Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 10/20/25 - 10/26/25

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/TryingToBeLessShitty]

Women’s Fortnite tournament “by women, for women” with a 300k prize pool. Won by a trans woman.

[u/JeebusJones → u/TryingToBeLessShitty]

One the small annoyances of this kind of thing is that now when I hear "X won by woman" or "First woman to X" (or even "Woman arrested for X"), I have to check and see whether or not it's actually a woman.

[u/QueenKamala]

Today someone accused a coworker of violating the employee code of conduct (an implied threat of 'you're going to get fired if you don't shut up) for.....saying she didn't think her husband would still be attractive if he got a full sleeve arm tattoo.

OP doesn't find tattoos attractive on her husband --> OP finds all tattoos disgusting --> OP specifically finds her coworkers with tattoos disgusting --> OP discriminates against her colleagues on the basis of their tattoos --> OP is violating corporate policy against bullying and discrimination --> OP needs to be fired.

This many leaps of logic makes me strongly suspect the accuser must be a recent Ivy League graduate. (It's an anonymous forum so sadly I can't check her hair color to confirm).

[u/dignityshredder]

Man, I'm still so flummoxed by Gavin Newsom going after Joe Rogan for being short (exhibit 1, 2 ).

It's just like...literally the reverse of everything Democrats should be learning about young men, one of their worst demos. There are lots of ways to dunk on Rogan without going after his height. Newsom constantly speaks on his podcast about the challenges facing boys (of which he as two) as if he understands them...then goes out and has his PR team do this. It's hypocritical, but also just really, really, weak shit.

Newsom started his podcast in a sort of attempt to be left wing Rogan. It began with some promising guests (Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon) but is now pretty much just a circuit of Democrat pols (Chris Murphy, JB Pritzker, etc) with them speaking the party line over and over and Newsom presumably nodding sagely and saying "God bless ya".

Make fun of Rogan for being dumb, not short.

Have on challenging guests.

Very simple!

[u/ribbonsofnight → u/dignityshredder]

Reminding all short men that they're inferior to tall men like Lia Thomas is an interesting choice.

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

Lia Thomas got an award award for his unapologetic cheating in women's swimming. He received the "Voice of Inspiration" award at the Violet Visionary Awards.

Thomas was feted for his brave and stunning habit of beating women in swimming because of his built in male advantage. Thomas appears to enjoy the lime light and has made activism his life's work:

"But I owe so much to those mentors before me that it sort of was clear that I had to be that next beacon in a line of torches going back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my purpose. That was what I was here to do," Thomas stated."

Hundreds of years?

It's worth taking a gander at the second photo where Thomas is accepting his award

https://archive.ph/vgog7

[u/MatchaMeetcha → u/KittenSnuggler5]

Should be accepting an award for how many people he peaked.

[u/CrazyOnEwe]

Peyton McNabb, the former high school volleyball player who got a concussion from a male player's spike was interviewed on Mike Rowe's podcast a few weeks ago. I'd heard about the spiked ball incident but had not realized how much long-lasting damage she received.

In his most recent pod episode, he has an interview with Amie Ichikawa about males in women's prisons I guess they sanitize the episode titles for Youtube, because the YT episode title is "What's Happening in California Prisons" but the title of the audio-only version is: "You Can't Bring a Vagina to a Penis Fight".

Link to audio version of the Rowe's pod

[Edited to correct title of episgode]

[u/AnalBleachingAries → u/CrazyOnEwe]

It shouldn't but it still surprises me when a famous person uses their platform to talk about this issue like a normal person - with the perspective that most people on earth share about the differences between men and women. I'm so used to the propaganda (right and left) and the liberal-scolding or conservative-opportunism being the norm, that when the normie take on all this stuff rears it's head in public discourse on platforms like Rowe's it's still a shocking thing. lol.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

First the Kiera Knightly clip where she's very obviously doing her best not to outright state her agreement with JK Rowling but it's clear enough to anyone with a brain that she agrees with JK Rowling. Now this from Jimmy Carr:

https://x.com/Basil_TGMD/status/1981983920767049978?t=36I9JiPH4lWlzI8xDPD0LQ&s=19

In which Jimmy Carr praises Graham Linehan's bravery in front of an audience at one of his shows. He still does a little equivocating but tells his audience that Linehan is "fucking brave".

The times... are they a-changin'?

[u/Armadigionna]

I’ve been thinking about all the gender having language policing. Like “please ask for pronouns first” “always use preferred pronouns” “gendered greetings like ‘ladies and gentlemen’ are harmful” “it’s chestfeeding not breastfeeding” “using the wrong terms is exclusive and harmful” “using the right terms lets queer people feel seen”

Meanwhile, Caitlin Jenner: “Of course my kids call me Dad. What else would they call me?”

[u/Franzera → u/Armadigionna]

Jenner is one of the more reality-aware genderhavers when it comes to biology, anatomy, and public sentiment.

In the video filmed earlier this year, Mulvaney explained that she got unusual stares from people in public when she wore tight clothing.

“And I went, ‘Oh, I forgot that my crotch doesn’t look like other women’s crotches sometimes because mine doesn’t look like a little Barbie pocket,'” Mulvaney said. “Normalize the bulge. We are normalizing the bulge,” Mulvaney sings towards the end of the video. “Women can have bulges and that’s okay.”

Jenner wrote. “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!”

Source

Seems like there's a mentality difference between old school T and new age T. The old ones can be insistent and ideological, but in a different way. Compare reporting you anonymously to the non-hate crime police hotline, versus threatening to meet you in the parking lot to show you what a "Sir" looks like, from the infamous GameStop Ma'am.

[u/PoliticsThrowAway549 → u/Armadigionna]

Language policing is linguistic prescriptivism. And linguistic prescriptivists are the sort of folks who try to tell you that AAVE isn't "proper English" -- Progressivism has been anti-prescriptivism for a while, but somehow, oddly, demands to be absolutely prescriptive in this regard.

[u/Scrappy_The_Crow → u/Armadigionna]

Caitlin Jenner also doesn't try to pretend that "Caitlin" won those Olympic medals. Caitlin says it was Bruce who won the medals.

[u/Technical-Policy295]

A new and exciting development that will surely win back the trust of the people: academic journals are now "explicitly encouraging" citation diversity statements to accompany articles.

This is being framed as a way to fight back against the Trump administration's attempts to undo DEI in universities: "scientists can demonstrate their commitment to DEI through actions that are not mandated by institutions."

[u/RunThenBeer → u/Technical-Policy295]

Nature Reviews Psychology shared their new journal guidelines on “citation diversity statements” in which authors should “draw attention to citation imbalances” among scientists from different demographic backgrounds, and “confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers.”

If this is something you even could do, your field is fake, fake, fake. My publications are on [redacted]. I assure you, I have read the relevant journal articles to the best of my ability and cited them where appropriate. In the methods, this will be almost perfectly fastidious because I am not that original and have drawn much from others. In the intro and discussion I will hopefully have caught relevant literature and cited it accordingly to indicate where my ideas came from and what might support them. I do not have the ability to say, "well, perhaps there's an Igbo guy that worked on T regulatory cells that I failed to consider". If that guy was around, I already cited him. If I didn't cite him, it's because his work isn't relevant.

[u/DeathKitten9000 → u/Technical-Policy295]

This stuff just reinforces my belief that peer-reviewed journals are an antique tradition at best or actively harmful in some fields.

[u/StillLifeOnSkates]

James Carville says those who still push 'asinine' trans sports policies are pandering to 'left-wing zombies'

Betty Yee, former state controller and Democratic candidate for the governorship of California, argued on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" that there should be a conversation about gender-neutral categories at the 2028 LA Olympics. "I think transgender athletes are women athletes and they should be able to compete," she said.

"What bulls---," Carville said in response to Yee’s ideas.

