data, the more clear to me it is that you’re losing something essential from the moral equation when you abstract away from relationships.”  Moral psychologists like Princeton’s Molly Crockett and Yale’s Margaret Clark have likewise been investigating the idea that moral obligations are relationship-specific.  “Here’s a classic example,” Crockett told me a few years ago. “Consider a woman, Wendy, who could easily provide a meal to a young child but fails to do so. Has Wendy done anything wrong? It depends on who the child is. If she’s failing to provide a meal to her own child, then absolutely she’s done something wrong! But if Wendy is a restaurant owner and the child is not otherwise starving, then they don’t have a relationship that creates special obligations prompting her to feed the child.” According to Crockett, being a moral agent has become trickier for us with the rise of globalization, which forces us to think about how our actions might affect people we’re never going to meet. “Being a good global citizen now butts up against our very powerful psychological tendencies to prioritize our families and friends,” Crockett told me. Utilitarians would say that we should overcome those powerful psychological tendencies, but many others would beg to differ. Philosopher Patricia Churchland once told me that utilitarianism is unrealistic because “there’s no special consideration for your own children, family, friends. Biologically, that’s just ridiculous. People can’t live that way.” But just because our brains may incline us to care for some more than others doesn’t necessarily mean we ought to bow to that, does it?  “No, it doesn’t,” Churchland said, “but you would have a hard time arguing for the morality of abandoning your own two children in order to save 20 orphans. Even [Immanuel] Kant thought that ‘ought’ implies ‘can,’ and I can’t abandon my children for the sake of orphans on the other side of the planet whom I don’t know, just because there’s 20 of them and only two of mine. It’s not psychologically feasible.”"

Meme - "This student created his own cozy atmosphere today and I absolutely love it *fireplace video on laptop with earphones and reading book*"

Meme - David Santa Carla 🦇 @TheOnlyDSC: "Q: How does a White woman from Great Britain learn to run faster than all these black women?
A: By living in Great Britain."

THE MATRIX Code is Actually a Sushi Recipe - "Simon Whiteley, the creator of the Matrix’s distinctive code, said that it all came from his wife’s Japanese cookbook. Whiteley scanned the characters from that book and digitally manipulated them until they became the otherworldly coding that appeared on screen"

Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award - "For six years, a building supervisor in Spain quietly collected a $41,500 salary from his local government without showing up for work.  And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for him getting an award for his 20 years of loyal service.  Joaquín García, 69, was recently fined $30,000 for the extended paid vacation from a water treatment plant in Cádiz -- the maximum penalty government officials could deliver... Garcia's water company coworkers thought the plant was being overseen by local authorities because they hadn't seen Garcia in so long.  Garcia’s attorney, speaking on his behalf, reportedly blamed bullying at his workplace for his absence. He also said there was no work to do.  People close to Garcia told El Mundo that he dedicated himself to reading philosophy instead and that he did not report the bullying out of fear that he could be fired. Garcia retired after the allegations came to light, though he denies wrongdoing.  In the end, a court sided with the government, recently ordering him to pay the five-digit fine. Garcia has since petitioned to the deputy mayor not to pay the fine and to have the judgment reviewed"

Collin Rugg on X - "NEW: Utah Mormon swinger wives are launching a Hulu show after a couple-swapping scandal went viral, leading to divorces.   The Mormon mothers first went viral on TikTok years ago.  The ringleader, Taylor Paul, admitted in 2022 that the group of dancing Mormon moms and others would have "soft swinging" parties on the weekend where the group of women and their husbands would "party."  The large group would stop just short of "going all the way" with each other.   That was until Paul left the “party room” with someone else’s husband, breaking the rules.   The incident eventually led to a divorce between Paul and her husband who she shares two kids with.  The Mormon church must love this."

