Wow. They leveled an entire apartment complex and killed at least 53 people in order to extrajudicially execute one person.

What a scandal this checks notes bungled invite to Signal is.

I believe vulnerability to misinformation is an effect of genetics

:-/

And you came to this conclusion… genetically?

We still have forums and blogs. Search engines just don’t both including them in search results.

You need to know about these niche communities, which are increasingly in micro-spaces like Discord or Mastodon channels or unmonitored communities like Lemmy.

Which is more in line with Bad Old Web 1.0 than Good Old Web 1.5

The HBO sequel series was fantastic in the way it took so many of these characters to the next iteration. Real shame it didn’t get a second season.

Catfish2Catfish communication.

At some point, the mistake was using Reddit to begin with.

we’re slowly evolving away the dumbest and most dangerous of the population

Do you believe that exposure to misinformation is a consequence of genetics? Like, people are just born with an ear uniquely tuned to anti-vax radio, television, and social media?

Now they’re building up like cord wood, and starting to smolder.

“RFK Jr is getting his eugenics backwards” is one hell of a take.

Is autism diagnosis really that formalized?

Certainly moreso than a generation ago.

(Personally, I’ve always wanted to be tested but the 12 month plus waiting list and the $5k not covered by insurance means that I’ll probably continue going through the rest of my life without any form of work accommodation…)

Not unusual for kids to be picked out in grade school and referred for further diagnosis. But yeah, I can definitely get not wanting to bother going out of pocket on something like that as an adult. Not unless there’s a pressing need.

the rise in people identifying as autistic and diagnoses could be connected the fact that we created a non functioning society that only values extraverted people who are willing to lie and hurt others

Or it could be the strict formalization of psychiatric studies, combined with the more broad based diagnosis and categorization of the school aged working class. We’ve invested more labor and professional expertise in analyzing public education and its consequences, so we’re picking up on a wider variety of psychological variants and aptitudes.

That neurodivergence is pathologized primarily because it runs counter to functioning in a capitalist society

Capitalists are more than happy to profiteer off of neurodivergence both coming - via commodification of prodigy and other unusual pools of talent - and going - via medical marketing and “normalization” therapies. I wouldn’t say it runs counter to capitalist social agendas, because nothing runs strictly against an agenda that is fixated exclusively on maximizing future profit. We’re continuing to invent exciting new ways to exploit people’s psychological differences, always with an eye towards alienation, segregation, and surplus extraction. Identifying and capturing neurodivegent individuals and squeezing them for their productive value has been a big part of the modern Finance Sector and Silicon Valley projects.

in a world where struggling to make eye contact doesn’t get you disqualified in job interviews…

We’re creating a world in which everyone interfaces through computers, where individuals are encouraged to self-segregate and alienate one another, and where information is constantly mediated through attention-grabbing infographic spectacles that reward the users for engagement.

This is not a system designed to exclude individuals with autism. This is a system designed to feed on them.

As US Withdraws From WHO, China Supercharges Its Public Health Diplomacy

Over the course of two decades, China has built a public health aid program for the world, turbocharged by the pandemic. As the U.S. retreats, China will only garner more influence globally.

…

Based on AidData’s Global China Development Finance (GCDF) dataset, China is heading in the opposite direction of the United States, doubling down on its global health outreach program through its signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). During a moment of high geopolitical tension and multiple humanitarian crises in the world, retreating from global health diplomacy – an area where Washington was once the acknowledged leader – degrades the United States’ influence and reputation and undermines U.S. national security.

China is executing its effort through its Health Silk Road program, which includes projects from constructing hospitals in developing countries to providing ophthalmic operating equipment. China supported refugees in the Middle East and Asia and provided malaria and AIDS medicines to poor communities. From 2000-2014, China donated an aggregate of $1.45 billion to developing countries, but then ramped that up during the period 2015-2019, to $2.14 billion. Over the course of 20 years China sent medical teams to over 85 countries.

Reminds me of the old quote:

Every time China visits we get a hospital, every time Britain visits we get a lecture.

~ Dr Lubinda Haabazoka, Director of the University of Zambia Graduate School of Business and former President of the Economics Association of Zambia

Selection bias. All the survivors will say “See! We didn’t need the Fauchi Ouchie!” while all the dead won’t say anything.

I’ve straight up been at an event where a speaker asked “Raise your hand if you’ve died because you didn’t get vaccinated! Nobody? That’s what I thought.”

it’s not just antivaxers who antivaxers kill.

Reminded of the family whose kid died of measles saying “Our other kids survived, so it was fine”.

That young child wasn’t the one who had been deluded with misinformation.

Necessary to protect people with weak immune systems, certainly. But we rarely get better than 60% of the population flu vaxed. It is still vital to deter higher instances of hospitalization and to blunt the rate of spread.

Abolishes higher education, public libraries, and free time

We’ve done it. We’ve cured autism.

Okay, sure. Then a third of all colds, which feels like a good start.

Insisting that he needs an alibi is reversing the burden of proof

We’ll see if a jury agrees. Maybe he gets off OJ style on the back of a corrupt incompetent PD and gloves that don’t fit.

Look, if you asked me where I was when The Asshole Brian Thompson was shot, I’d have no fucking idea

I could tell you I wasn’t in Lower Manhattan easily enough. Especially if I was picked up in a different state.

I’d have more confidence in the “he’s a patsy” attitude if he’d gotten Jack Ruby’d during the perp walk. But even setting aside the fact that they traced a suspect several hundred miles and picked him up on associated charges (the gun and fake IDs), none of his legal team releases are saying “My client was wrongly identified and the killer is still out there”.

Everything is being kept strictly procedural, which is weird if you’ve got a real CEO Killer still on the loose.

Yeah, it’s pretty bleak

I mean, if I had a billion dollars, it would be crazy for me not to want to engage with the political system that elevated me to this status.

I can’t imagine a future in which someone 1000x richer than an already very wealthy individual wouldn’t have an impact on organizing, candidate promotion, GOTV, or subsequent policy making. So long as billionaires continue to exist, they’re going to have electoral consequences.

Republicans in Walz’s state have actually pushed forward a “Trump Derangement Syndrome” bill

Which won’t pass their state house, certainly won’t pass their state senate, and Walz isn’t going to sign.

which is exactly what Russia did

The post-Soviet Russian state was the result of shock therapy more consistent with Musk’s DOGE strategy than any kind of middling public censorship campaign. Rapid privatization of state assets for the benefit of sellout state actors and foreign investors/liquidators was what brought down the Russian government.

Putin’s United Russia didn’t come to power through petty proletariat censorship. It came to power when Putin and his allies mobilized what was left of the police state and used it to whip the newly minted billionaire oligarchy into an ideologically consistent nationalist project. We saw a similar transformation in China, in the immediate run up to the Xi Premiership. Both Xi and Putin had to wrestle power away from western-friendly kleptocrats intent on turning their states into the next Philippines or Honduras.

She’s got name recognition purely from the SotU rebuttal at the moment. I doubt she’d poll better than Schumer if she was allowed in front of a camera for too long.