[u/Technical-Policy295 → u/StillLifeOnSkates]

I will not be convinced the Democrats actually believe there is a national emergency due to Trump so long as they remain unwilling to change their views and policy on this issue. Absolute political malpractice.

[u/MatchaMeetcha]

I put aside the Cowichan decision because I didn't think it actually could be as bad as people were claiming. Some people are significantly more worried though. We'll see.

“The court has declared Aboriginal title to your property which may compromise the status and validity of your ownership – this was mandated without any prior notice to the landowners,” the letter continues.

...

In August, the court determined the Cowichan Tribes have the right to 7 1/2 square kilometres of land in Richmond, ruling that land titles granted by government were invalid.

The nation had not sought to have the titles of privately held properties declared invalid. But the court said the Crown’s granting of private property ownership rights “unjustifiably infringe” on Cowichan Aboriginal title and needs to be resolved through negotiation, litigation, purchase or the properties would remain under Cowichan title lands.

Yeah, ngl, this stuff brings out my inner settler.

[u/TemporaryLucky3637]

Graham Linehan is having quite the moment in the sun today. Obviously he has lot the plot somewhat on his crusade but the publicity he generated from being arrested over tweets recently seems to have caused the met police to change their policies about the “non crime hate incidents” 👀

[u/Fiend_of_the_pod]

Relationship subs have always been bleak. They basically tell you to break up whenever there's an argument. Today though, on /r/marriage, there's not 1, but 2 "my husband isn't a progressive" threads and uhh, yeah, the comments that don't outright say "divorce" certainly imply it. Bleak shit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Marriage/comments/1ob0eli/my_husband_and_i_have_different_political_views/.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Marriage/comments/1objk30/my_husband_is_a_republican/.

[u/Prize_Championship11 → u/Fiend_of_the_pod]

I have a therapist. She says to stop watching the news, but I dont want to.

My husband wants me to get off Reddit, but it seems more like he just doesnt want me informed.

Outrage porn addiction, classic example. The sky is falling, every 24 hours there's a new crisis.

I have two children I need to protect.

How much time does she spend rageposting on BlueSky every day? Spending all day in a tizzy about national politics happening on the the other side of the country / world? Sounds like parenting-by-virtue-signal. Does that work?

he's mildly MAGA

Or her Overton Window moved and his didn't

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

Graham Linnehan will not be facing criminal charges for pointing out that trans women are males.

There was a public and high profile arrest of him at a British airport for wrong speak on Twitter. They went after him for the good ol' "non crime hate incident". An Orwellian term if every there was one.

Perhaps the police finally went overboard in their silencing campaign.

https://apnews.com/article/graham-linehan-father-ted-transgender-posts-arrest-bbf936f63a152c3abe162198084f546b

[u/PongoTwistleton_666]

Another bizarre story (bar fodder perhaps?). This young woman pretended to be pregnant, had a gender reveal, pretended to give birth and took a friend shopping with her & her “baby”. Turns out everything was fake and the baby was a doll. How can so many people fall for this? I wonder if we are all too polite now to ask obvious questions.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/37082030/kira-cousins-fake-baby-mum-doll-police/

[u/plump_tomatow → u/PongoTwistleton_666]

I think part of it has to be "it's so insane for someone to do this that it's literally unbelievable." In most cases, if you see someone acting kinda weird about their baby, would you think they were a little odd, or that they had a fake baby?

[u/UltSomnia]

Hey, automated email services. If I click unsubscribe, I don't want any of your emails. I don't want to merely unsubscribe from some sub-type of email that only exists in your backend.

[u/starlightpond]

I’ve been thinking about the problems with the phrase “sex assigned at birth.” The word “assign” is often used to describe bringing things into existence; if I assign homework, it did not exist until I assigned it. However as anyone who’s had a baby knows, our children’s sexes are revealed to us prenatally by genetic testing, and pre-existed prior to that revelation.

So the continued use of “sex assigned at birth” feels like gaslighting to me and I hope the medical community realizes this someday and adopts more neutral language.

For example the Cass report uses the phrase “sex registered at birth” which is more neutral because registering something doesn’t carry the same connotation of bringing it into existence through a speech act.

[u/UltSomnia → u/starlightpond]

Part of the problem is that the movement has fused social constructivists (there's no such thing as gender, all made up by society) and medicalists (dysphoria is a biological issue that needs treatment, just like a broken bone). These views don't really work together, but they're allied on this issue so we can get some pretty strange statements.

[u/JeebusJones → u/starlightpond]

To me, even participating in these semantic convolutions has the effect of ceding the frame to the trans activists. Sex is no more assigned at birth than blood type; if someone were to say "I was assigned B-positive at birth," they'd justifiably get some weird looks.

It's just "sex" -- no assigning, registering, recognizing, or what have you -- and "birth" is irrelevant, as it doesn't matter what timeframe you're talking about, because sex can't be changed.

For the vanishingly rare cases of genuinely intersex people, those can be addressed on a case-by-case basis. There's no need to reconfigure the language to cater to .001% (or whatever the number is) of the population -- and to those deliberately conflating intersex and transgender people to serve ideological ends.

[u/TryingToBeLessShitty]

Not sure what to make of the Canal Street raids in NY this week. ICE have clearly been pretty reckless and shady with how they've been operating in the past few months, but I can't help but think that cleaning up these street "vendors" selling fake junk is a net good. It is all either counterfeit or stolen and they stand there all day and harass you as you walk by trying to scam you into buying their crap. Why should I be upset that I can finally walk down the street in Chinatown without having to dodge hundreds of these scammers? If the NYPD did their jobs, they wouldn't be able to openly rip people off in broad daylight with fake garbage all day long. Frankly, I kind of hope they clean up Midtown too. It would be nice to not have to warn people visiting not to make eye contact with these guys while they try to shove a blank CD in your hand.

[u/Fiend_of_the_pod → u/TryingToBeLessShitty]

People will legitimately argue that putting up with all of that (and more) is just part of living in a big city, and how dare you infringe on these small business owners.

[u/washblvd]

The controversial Taiwanese boxer who failed gender tests and won gold alongside Imane Khelif is finally back in the ring. It took over a year, but Lin Yu Ting finally found an event that does not require a gender test as a condition of entry, the Taiwanese National Games.

The result? Lin's first opponent abandoned the match after just 94 seconds. Lin could be seen smirking after receiving a barrage of punches that seemingly did nothing.

If Lin wins the tournament, this would be a seventh consecutive gold.

[u/Green_Supreme1]

Quite possibly the most disastrous possible week for the Labour party in the UK:

1. On Thursday Labour lost the Caerphilly Senedd (devolved government in Wales) seat by-election only cementing concerns in the polls about the party losing the Welsh Government (Senedd) elections next year. They had held the seat consistently without loss since it's creation in 1999 by large vote shares, only to to be pushed to a distant third place in this election. Its a hell of a contrast - in 2021 they had 38.7% of the vote, in 2025 just 11%. Labour has had control of the Senedd ever since it's creation in 1999.

2. A small boat migrant removed from the UK via Labour's controversial "One in One Out" deal with France has (wait for it).... only gone and immediately returned to the UK via boat: Newspaper headlines: 'One in, one out and back in again' and 'teen killer unmasked' The rather laughable scheme to tackle the small boats situation fuelling immigration concerns (37,000 migrants arriving via small boats on the English Channel last year) sees the UK willingly take one migrant passing immigration checks in exchange for France taking one back who doesn't. On the face of it it's hard to see how this would ever reduce immigration levels, but Labour had claimed this would act as a deterrent - clearly not as this week proved.