Alexander on X - "Something that isn’t talked about often in all of the dating discourse (and I am sure a lot of people don’t want to even go there because of racism) is that there are large differences in infidelity across racial groups in the US.  The odds ratio for Black women was 2.52 - the second highest predictor variable in this dataset. The highest was childhood sexual abuse with an OR of 2.92.  There is a lot of research on how the dating landscape of racial or ethnic groups isn’t always the same. Black women also experience a rate of domestic violence about twice as high as White women.  A UK poll a while found that fans of Andrew Tate were also a little more likely to be represented by non-White men in the UK. I have seen people perceive the manosphere as a sort of White male thing, but there is an enormous “Black manosphere.”  Research on incels, too, has found them to be a highly ethnically diverse group.   Some of the dating discourse, which is largely driven by people’s personal experience, is talking past one another. If you are an affluent White person with a high level of education you are in a demographic that has relatively low rates of divorce and infidelity.  But this is not always the experience of many of the manospherians out there nor the kind of environment they have had. They may have been exposed to a lot more dysfunction in romantic relationships, either personally or observed around them."

Meme - Wylfċen @wylfcen: "So, why do people on here call white people inbred? A guy just told me “the only thing your kind is resisting is not inbreeding”—but inbreeding is LEAST common in the West."

E on X - "“We just lost a $110 million air base to a bunch of black rebels in Niger. How could that have happened?” US Army: “hold my hormones”"

Brian S Hall on X - "I’m a conservative and love (most of Star Trek). Always there is order, discipline, an emphasis on the hard sciences, engineering, physical fitness, exploration, and father-mother families. Oh, and every culture is preserved, not blended into some ravenous corporate pig whole."
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on X - "As I always said, the most unrealistic part of Star Trek isn’t any of the technobabble, it’s that a society with the values of 1968 Berkeley could produce a military officer class with the values of 1890 England."
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on X - "During the Pilot, Riker asks what happens if Q decides to destroy the Enterprise. "Then, we will do our duty." "To the bitter end?" "Such an end would not be so bitter." Yeah, California faculty lounge politics totally produces men like this."

Alexander on X - "What predicts infidelity? Generally, not physical attractiveness. More attractive participants weren’t more likely to cheat. Meanwhile, high sociosexuality is a much better predictor of infidelity and promiscuity."
Physical Attractiveness: Sexual Satisfaction, Promiscuity and Infidelity

Thread by @johnloeber on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I would love an ELO-based restaurant ranking system  Yelp reviews aren’t very useful. Everything is 3.5 - 4.5 stars. Tells me nothing. Same for Google Maps. The 0-5 scale just doesn’t get used properly because of social norms toward high ratings.  What would work much better is…
Restaurant reviews simply based on whether one restaurant is better than another. Instead of writing a review, it should ask you which of two similar restaurants is better. That’s all you need to construct an ELO ranking scale. One subtlety that’s nice about this is that it allows the rating to fluctuate every day. Rather than showing a sticky average from 3,000 old reviews, on an ELO scale the rating always changes based on what’s happening recently. Great new chef? It should be reflected immediately."

Sohail Ahmed on X - "I'm just going to stick my head out of the parapet and say the following:  It is an inconvenient truth that we Muslims do share *some* responsibility regarding the way we are perceived by the rest of the world. I actively speak out against islamic extremism and the problems in the community precisely because I am worried that hatred of Muslims will intensify. Many Muslims assumed I was 'self hating' and totally misinterpreted my intentions, but I digress.  Returning to the topic at hand... for how long have we nurtured anti-kaafir hatred (kaafir = infidel / disbeliever) in our midst? For how long have we nurtured anti-British and anti-white sentiment for perceived past 'colonial wrongs'? For how long have we had a superiority complex, thinking ourselves better than the 'lowly kuffaar'? (kuffaar = plural of kaafir)  For how long have we refused to deal with the extremists in our midst? Instead we were more concerned about 'defending islam' so that 'islam didn't look bad' even though everyone could see how rife the extremism was.  We all knew radical islam was prevalent in our community but instead of dealing with the issue we were more concerned about PR and how we looked as a community. Which is ironic, because in the long run it made us look even worse.  Why did we always deny our problems to the world, acting dishonestly in the process, whether intentionally or unintentionally?  I could go on; I've barely even scraped the surface.  Perhaps discussing this at this potentially inopportune moment in time is not appropriate, given what is taking place here in the UK. Perhaps I should have waited a while longer before I wrote this. Whatever the case might be, the fact remains that once this all settles down, we need to take some time out to self-reflect. It's high time we were honest with ourselves.  It's in our interests to tackle these issues and in the process improve ourselves. We need to take some responsibility instead of blaming others for all our problems.  We need to change. Starting now."

