@svobodster
Author of WHAT MAKES A HERO? and THE LIFE HEROIC. Contributing writer, Boston Globe Ideas. Words in Scientific American, Psychology Today, Atlas Obscura, NYT, etc. Book-in-progress: THE ART OF PACING.
The president is handing out oversized clown shoes to his cabinet — and watching to see who refuses to wear them.
It's Solzhenitsyn's Stalin story come to life: the first person to stop applauding ended up in the gulag. The lesson then, as now — never be the first to stop clapping.
I can't do it. You start sloshing around with every step!
Whaaaaat even
For those who've studied the Holocaust deeply, these letters and drawings are so reminiscent of those Jewish children created in the Terezin transit camp. A selection of these was published under the title "I Never Saw Another Butterfly."
Backtracking doesn't erase the ghoulishness, it only confirms it. I'm starting to think I should have read a lot more sci-fi when younger, to better prepare for this dystopia I never imagined we'd face.
Exclusive: Foreign hacker in 2023 compromised Epstein files held by FBI, source and documents show - www.reuters.com/world/us/for...
Misconception about authors: We find a publisher for our first book and then they will be our exclusive publisher forevermore.
Reality: They might publish many more books of ours. Or they might never publish another. Personally, I have five different publishers (so far). I contain multitudes.
Who's the better writer? An original human author or the bot that stole writings from a near infinite pool of authors and paraphrased it in a way that seems human?
"Pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity" is downright poetic.
Poof!
Now do the politicians.
1. Major news out of San Jose State University.
The University has REJECTED Trump's demands to ban trans people from bathrooms, dorms, and other facilities.
This comes after Trump threatened them for once having a trans student athlete.
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Is it a Texas thing?
He did, however, say "nucular."
I think that's about right. (And now I'm curious what the Venn diagram of authoritarians and Milgram followers is.)
I agree. The multiple interviews also indicate that the FBI considered Doe 4 at least somewhat credible
They both seem fairly credible to me, based on recent reporting that confirms some of the details in Doe 4's story. (And the independent existence of each allegation helps bolster the other's credibility, too.)
But not all Democrats are actually left-wing. Many consider themselves more moderate.
"Democratic" doesn't necessarily mean "left-wing." Many Dems consider themselves more moderate.
It won't surprise you to learn that authoritarianism and racism are highly correlated.
Which polling? I guess it depends on exactly how you define authoritarian, too. Bob Altemeyer, who researched authoritarianism for many years, always commented on how rare left-wing authoritarians were in the samples he drew for his studies (mostly in the U.S. and Canada).
Yep. Bush's approval floor during the Iraq war, as I recall, was a good 10+ points lower than Trump's approval is now
Almost all authoritarians in current Western societies are right-wing. Left-wing authoritarians are about as rare in the U.S. as California condors.
Yes, this is quite true. It's a global phenomenon. And seeminglyconsistent across time (1/3 is about the authoritarian fraction social scientists found in the 50s and 60s too)
This 37% zone where Trump has settled is close to the percentage of people who are authoritarian (about 1 in 3, per social science studies)
I say this every year, but:
The uni students I'm teaching are thoughtful, intelligent, will make everything they encounter better.
With a new addition for 2026:
They deeply hate AI.
There is apparently credible evidence that the president of the United States is a pedophile. The comforting phrase “accused him without evidence” no longer fits this situation, and journalists must resort to the more perfunctory “hasn’t been formally charged.” www.thedailybeast.com/key-details-...
It's stunning how ignorant the DOGE bros were who were sent into agencies. Justin Fox cannot even articulate in his own words what his "present understanding of DEI" is: he can't even formulate a coherent sentence about it. I wouldn't hire him for basic tech support. #NEH
youtu.be/jomaMvItnew?...
I'm finding the Beehiiv website design platform hair-pullingly hard to use. Of course, that could just be my own lack of skills.
Surprised they are combining "Protestant" and "Nondenominational Christian" here. Mainline Protestants are very different, theologically and politically, from nondenom Christians, who are often evangelical or fundamentalist. The growth trajectories are very different too.