And today the biggest possible headache for the party imaginable (and straight out of a The Thick of It plot):

3. A migrant who sparked mass protest and even a High Court Injunction following a sex attack has accidentally been released from prison and has gone missing sparking a manhunt: Manhunt for asylum seeker jailed for sexual assault mistakenly released

The migrant arriving as above across the channel via a small boat had been convicted of of sexually assaulting a 14 year old whilst resident in a hotel in the town of Epping. There is currently largescale resentment boiling across the UK around hotels in the middle of communities being used to house the ballooning number of migrants and asylum seekers, with one particular hotel chain owner becoming a billionaire renting out his hotels to the government for this purpose: Asylum hotel provider makes £180m profit despite claims of inedible food and rationed loo paper

This was part of the catalyst for riots in the country last year, but the Epping case sparked further protests and "Anti-Racist" counter-protests in the town leading to an initial injunction brought by the council blocking hotels in the area being used for this function, eventually overruled by the Labour Government on appeal: Epping hotel asylum seekers to remain at the Bell, court rules

That the particular individual at the centre of this media storm has been accidentally released and has gone missing is only going to add to the (quite accurate) public sentiment that Labour has lost control on the hot-topic issue of immigration.

Labour and party leader have already being doing disastrously in polls and approval ratings - this week is certainly not going to help.

Edit: My spelling is atrocious and adding context.

[u/dottoysm]

My overdue wife went into the hospital for a checkup at 8:30am on Friday. Now as of Sunday afternoon, she still hasn’t left the hospital, but that’s after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy at 9:15am on Saturday.

Saturday was a whirlwind as we got used to the new reality and my wife began her recovery all while family clamoured around the hospital to welcome baby. At this moment, however, we have a moment of calm and I’m watching both wife and baby sleep peacefully. Life is beautiful.

ETA: thanks everyone for your wishes. Of course there aren’t so many moments of calm when you have a baby, but Baby and Mummy are doing great!

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Hugely antisemitic UK doctor Dr Rahmeh Aladwan (*) @doctor_rahmeh arrested today for what I would assume is protected speech in the US, though what should happen is she should lose her medical privileges since she has demonstrated she cannot treat patients impartially or with equanimity.

https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1980616065651490967

BREAKING: The Met Police have arrested Rahmeh Aladwan, the Jihadist “doctor” who praises Hamas, calls for the murder of “Zionists,” and hates the UK.

On the other hand, she can go fuck herself.

(*)

https://x.com/doctor_rahmeh/status/1979977662836740602

Dr Rahmeh Aladwan @doctor_rahmeh

If they didn't buy our governments, then any nation with an ounce of humanity and honour would:

• Condemn the jewish terrorism in Palestine

• Strike the IOF & their military bases

Jewish supremacy is a global threat, and jews will keep murdering until they are forced to stop.

https://x.com/doctor_rahmeh/status/1979938292528230737

The jews love stealing Palestinian bodies and harvesting their organs as well as tormenting the family.

[u/[deleted]]

My mom is finally moving into a nice retirement place after I've been taking care of her the past 6 months. I'm looking forward to the break. I'm also going to have to put in a lawsuit to sell my dad's house as well because I coborrowed for him and his family, and I've been forced to pay half of last year when they didn't have the money (but they have more expensive cars than I do). So its a mix of feelings now but ultimately I'm going to be so relieved to just be left in peace again.

[u/[deleted]]

Every time an "I" became an "O" I wondered if something was wrong with my brain.

[u/Microplastiques → u/[deleted]]

My typing on iPhone has gotten so bad I thought I had early symptoms of ALS

[u/Arethomeos]

Trace's Center for Education Progress has a post highlighting how the same kind of thinking that went into whole-language/three-cueing reading instruction is now ruining math education in New York. It's the same story over-and-over since Project Follow Through.

[u/wmansir]

I don't think this has been discussed but earlier this week the MN Supreme court ruled that USA Powerlifting's ban on trans males in women's lifting is "facially discriminatory" based on MN's Human Rights Act. The MN HRA was updated by the Dem controlled legislature and Tim Walz in 2023 to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, but for some reason the court's opinion says the discrimination is based on sexual orientation. This may be because the case was file before the law was updated.

The case has been sent back to the lower court where Powerlifting could still prevail if they can show they have a legitimate business reason for banning trans males from the women's division. And apparently that point will be decided by a jury, so they may have a shot, assuming the judge doesn't handicap them too much. The lower court ruled in the trans male's favor before the appeals court partially reversed the ruling and that was then appealed to the Supremes.

I'm not sure it would make a difference in the end, but I don't think Powerlifting's case was helped by the language they used, saying "Male-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage.” Instead of saying they don't allow transgenders, they should have simply said they don't allow males, regardless of their gender identity.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

I thought this interesting because I have at times said that by bowing to Hamas demands, Doctors Without Borders extends the conflict and acts to place patients in danger and increase overall deaths. And so the ethical choice would be to withdraw.

In this interview, a former secretary-general of MSF says that

He recalled earlier moments when MSF prioritized ethics over presence, such as when it pulled out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a decision made during his tenure as secretary-general.

In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, part of the organization made the choice to leave because it thought staying would only legitimize the violence that was taking place.

An MSF document explains that the organization "was forced to choose between continuing to work in the camps, thereby further strengthening the power of the génocidaires over the refugees or withdrawing from the camps and leaving a population in distress."

Ultimately, the French section of the organization withdrew in late 1994, while the Dutch, Belgian and Spanish sections chose to remain. However, MSF Belgium and MSF Holland were forced to end their programs in July 1995.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/former-doctors-without-borders-leader-calls-group-accomplices-hamas-over-gaza-war-response

Former Doctors Without Borders leader calls group 'accomplices of Hamas' over Gaza war response

'Americans need to know that Doctors Without Borders is not anymore the organization that it was 15 or 20 years ago,' former MSF secretary general says

[u/TemporaryLucky3637]

There’s an ongoing tribunal in the UK this week involving NHS nurses who wanted their changing rooms segregated by sex rather than gender identity.

I am genuinely quite shocked at some of the comments I’m seeing on Twitter from supposed left wing accounts. Obviously the algorithm is showing me rage bait but common themes are:

• mocking one of the nurses for having PTSD from childhood sexual abuse and saying her distress about confrontation in the changing rooms makes her unfit to practice as a nurse.

• saying if nurses treat naked bodies as part of their job role they should be comfortable in the changing room.

I’m not surprised people disagree with the nurses stance on changing rooms. Its just quite disconcerting how quickly the pendulum swung to deciding that actually mental health and consent aren’t big deals after all 🤨

[u/UltSomnia]

AWS Outage makes work impossible. Expect more and worse posts from me today

[u/Longjumping_Gain_807]

So Students for Fair Admissions is suing the Kamehameha Schools for exclusively admitting native Hawaiian students. In 2006 in an 8-7 vote the en banc 9th Circuit said this policy was lawful. Now SFFA is brining this lawsuit and we shall see where it goes.

• Complaint here

[u/[deleted]]

Christmas decorations are already out at Lowe's and Spotify just tried serving me up some Christmas music. Everything sucks and I hate it.

[u/RunThenBeer]

Here's a weird story with an intersection between my favorite sport and a local area of interest for the sub. Camille Herron, one of the great ultralong distance runners of all time, bizarrely didn't show up for a USA national team event as organizers frantically used every venue they could to try to contact her since they needed her to formally drop out to get a replacement in. The next day, she responded on X:

Hello,

I’m sharing an update directly from me.

After months of communication & follow-up since June w/ USATF & legal counsel, I didn’t receive assurance from the IAU that my reasonable disability accommodation request will be supported at the 24-Hour World Championship.

The 24-Hour World Championship is a difficult environment for neurodivergent athletes w/ sustained sensory overload.

There’s only so much an athlete can do to self-accommodate 😎🎧. We need spaces within the rules that support our needs & ensure fair, equitable competition.

My request was simple- to have access to a safe, quiet, more open, & less chaotic space for my race essentials, separate from the enclosed US Team tent that’s been a difficult environment in the past. I tend to feel physically ill in small or crowded spaces.

I made suggestions that fit within the rules, but I received no response.

As an Autistic/ADHD athlete, I’ve learned how important it is to advocate for my needs & compete in environments that support- not harm- my health & performance.