Ridvan Aydemir | Apostate Prophet @ApostateProphet: "A few years ago, I contacted a major Coptic Christian organization in Egypt to organize a fundraiser for orphans.  The organization asked me not to do it because I criticize Islam, and this could compromise their safety in Egypt.  This is how minorities live in the Muslim world."
"Hello again! Thank you so much for your interest in setting up a fundraiser for us. However, I believe that since your channel is a bit controversial, I fear that hosting a fundraiser for us may cause problems, especially considering we operate in Egypt. We really do appreciate your generosity and thank you again so much for considering us! Sincerely,"

Meme - Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf: "Remember Ruth Rashid, a Coptic Christian woman from Egypt, daughter and sister of priests.  She was kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered by Muslim extremists. Her mutilated body was found in an abandoned car.   Hundreds of Coptic women have the same fate every year in Egypt."

Swati Goel Sharma on X - "This is what’s happening in Pakistan right now
-A Christian man is accused of blasphemy of Islam and is almost lynched while mob is discussing whether he was the real target of their lynching at all
-Mob vandalises shoe shop of the Christian family while their leader tells them to not take the shoes home
- The entire colony where the Christian family lives - Mujahid colony in Sargodha - is vandalised and a church targeted"
Damn Islamophobia in India!

Oli London on X - "🇧🇩As Bangladesh descends into anarchy, hundreds have stormed a Zoo and are attacking animals. A terrified deer can be seen being chased by a mob as they attempt to kidnap the hundreds of animals inside Bangladesh National Zoo."

Visegrád 24 on X - "BREAKING: Islamists are attacking a Hindu temple in Eidgaon Upazila in Bangladesh. The world is watching on in silence"

David Collier on X - "Why is it Hindus can be mob attacked by Islamists in Bangladesh (happening now) Why is it Christians can be slaughtered by Islamists in Africa (happening now) Why is it Jews can be attacked by Islamic terrorists (happening now) But if you say something you are an Islamophobe?"

Concerned Citizen on X - "BBC describe the current Genocide taking place as ‘Euphoria’ as Hindus are burnt & tortured alive. They are now conveniently ignoring all current events unfolding including inhumane barbaric atrocities. Legacy Media don’t reporting accurately what’s happening in Bangladesh"

Protesters rally outside UN over violence against minorities in Bangladesh

Al Jazeera English on X - "‘Islamophobic, alarmist’: How some India outlets covered Bangladesh crisis"
Razib 🥥 Khan 🧬 📘✍️📱 on X - "in most Muslim majority countries minorities have literal reason to be Islamophobic"
Anything that makes Muslims look bad is Islamophobic

Through the Eye of an ACTUAL Needle: The Fake Gate Theory – Classic Theology - "Matthew 19: 23-24 famously reads:  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”... The second theory is that it is a reference to a gate with the name “the eye of the needle” that was in first century Jerusalem. The gate was so small that anyone that hoped to get a camel through would have to take all of their baggage off the camel, get it down to its knees, and kind of shimmy the camel through the tiny opening.  You can see why this is important for Bible readers...   After a little research, I wasn’t able to find a trustworthy modern commentary that genuinely advocated for the gate theory. In varying detail, they all disproved it with archaeology, translations from the Greek, interpretive history, and the plain sense of the story. That being said, I didn’t find a single place that really poured out all of the evidence for the reader’s consideration (especially when it came to the history of interpretation). So here we go! This is my attempt to round up all of that evidence and hand it over to you... there’s no record of a gate being referred to by that title until after the year 1000. In first century Jerusalem, there is absolutely no evidence that such a gate existed. Strike one...  this guy is absolutely not the originator of the gate theory. Some people just misread his commentary on Matthew. This is why primary sources are so critical: because people don’t always say what others claim they did...   Jesus literally says that the point of bringing up the whole camel and needle thing in the first place was to say that it is impossible. He’s intentionally using an absurd image to talk about something that can’t happen! If his words aren’t enough to put the final nail in the coffin of the gate theory, I don’t know what would be."

history - The "eye of the needle gate" today - Christianity Stack Exchange - "The Damascus Gate has been the historic main entrance to the city. The actual edifice, however dates to 1547, and was built on the ruins of a 2nd Century AD gate,"
American conservatives get upset when you point out the fake news about this. One claimed that the gate was the Damascus Gate, which still exists today, and that Matthew was written in the 2nd century AD and claimed that since the Encyclopedia Britannia said Matthew was "believed" to be written in 70 AD, that meant that he was right

dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ on X - "Hi @costacruises! Why are you disallowing Jews from your ships?
So 140 Jewish vacationers booked a cruise and paid in full. They had purchased an extra $22,000 in kosher product. You accepted. But just before you suddenly renegged.  Why did you send a letter — two days before the cruise — encouraging all your Jewish passengers to cancel?  The tour operated had also already procured the kosher certifiers. They were cleared, medically checked, and ticketed to accompany the trip and perform the ritual supervision that kosher cooking requires. And the kitchen was confirmed to have the necessary ovens, utensils and equipment.  Yet you reneged last-minute.  The passengers show up anyway. No matter what they wouldn't let Jew-hate spoil their vacation. But when they showed, some found their reservations had automatically been cancelled — without their consent.  I know a magazine reached out to your for comment. But you chose not to comment.   Because you do what Jew-haters do best: Attack and hide.   Well, there's no hiding on X. I can't wait to see how many views and shares this post about your malicious bigotry receives.  Did it bother you that accommodating a kosher cruise would require allowing traditional Jewish guests to share space and vessels with the rest of the passengers, mixing with the general clientele and staff?  We would love to know. If you don't answer, we can only assume that is the reason.   So we'd love to know what Costa Cruises and your parent company @CarnivalCruise  has to say in response.
Sincerely, That Jew
P.S. I know to you it may feel like 1939. But it's actually 2024. There are many ways to easily communicate now. Including online. So if you don't respond, we know it's a choice. To be on the wrong side of history."

Grace on X - "nonviolent communicators are like, I hear you, but let’s approach this disagreement in a way that gives me control over the language we use and the perception of morality and rationality because I’m practiced in it. which coincidentally also lends false credibility to my argument
nvc is a good tool for people who would benefit from distance from their own overwhelming emotions in conflict so they can empathize better, but it’s easily co-opted by ppl who want to control conflict.  if you can avoid HR language in emotional relationships you probably should"

Rob Henderson on X - ""food sharing...appears to be associated with higher mating success...couples who shared food were highly likely to agree to a second date: 93% of couples who shared food agreed to go on a second date, compared to 43% of couples who did not share food" https://t.co/0UjD0iajC5 https://t.co/XGDVm3329T"