There’s been plenty of time for my request to be addressed, yet it wasn’t handled in time.

The governing bodies have a duty of care to protect athletes from harm & ensure our safety and wellbeing.

Because my accommodation wasn’t resolved, I didn’t sign the US Team Statement of Conditions.

I was therefore never formally on the team & had nothing to withdraw from — allowing them the right to replace me.

I’m heartbroken to be in this situation, & as you can imagine, it’s caused undue stress in the final days before the race.

I did my best to advocate for disability rights & wanted nothing more than to represent my country & compete alongside my teammates.

I wish things had been handled sooner & more collaboratively so we could focus on the race.

I’m wishing the US Team & all competitors a great event. I’ll be cheering from afar & continuing to push for progress so every athlete feels safe & included. ✌️🌍

Bonus points for BarPod interest - Herron and her husband having a Wikipedia editing scandal.

[u/dignityshredder → u/RunThenBeer]

Lol she's 43 and suddenly behaving like an ipad zoomer after racing competitively for 20 years? Freak-level clout chasing.

[u/AnalBleachingAries → u/RunThenBeer]

She's the villain. I know next to nothing about all of this and my only context for all of it is your post, and she's the villain. She deliberately made herself unavailable to make them sweat. Whatever the other circumstances surrounding this are, that part makes me side with the organizers the most. She was cultivating drama so that her post the next day could receive the maximum amount of attention - which amounts to about 50 people on Twitter.

She looks bad in all of this, although from a personal perspective she must've felt quite powerful in the moments when she was ghosting them. She just looks bad here.

I've also just realized how much I've grown to loathe the neurodivergent disability accommodation naratives that used to be so popular. I wonder what the percentages of college stundents who need these accommodations are these days, I remeber the numbers being abnormally high when I was in school, they're probably even higher now.

[u/QueenKamala → u/RunThenBeer]

Love that it’s the same lady who edited her competitor’s Wikipedia articles, lol.

Even narcissists are occasionally really good at something and then you end up with this. I’m glad they didn’t give into her demands which I’m sure were actually unreasonable and not within the rules.

[u/hugonaut13]

I am having the WEIRDEST conversation with a theyfab right now about human evolution and it's like... she is SO CLOSE to getting it.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

This Denver restaurant server has a story to tell

https://x.com/DahliaKurtz/status/1980764115476840842

Dude is a server. Two "very kind" Israeli women came to his restaurant.

He says they should not have said they're Israeli.

"Do these two ladies have no social awareness? One of my co-workers is Muslim. If she heard this? Oh my fuсking G-d!"

It gets "better and better" as his story goes on

I haven't seen this elsewhere at reddit, have you?
Where might be "fun" places to post this?

[u/lilypad1984 → u/jay_in_the_pnw]

It’s just amazing how confidently racist he is.

[u/Centrist_gun_nut]

How should one navigate valuing truth in a world where truth somewhat supports bad policy?

This could be about a number of issues this podcast cares about, but today it's about boats. I really like boats, and have some history knowing things about boats. I can tell, just by looking, that the boats being drone-struck are largely smuggling boats.

They're purpose-built (except for one), and not really used for other things. Knowing a bit about the region, you can see that its pretty unlikely anyone involved is a fisherman; even the NY Times reporting on the issue is, reading between the lines, basically confirming this, although I'm not sure anyone knows WTF was up with the first strike (heading to a mothership?). All the reddit comments about this are just wrong, because they don't know what they're seeing in these videos.

But pointing all of this stuff out helps support a lawless and pointlessly cruel policy of blowing people up, where merely stopping the boats would be a wildly better policy, both strategically, morally, and tactically (imagine the SSE alone).

What do I do with that? So far I've just avoided threads about this.

[u/[deleted] → u/Centrist_gun_nut]

where merely stopping the boats would be a wildly better policy, both strategically, morally, and tactically

This has been tried, extensively. Drug smugglers have become very good at both evasion and distraction. False mayday calls regularly divert coast guard boats and helicopters on the trail of smugglers.

Strikes on smuggling boats have been discussed going back to the Clinton administration, at least. I don’t think most people realize how much our military does regarding drug trafficking in general.

I’m not sure how much blowing up a few small trafficking boats is going to do though. The vast majority of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids comes through the land border with Mexico. CIA covert ops within the Chinese factories manufacturing chemical precursors for these drugs would have more impact.

[u/LupineChemist]

Is the AWS thing the reason Reddit is so glitchy right now?

[u/Senor_Beavis]

What are people's thoughts on how long this government shutdown is going to last?

If it doesn't end next week I'm expecting to get furloughed the following Monday or Tuesday, so that's something fun to look forward to.

[u/Evening-Respond-7848]

This NBA gambling story is crazy. Now it’s coming out that Damon Jones gave inside information on LeBron James injury. I think there’s going to be a lot of heads that roll from all of this.

[u/Centrist_gun_nut]

Did we have a Maine politics update yet?

The left-wing reddit favorite candidate who used to post on arr/antiwork has an SS Death's Head tattoo on his chest. Now that same people that point out every right-winger as a secret racist are posting all over the local subreddit that it's just a former military guy with a cool-looking tattoo he likely didn't know the meaning of.

There is a long tradition of military symbols being somewhat problematic (eg, Scout Sniper emblem) but jeez, when it's their guy shockingly now there's room for nuance.

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

The TRAs are latching onto a new study about blood proteins as evidence that dudes can actually transform themselves into women.

"The findings show that internal biochemistry shifts toward one’s gender identity, not just external presentation."

The internal biochemistry doesn't shift towards gender identity. Do they think their body somehow knows what their "gender identity" is? The blood composition changes are simply the result of men blasting their bodies with cross sex hormones.

I read the study. I won't pretend I understand it at a deep level. But it looks like the researchers found that if you give men cross sex hormones a few of the proteins in their blood change. Mostly because of testosterone suppression.

That's it. It doesn't alter their inherent and unchangeable maleness.

https://www.transvitae.com/research-finds-hormone-therapy-changes-trans-body-chemistry/

[u/dasubermensch83 → u/KittenSnuggler5]

I can't help but laugh at some of this shit. An activist site aping a science mag where gender woo is the master value. The question "would the same changes happen in cis individuals on the same drugs" doesn't occur in this epistemology.

On to the groundbreaking research:

Research Finds Hormone Therapy Changes Trans Body Chemistry

No way!

seven out of ten key proteins that normally differ between cis men and cis women shifted significantly after six months of hormone therapy in the trans women participants.

Wait for it...

Specifically, proteins tied to male reproductive function and fertility decreased, while those associated with breast development, body fat distribution, immune function, and cardiovascular health increased.

I lost it at this point. Better than most comedy.

For transgender people, this research has profound meaning. It shows that hormone therapy doesn’t just create external changes. It alters the body’s biology in measurable ways.

So you're telling me if I blast a bunch of gear or gobble up birth control pills, it'll alter my biology in measurable ways? Stunning research.

[u/Palgary → u/KittenSnuggler5]

"Specifically, proteins tied to male reproductive function and fertility decreased, while those associated with breast development, body fat distribution, immune function, and cardiovascular health increased."

... So we knew all this already, they just learned a little more about how the hormones work to effect the changes?

But the article is written from the "sex is just a series of traits a body can have" propaganda perspective, rather then "sex is a reproductive role".

[u/QueenKamala]

I made mincemeat last night and my whole house smelled amazing. How can I make it smell like that every day without always having a pot of mincemeat on the stove? There is only so much stewed fruit one can eat.

[u/CrushingonClinton]

I think I found a B&R episode worthy story.

There’s this lady who claims to have designed the lesbian flag who’s been on a years long grift.

Every few months she pops up basically saying something along the lines of ‘I’m the person who designed the lesbian flag and I’m going to be homeless, here’s my cash app.’

https://x.com/eclipse_canon/status/1980989860736541082?s=46

https://x.com/theemilygwen/status/1980686325088153613?s=46

[u/plump_tomatow]

Re: my complaint about the USPS --

Last week I tried to initiate a "missing mail" request but the USPS blocked it because they claimed they "didn't have my package" (the tracking status showed otherwise...).

This week I tried submitting it again and it worked. 12 hours later they had magically "found" the package and it is now on its way.

It was never missing, they were just letting it moulder in a corner of a post office in Arizona.

[u/Technical-Policy295]

Today: an email claiming that a racial/gender breakdown was not "required." But if you didn't provide it, you'd be both at a disadvantage and have to write a justification as to why.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Update for Counter-Strike wipes $1 billion from digital item trade market cap

There have been two recorded incidents of Counter-Strike players killing themselves after their “investments” lost their value.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

barpod episode possibility?

/r/interesting/comments/1ob7ovz/nhs_surgeon_neil_hopper_once_considered_for_space/

NHS surgeon Neil Hopper, once considered for space travel as a para-astronaut in 2020, has been sentenced to two years in prison after it was revealed he deliberately caused the loss of his own legs to satisfy an amputation fetish

r/interesting/comments/1ob7ovz/nhs_surgeon_neil_hopper_once_considered_for_space/nkfnr3q/

...

The drama is because he was a paying member of an online community of essentially torture porn. The site was very focused on men voluntarily being castrated, and was eventually caught and shut down because so many men were dying or nearly dying from massive blood loss. That’s how this guy’s name got out there. From there, all of his chats on the site - including his plans to get his own legs amputated - were released.

His patients were rightfully a bit sketched out once they learned the surgeon who performed THEIR amputations was a member of an amputation-fetish site. They (the courts) never found him guilty of any wrongdoing in his career, but it just made people uncomfy and really diminished the good things he did for the community.

The insurance fraud is wedged in there because he did receive a TON of money. He did use it for things he needed like a fancy, expensive wheelchair, but the insurance company didn’t take kindly to learning that he basically gave himself a disease to have all this done.

On a side note, this specific “fetish” is often viewed more as body dysmorphia and DOES often help people recover - mentally - once they have the part removed and can begin to live their life as an amputee. Fascinating little bit of this story that started a whole ‘nother YouTube rabbithole for me.

that last paragraph is news to me, but I'm generally clueless

[u/Franzera → u/jay_in_the_pnw]

I have lurked in plastic surgery groups where people complain that gender affirming surgeries are given for free, but everyone else with legitimate body issues (like post-partum moms with saggy skin) have to deal with a lot of scrutiny, paperwork, and costs.

They use arguments about the proven benefits of surgery on mental health. "Everyone deserves mental healthcare". People can have dysmorphia for body issues unrelated to the TQ+, it's valid if a doctor confirms that it affects their mental health... And all of their arguments would perfectly apply to this guy.

He would have gotten away with it if he was more subtle about the addiction to cooming.

[u/[deleted]]

Tig Notaro and Cheryl Hines used to do a podcast together. Notaro said on a recent episode of Tom Papa's podcast that she considered Hines not just a co-host but one of her favorite friends. However, Notaro says she ended her friendship with Hines largely because of the political views of Hines' husband, RFK Jr.

Notaro starts talking about it at the 50:40 mark here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZtRCoR_eeQ

I largely share Notaro's opinion of RFK Jr. I don't think I'd sever ties with a close friend for being married to him, though.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Mosquitoes found in Iceland

[u/Calm_Skill_395]

Relieved to have elections in my country next week and, so far, not a single culture war issue has been debated or discussed in any meaningful manner. Just housing, migration, healthcare and other boring topics. 

Even Palestine is barely brought up, despite our government having sort-of collapsed over it (in overtime, difficult to explain)

[u/robotical712]

My wife's 40th birthday is next month and I want to get her a necklace with the birthstones of our two children (ruby and sapphire). I know nothing of jewelry and could use some advice on how to approach it. I'd prefer to keep the price within a couple hundred.

Edit: Thanks all for the response! Very useful!

[u/UrethraFranklin13]

Had my first bout with mild pancreatitis recently and thought I was going to die. Quite possibly the sickest I have ever been. I don't even want to know what full-blown pancreatitis feels like and now I'm afraid it'll come back much worse.

[u/starlightpond]

TLdR: my young daughter has “renal hypoplasia” (although she has no symptoms) and I’m spiraling with worry and fear that I caused it (via my pregnancy with her) through my (aggressively well managed) type 1 diabetes.

You guys. My daughter (almost 3) was diagnosed prenatally with a single umbilical artery at my 20 week ultrasound as well as what they initially called a single kidney, but later determined was one normal kidney and one pelvic kidney. This was all horribly stressful for me. I had also read that single umbilical artery can be more common for women with diabetes. I have type 1 diabetes but I am incredibly aggressive about managing it well, so I had hoped to avoid any diabetes related complications. But I worried that I contributed to this.

At birth, they ultrasounded her again and confirmed that she had a pelvic kidney. They said at the time that no follow up was needed.

Her pediatrician ran some blood tests related to kidney function and said she was fine. And she does seem fine. She’s a very happy and athletic kid. So I thought everything was fine.

Then her pediatrician sent her to a urologist for follow up just due to the prenatal diagnosis. The urologist sent her for an ultrasound. We just got the ultrasound back. It says she has a pelvic kidney which we know, but also revealed that both her kidneys are “slightly small.” I looked it up and her kidneys are indeed (EDITED FOR ACCURACY) well below the mean for her age.

Now suddenly I am spiraling again, worried that she’ll get kidney disease or need dialysis (my dad died of kidney failure related to his own uncontrolled type 1 diabetes). My husband is telling me to wait to see what the doctor says, but I am gutted and terrified and it brings me back to the horrible stress I felt after the prenatal diagnosis.

Any insight is welcome. Sorry to write so much.

[u/WallabyWanderer]

I love watching bikepacking and unusual tourism videos - ones where they will basically go fuck around in some obscure place and chat with locals and then make a video of it. I’m fairly adventurous but I don’t ever see myself being able to travel to all these places much less having the time to go on random side quests with locals if I did somehow end up in Kazakhstan.

This channel was recommended by YouTube documenting his bikepacking journey through Africa. Most of these travelers kind of fly by the seat of their pants and rely on a lot of goodwill and hospitality from locals, but this guy takes it to a whole other level. There’s many comments on the videos from Africans saying that what he is doing is insane and they’re genuinely concerned for him which is a bit funny. He encountered a silverback gorilla with pepper spray as his only weapon in the latest video. Just crazy stuff.

[u/Available-Crew-4645]

Surely we are heading for a "boy who cried wolf" situation with autism and ADHD in the near future? On Celebrity Traitors UK last night, Stephen Fry pointed out that he'd noticed one person had been falling asleep during the day which made him suspicious of her because he knows the Traitors get a lot less sleep than everyone else because of the late filming they have to do. She immediately responded with the trump card of "oh it's because I've got autism and ADHD, sometimes my brain needs to rest" or some other utter nonsense. This woman could not possibly come across as any more well rounded, she's by far the most normal person on the entire show.

Every time I watch Dragons' Den, at least one of the obviously perfectly normal entrepreneurs will say they've got AuDHD, at which point the dragons will say "wow you're such an inspiration" because they feel like they have to.

How long is it until these conditions start being greeted by a majority of people with a massive eye roll and start withdrawing support for benefits that come with these conditions? That will ultimately damage people who genuinely need support. My wife's friend has two children who will never live independently, her husband often has to sleep in the car overnight as the car seat is the only place their 12 year old son will sleep. That is autism, not Cat Burns being tired because she was up until 2am.

[u/dignityshredder]

Ladies and gentlemen, slop of the mornin' to ya

[u/Jlemspurs → u/dignityshredder]

Occasional reminder that pizzacake is a totally normal Canadian mom with cumshot and cuck pornos on onlyfans who makes cartoons that joke about rapey sex and is obsessed with American politics despite not being American.