Thread by @ronmortgageguy on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The Massive Numbers Of Canada's Government Employees Is Unmanageable.  Look at one department: CRA.  59K Employees for 41M population.  Comparisons:
90K Employees US IRS for 341M population
19K Employees Australian ATO 26M population
56K Employees Japan NTA 125M population
There are some differences between the responsibilities of each of the Tax organizations in these counties but NOTHING that would explain the Mind Boggling size of Canada's CRA. This is just one example: the size of the Canadian Public sector is massive.  The Biggest Worry:
These are effectively permanent employees & we fund the Government payroll by super high taxation & even worse: Canada BORROWS to make the Government payroll. Yeah, we BORROW at interest to pay our employees. This is a sure path to economic destruction. What's the answer? Clearly FAR FEWER EMPLOYEES is the answer
If we reduced the CRA employee group by 20K people would taxes STOP being collected? Clearly NOT. But would service to Tax Payers deteriorate radically?  How could it get worse?  Ever call CRA?  How fast was that call picked up? Once you got through to CRA were you passed on to another department for another 30 minute wait? And once you got through & explained your problem were you ever told that was STILL the wrong department?  Look there are some excellent professional people working at CRA. But the way they operate the department is insane. How the hell could CRA ever justify having likely the largest group of people on EARTH to collect taxes that are 75% collected AUTOMATICALLY through payroll deduction, GST at purchase level & duties collected on some imports. 59K people working at something that's 75% purely automatic?  And most outrageous: Canada BORROWS money to make that payroll.  It's insane"

Is Wikipedia Politically Biased? - "This work aims to determine whether there is evidence of political bias in English-language Wikipedia articles... To study political bias in Wikipedia content, we analyze the sentiment (positive, neutral, or negative) with which a set of target terms (N=1,628) with political connotations (e.g., names of recent U.S. presidents, U.S. congressmembers, U.S. Supreme Court justices, or prime ministers of Western countries) are used in Wikipedia articles... We find a mild to moderate tendency in Wikipedia articles to associate public figures ideologically aligned right-of-center with more negative sentiment than public figures ideologically aligned left-of-center... We also find prevailing associations of negative emotions (e.g., anger and disgust) with right-leaning public figures; and positive emotions (e.g., joy) with left-leaning public figures. These trends constitute suggestive evidence of political bias embedded in Wikipedia articles. We find some of the aforementioned political associations embedded in Wikipedia articles popping up in OpenAI’s language models. This is suggestive of the potential for biases in Wikipedia content percolating into widely used AI systems.Wikipedia’s neutral point of view (NPOV) policy aims for articles in Wikipedia to be written in an impartial and unbiased tone. Our results suggest that Wikipedia’s NPOV policy is not achieving its stated goal of political-viewpoint neutrality in Wikipedia articles."
The left wing cope is that this reflects reality and that right wing politicians are really just bad. Of course, if the results found that "minorities" were similarly presented in such a light, it would be proof of racism, sexism, homophobia etc

Meme - Jonatan Pallesen @jonatanpallesen: "Illustrating the left-wing bias of Wikipedia  Sentiment analysis from @DavidRozado"

Coddled affluent professional on X - "I’m just a grunt down in the mines writing my grant applications and research manuscripts, but my general impression is that smart people are increasingly shying away from important institutional leadership positions and the people who are taking them are less and less accomplished and talented.  With a lower profile, very often you can make more money, do more interesting work you enjoy, avoid tedious administrative responsibilities and toxic politics, have more free time, and frankly many of these places are coming more and more to resemble insane asylums.  The leadership roles are increasingly thankless so why would you dedicate a decade or two of your life to a place that is going sideways anyways?  Disincentivizing leadership is a very big problem at scale yet there’s a presumption that talented people (parent-like adults who will bear any abuse) will still take these jobs."

Jonatan Pallesen on X - "A large proportion of East Asians have mutations in alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. Alcohol is broken down in a two-step process:  alcohol -> acetaldehyde -> acetate  Acetaldehyde is toxic for the body and causes Asian flush.  The mutation in alcohol dehydrogenase makes the enzyme more effective, leading to a faster breakdown of alcohol to acetaldehyde, and consequently, increased acetaldehyde concentrations.  The mutation in aldehyde dehydrogenase makes the enzyme less effective, leading to a slower breakdown of acetaldehyde to acetate, also resulting in increased acetaldehyde concentrations.  Combined mutation in both enzymes leads to even higher acetaldehyde concentrations.  The unpleasantness caused by this condition means a far reduced risk of alcoholism.  It is believed that the spread of both mutations stems from the advent of farming, and the reason for the high frequencies in East Asia is due to their long history of farming. They have had more time to adapt to the threat of alcoholism than many other populations."