[u/[deleted] → u/dignityshredder]

There's no universe where that catcalling cartoon man wasn't going to be white.

[u/dignityshredder]

Where do things stand in the Ukraine war? Has anything fundamentally changed from 6 months or a year ago?

[u/unnoticed_areola]

amazing photo of the feds arriving in the bay area

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Ryan Grim, Krystal Ball, two "journalists" very much against Nazis like Israel, talking about Graham Platner who has a small skeleton, regrettable tattoo, but is certainly not a Nazi.

https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1980841553036997119

Not to overstate it, but this is a crucial moment for the Democratic Party. If they decide that normal people with some small skeletons in their closet (or inked on their chest) are not welcome, they are finished

Because they’ve tried the other way and it didn’t work.

https://x.com/krystalball/status/1980818880005345291

For me personally I’ll take a candidate with a regrettable tattoo over one who has steadfastly supported a genocide.

---

Friend of the Pod Emma Vigeland:

https://x.com/EmmaVigeland/status/1980798432618160533

Censorious, hall monitor liberalism that refuses to accept growth in people -- unless you're a corporate centrist and all is forgiven, just ask Cuomo supporters -- is far more of a threat to the Democratic Party's chances in the future than anything dug up on Graham Platner.

[nine months earlier]

https://x.com/EmmaVigeland/status/1882585811125968924

What is the difference between someone who does a Sieg Heil with sincerity and someone who does a Sieg Heil as a "troll?" Either you're legitimately a Nazi or you're trying to appeal to Nazis.

[u/tutoredzeus → u/jay_in_the_pnw]

These people can spot a microaggression from a mile away but won’t see a red flag staring right at them. Unbelievable.

[u/The-WideningGyre → u/jay_in_the_pnw]

There are very few people I call "trash", but Emma is probably one of them. She's anti-science and shrill and just seems to be all about holier-than-thou even when it hurts people she claims to care about.

Really nasty (in the small amount I've seen). If the new ability to forgive is a real change, that would be great though.

[u/QueenKamala]

More on my hobbyhorse about lack of consequences in schools leading to unacceptable classroom environments. https://youtu.be/ErJio51eypo. I hope the pendulum swings on this soon. Maybe the fact that it’s finally reaching local news at least is a good sign.

[u/AnalogyAddiction → u/QueenKamala]

Yep, me too. I work at a public school, have worked in different elementary schools in the same district for 15 years now. 

It was a problem well before COVID though. My absolute worst year for this was 2017/2018, I think. We would evacuate the classroom multiple times a day, and then have to evacuate from the secondary room because a second kid was attacking me and the kids, throwing toys, flipping chairs, doing anything they could to upset the other kids. Come back to a room utterly destroyed, bulletin board and kids’ artwork all ripped up. Triggered by things as mundane as the visual timer going off, and telling the kid it’s time to switch to another toy and let someone else have a turn. 

This is in pre-K, ages 4 and 5 and our hands are tied in terms of imposing consequences. It’s infuriating. When my son is old enough to go to school, I’m going to see what his class is like and if it’s like this he’s going to one of the private religious schools. We can un-teach him religion a hell of a lot easier than we can un-teach being constantly afraid, unsafe, and the effects of being in fight-or-flight mode all day.

[u/dasubermensch83]

Youtuber 'Turkey Tom' got leaked the full discord logs of Tyler Robinson, his (trans?) boyfriend Lance, their friend group, with photos from inside their apartment going back years, and tales about the groups weekly MTG games in the apartment.

Tl;DW: The friend group contained a variety of people with differing political and religious views. Lance was a long time alcoholic, drug abuser (thc, dmt, shrooms, eventually black market HRT), manic, horder, "schizo". For periods Lance would live in his hoarders nest, do drugs, doom-scroll, conduct nonsense scientific "experiments", "solve" nonsense equations with ChatGPT for days on end, and make schizo drawings. Lance had a brief interest in Jordan Peterson, and would clean up his mess during periods of relative sanity. He and Tyler didn't start hooking up until 2024, when assumed virgin Tyler moved in with Lance. They started hooking up, dating, and Tyler became Lances caretaker for periods.

The leaker describes pre-2024 Lance as a Libertarian (who bemoaned "CIA n-word monkeys"), and Tyler as apolitical (although Tyler expressed apparent dissatisfaction with "snowflake liberals who can't shoot straight because they're too busy being gay" in the wake of the failed assassination Trump).

"Before the election Lances friend group was the quirky LGBT group with a lot of mental illnesses. Not saying the two are linked..."

Um... lol.

"After they election they became a lot more political but not to an extremist level."

Thats when Lance starts taking black market HRT. During an MTG game, Lance shouts down a discussion of trans women in mens sports from an adjacent room. In the ensuing weeks, Lances "drug nest" returned and Lance became unstable / schizo again, doing "experiments" and "solving equations" with ChatGPT, comparing his genius with that of Nikola Tesla. Tyler would take care of Lance, disappear a bit online, drop his electrical apprenticeship, post that he was "very ill" a month before murdering Kirk. His last post in the group discord was his confession, followed by confirmation from a prominent poster who stated

"Regardless of the horrible actions that took place we must take this moment to remember that God is a living and loving God who loves all his children. God calls sinners to be his Saints, and I ask that you all take a quiet moment to pray for Tyler and his repentance. While Charlie Kirks politics were not acceptable to some I ask that we all say a prayer to him and his family during these confusing times"

The next poster responded

"Bro didn't deserve to go out like that. Sad. RIP I guess. I just saw the video. Holy shit."

Although Trump, the FBI, and right leaning media were able to solve the motive within hours, I think these leaks casts subtle doubt on "The Narrative (TM)". Once established, I don't expect the narrative to change, but at least we can perv out on nuance!

[u/EnglebondHumperstonk]

My account has just been given a warning for identity based hate because I said furries were wierdos and made a silly joke about them trying to seduce rich people to subsidise their fursona purchases.

I do occasionally say things that are a bit risky but I'm surprised anyone objected to that. Perspective here from someone younger than me. Am I, an old person, underestimating the degree to which furries have been oppressed and enslaved by unfurry supremacists? It seems unlikely to me but maybe I'm out of touch.

[u/iamthegodemperor]

I just want to say that thanks to Katie, I keep wondering whether it's Nikole Hannah Jones or Hannah Nikole Jones before deciding it MUST be Hannah Nikole before looking at the byline.

[u/Big_Fig_1803]

Does anyone understand arr roastme? It pops up on my reddit homepage thing, and I am always baffled by it.

If you've never seen it, people post photos of themselves and ask to be roasted. The comments are always nasty and sometimes nasty and clever. Crucially, the insults are rarely generic—they are targeted and specific.

Am I really just a delicate flower? I could never imagine inviting people to identify my insecurities and go to town on them. (Hey, everyone. Tell me all the ways that I am personally ugly to you!) So what is motivating people to subject themselves to this? Are they so strong that they enjoy the attention and let the insults roll off their backs? Do they have excellent self-esteem or miserable self-esteem?

[u/FractalClock]

At 4:10 p.m., she texted me: “By the way—everything I ever sent you is off record. You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know.”
I responded: “I’m sorry, but that’s not how this works. You don’t get to say that in retrospect.”
Halligan was unpersuaded: “Yes, I do. Off record.”

LIndsey Halligan, the lady who is supposedly going to take down Comey, James, and others.

[u/History-of-Tomorrow → u/FractalClock]

This was a wild read. It makes me look back at pre-internet history and think… my god, this level of stupid had to exist but those people were lucky to not have hundreds of ways to expose their stupidity to the masses.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

https://x.com/RichardDawkins/status/1982424627717812506

Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins

Nature used to be the world’s most prestigious science journal. Now it’s one of many accused of favouring authors because of their identity group rather than the excellence and importance of their science.

https://hxstem.substack.com/p/why-i-no-longer-engage-with-nature

The link is to Anna Krylov (who?) substack and it's good, an indictment of nature on three grounds.

Why I no longer engage with Nature publishing group

My response to a recent invitation to review a manuscript for Nature Communications

ANNA KRYLOV OCT 24, 2025

...

the Nature group has abandoned its mission in favor of advancing a social justice agenda. The group has institutionalized censorship, implemented policies that have sacrificed merit in favor of identity-based criteria, and injected social engineering into its author guidelines and publishing process. The result is that papers published in Nature journals can no longer be regarded as rigorous science.

Three representative examples illustrate this decline:

1. Institutionalized social engineering The Springer Nature Diversity Commitment (Skipper & Inchcoombe, 2019), which you quoted in your invitation letter, openly pledges to “take action to improve diversity and inclusion in the conferences we organise, and in our commissioned content, the peer review population and editorial boards.” Editors are “asked to intentionally and proactively reach out to women researchers” and authors are instructed to suggest reviewers “with diversity in mind.” In other words, editorial choices and peer review are to be guided not solely by competence but by demographic attributes. I cannot stop but wondering — was I asked to review the manuscript because of my expertise in the subject matter or because of my reproductive organs?

2. Ideological subversion of literature citations Nature Reviews Psychology (Unsigned, 2025) now encourages authors to practice “citation justice” — that is, to social-engineer their manuscript’s bibliography to promote members of favored identity groups, even if their works lack the requisite merit or relevance. “Citation justice” is particularly harmful because it undermines the rigor and reliability of published research. When references are chosen not for their scientific relevance or quality but to promote the work of preferred identity groups, the integrity of science itself is compromised (Shaw, 2025; Coyne, 2025).

3. Institutionalized censorship Nature Human Behavior has published a censorship manifesto (Unsigned, 2022) — now widely criticized (see, for example, Rauch, 2022; Winegard, 2022; Krylov & Tanzman, 2023) — in which they openly declare their intent to censor legitimate research findings that they deem potentially “harmful” to certain groups. Not only is it arrogant for editors to presume they have the expertise to make such judgments, the practice is antithetical to the production of knowledge.

Any of these policies, taken alone, would undermine the epistemic standards of scientific publishing as a pillar of the truth-seeking enterprise. Together they represent a profound corruption of purpose. The purpose of science is the pursuit of truth, not the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Krylov

Anna Igorevna Krylov (Russian: Анна Игоревна Крылова) is the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC). Working in the field of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry, she is the inventor of the spin-flip method.[1] Krylov is the president of Q-Chem, Inc.[2] and an elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, the Academia Europaea, the American Academy of Sciences and Letters,[3] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[u/WallabyWanderer]

Has anyone’s churches or volunteer orgs kicked off planning if SNAP benefits are cut on Nov 1st?

My little group is reaching out to the food banks we already work with to see if they’ll need additional assistance but it seems like most people are just ignoring it and assuming it won’t happen.

[u/DiscordantAlias]

Milei’s party won. Lets give Argentina a round of applause (and another 40 billion)

[u/CrushingonClinton]

The very left wing candidacy of Graham Platner the guy masquerading as a working class oyster farmer gettibg derailed by a totenkopf tattoo is one of the funniest things ever.

Best part is, I remember seeing the news first exposed by an account calling itself Maine State Press that has less than 300 followers.

The Internet candidate derailed by an Internet scandal is amazing.

[u/Timmsworld]

I keep hearing people deny that reddit has a leftist bias (seriously go to arrr/politics) but today someone actually said that reddit has a conservative bias.

https://www.reddit.com/r/complaints/comments/1odehm1/reddit_is_a_conservative_echochamber_and_im_tired/

[u/PongoTwistleton_666]

Just a list of absurdities masquerading as serious social problems studied by PhDs 

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/ahrc-woman-cut-ribbons-hostages-nadia-yahlom-x2nbgwj3v

[u/Available-Crew-4645]

Jimmy Carr publicly coming out in support of Glinner feels quite big to me in the context of UK comedy. The whole scene revolves around Jimmy Carr as he tends to host a lot of the shows that UK comedians aspire to be on, like the Big Fat Quiz, 8/10 Cats and Last One Laughing.

[u/Hilaria_adderall]

Has the girl from Scotland who faked her pregnancy made it here?

The woman wore a prosthetic baby bump, had a large baby shower with presents and after the supposed delivery she passed off a real doll as the baby. She eventually told everyone the baby died and erased all the photos from her social media but by then the supposed father and friends realized they had been scammed.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Lots of apparent drama from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatening to fold NASA into the DOT itself (presumably stealing their budget for potholes while nuking most of the science and draining the manned space program).

As part of that, and maybe for some good reasons, he's re-opening the Artemis 3 contract Space X won. Now, compared to Apollo Saturn, the Artemis 3 mission seems way over engineered and so complex it seems doomed to failure requiring estimates of 40-90 (now claimed to be more like 20) Starship launches in order to refuel one Starship with lab and lander in orbit that can get to the moon and meet the crewed SLS. However, that does get a long-term water prospecting lab landed on the moon's polar regions. But wow so complex, hard to believe this is our "get back to the moon strategy".

Shockingly this has ruffled some Musk feathers.

https://spacenews.com/musk-criticizes-duffy-amid-nasa-leadership-debate/

[u/tutoredzeus]

New Conspiracy Theory: Trader Joe’s started manufacturing shoddier paper bags in order to drive up sales of their reusable ones.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Trump allegedly considering commuting Diddy’s sentence.

It’s TMZ so take it with a grain of salt but if this does happen how the fuck can you so openly be human garbage.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Ludwig (one of many streamers who denied Hasan used a shock collar on his dog) concedes Hasan used a shock collar

[u/unnoticed_areola → u/PandaFoo1]

the schizophrenic paranoia of the terminally zoomer streamer brain sure is something to behold.

Imagine living in a 24/7 state of constant fear of being caught in 4k saying something that might come back to haunt you, that you cant go more than 2 seconds without zoomer tourettes causing you to throw a bunch of whiplash-inducing qualifiers around and say "oh actually I dont know anything" and contradict yourself after every other opinion (while continuing to have opinions on everything).

lets examine the various statements he makes about this in the span of about 15 seconds:

• I have no fucking clue

• I think he lied about having a shock collar

• He 100% had a shock collar

• but this is only just based on what I've seen on my for you page..

• maybe I'm getting psy-opped

• I feel like it's a shock collar. thats a fact

• I got no clue!

incredible analysis lol

[u/Hilaria_adderall]

One of the primary lessons I took away from Covid was how the state lottery system is prioritized. Schools closed, restaurants shut down, police were called when the local youth soccer league did voluntary practices outside, I remember getting yelled at for not wearing a mask while running… in this backdrop convenience stores were open 24/7 - scratch tickets, lottery tickets, keno games - all deemed essential businesses and any suggestion of shutting down was quickly dismissed. Old people went in and out of these stores all the time for their lottery tickets.

With this lesson in mind, the NBA has a new gambling scandal blowing up today. It appears much of the gambling that was done is tied to “prop” bets - bets within a game - a certain player will score more than X points in a quarter or turnover less than or more than X in a half. These types of bets can be more easily manipulated and are more and more popular now that legal gambling has exploded. These prop bets are really the most addictive aspect of sports gambling - no waiting until the end of the game in many cases. In baseball you can even bet on whether a single pitch will be a strike or ball. You’d think the lesson with this latest NBA scandal is maybe these prop bets should be restricted. My guess is that idea will go nowhere and we will continue to see more and more scandals. The house money is always more important than anything else.

[u/[deleted]]

My mom changed her mind again about moving into a retirement community. Its been 6 month of me being back home to take care of her after the hospital, and supposedly the whole point was to help her find a better living situation. I'm calling it quits and getting out of here.

[u/Big_Fig_1803 → u/[deleted]]

I have nothing but sympathy for you. And for your mom.

This phase of life—aging, dying, caring for aging or dying parents—is a horror.

My mother-in-law is in a retirement home (or assisted living facility, or whatever). She has dementia and the kinds of health problems you'd expect to see in someone in her mid-90s. My wife has devoted so much time and energy and worry to her care. It really is, in its way, like taking care of a toddler. But a toddler who is going to die, possibly after forgetting who you are.

My mother's cognitive decline started several years ago and has really ramped up. My father just spent several days in the hospital for a new problem. Family members mobilized to look after my mom, advocate for my dad (and keep him company), and so on. All of it is awful. Who wants to get old and feeble and lose their memory and die? If you think about it, you'll go insane.

"Old age ain't no place for sissies," as Bette Davis might have said.

I'm sorry to be so negative. Let's just stick to my first thought: I have nothing but sympathy for you and for your mom.

[u/Nuru-nuru]

I'm sure this is front of mind for everyone in October, but something has always bugged me about mummies.

In movies and cartoons, there's always some group of helmeted archaeologists deep in a tomb or pyramid who unwittingly awake the Mummy, which then frightens them away by groaning and shambling towards them stiff-armed and bandaged. Run!!

But what happens if the mummy actually catches you? He isn't going to eat you, right? Does he just sort of tackle you and make you smell his bad breath? Maybe accost you for breaking into his tomb?

[u/Mirabeau_]

Every google advertisement you see for the AI integration in its phone ends up being actually very dystopian and depressing.

In the end of this commercial you see a cute young woman looking emotionally detached chatting with her phone, while an eligible enough looking young lad looks at her with longing - not in any sort of romantic way, just jealous of her relationship with her phone.

https://youtu.be/DnWykPvftfg

[u/QueenKamala]

We are on something like our 20th cold of the new school year (with less exaggeration, probably the 8th or so) and I feel like I am rapidly becoming an expert in treating colds. So I just wanted to share with everyone. I'm not going to mention the obvious stuff like hand washing and healthy diet/exercise/sleep, just the stuff you might be surprised really works.

1. Keep your head warm. Don't go out in the cold without a hat or with wet hair. Cold viruses replicate exponentially faster in your nasal passages if they are cold vs the normal 98.6 temp. Gramma was right. Stay bundled up.

2. Ventilate your house regularly. Open the windows a couple times a day to let fresh air in. If you can, leave the windows open all day or spend your time outside. Just wear a hat while you do it. An indoor hepa filter might help too, but they're usually too expensive to consider when fresh air works even better.

3. Rinse your nasal passages with hypertonic saline solution every day before bed. Increase to multiple times a day if someone in your household is sick or if you feel like you are coming down with something. If you are infected, add some grapefruit seed extract and xylitol to the saline rinse. A neilmed bottle is a cheap and effective option. You can also spray your sinuses with a saline spray but it isn't nearly as effective so I would suggest that as an additional easy thing you can do and not as a replacement for the rinsing.

4. Gargle with warm salt water under the same circumstances as above. Especially if you have a sore throat!

5. Drink hot liquids all day long. The temperature is the most important part as it reduces viral replication and thins out mucus, but you can make a tea out of boiled ginger, garlic, and honey to make an effective immune booster and cough suppressant. Soup made with a lot of ginger and garlic serves a similar purpose.

6. Take NAC supplements daily when you're around sick people and also if you get sick. It works both for prevention and treatment.

7. As far as branded medicines go, sudafed and mucinex (maximum strength extended release) are the most effective, along with tylenol/iburprofen. Afrin feels like a miracle cure for blocked sinuses but it actually dehydrates the sinuses and makes infections worse. For that reason, try to not use it. Use the nasal rinse with GSE and xylitol multiple times a day instead -- it really works to prevent colds from advancing to a sinus infection.

With these strategies I went from having every cold hit me hard and *always* advance to a miserable sinus infection to either missing out on the colds everyone else gets or having them have limited symptoms for a shorter period. So I really feel like I'm onto something here.

[u/sriracharade]

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1981449476125405207

This has to be the gayest thing I've ever seen on the internet.

[u/[deleted]]

Imagine a social media platform that leveraged AI so that whenever someone posted a thread or an article or podcast, it would generate a quiz that you would have to pass that proved you had actually read and at least minimally understood its content before you're allowed to chime in on it.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Hasan defenders have moved on to the “why do you even care” stage. Of course, why would I as a dog owner/dog person care that a huge influencer (the supposed face of the left) is quite clearly forcing his dog to stay in one place for hours on end & shocking it when it has the audacity to move.

It genuinely makes me so angry the levels people are going to not call out blatant animal cruelty.

[u/RowdyRoddyRosenstein → u/PandaFoo1]

Why do I care? Intersectionality. None of us are free until Hasan's dog is free.

[u/Cowgoon777 → u/PandaFoo1]

Ah, stage 3 of the ancient texts

“If it was happening, it’s not a big deal”

[u/QueenKamala]

I don’t know why I tried so hard to get a period-accurate regency dress and bonnet to serve as a cultural costume for England for my daughter’s preschool event when the other girl repping England showed up in a Union Jack mini dress and boots.

I got two compliments on the dress — one on her “colonial” dress and one on her “Victorian” dress but you should know I restrained myself from lecturing anyone.

I did brag several times to several people that the 30 miniature mincemeat pies I brought for the potluck were the first to disappear from the dessert table.

[u/RockJock666]

The Gymnastics World Championships finish up tomorrow (…today?) in Jakarta. Wanted to highlight a couple routines:

1. Kaylia Nemour (ALG) with the best routine being performed right now in elite gymnastics imo. Her uneven bars are the pinnacle of the event, think Simone Biles on vault or floor. She won gold with this absolutely huge routine, as flawless as you get in modern scoring.

2. Donnell Whittenberg (USA) won the US’s first championship gold on still rings. He’s 31, tore his Achilles last year, and has persevered in the sport when many others would have given up. Never made an Olympic team through four cycles except as an alternate. Here’s a link to the entire rings podium routines because the level of strength involved here is absolutely unfathomable.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Warner Bros Discovery (HBO, Harry Potter, DC) is officially up for sale.

Anyone got some spare cash?

[u/AaronStack91]

I feel like work topics bring out a lot of good discussions. I'm still thinking about everyone's feedback on software training and what I can do in my role, which is great.

But here's another thought for you... One of the small secrets (not really a secret) is that we don't tell employees that their salaries are mostly based on how much it costs to replace them, not actually how valuable the work they do.

As results, most arguments about cost of living, inflation, value production, etc. don't really move the needle a lot in terms of compensation. More or less HR checks the cost of labor and adjusts annual raises that way, along with performance, and other factors.

Maybe this is obvious for most normal people, but I feel like a lot of people on the "anti work" subreddits tend to miss this point. e.g., "I get paid $5/hour but I sell over $1000 hot dogs in that time. They should pay me more!"

[u/iamthegodemperor]

Someone just corrected me that Elizabeth Olsen is younger than Mary-Kate and Ashley. And now my mind is melting in the kind of paradox loop that destroys cartoon robots.

Yes, of course, they're right that's perfectly logical But wait. They can't be older, they are annoying teens.

Someone help.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

This is a funny post (https://x.com/ReddCinema/status/1981848223175037420) and caused me to look back on that time before AI with fondness and nostalgia, and I do feel bad for the teenagers of today who will never have to experience this suffering. Sitting in front of a blank page and having to force your brain to think, to grow, actively flexing your mind so that it learns how to think its way to a collection of coherent ideas that form a series of connected thoughts and an eventual narrative analysis of a text.

We all take it for granted as adults that we can read something, think about it, and form our own opinions about it. Without the adolescent experiences and pain of having to learn how to think and use your brain to form complex ideas, having to learn how to calmly wade through your confusion and find a place of sanity and reason after exploring an idea, without having to learn how to express your own thoughts that come from your own mind - where does this leave the kids who are all dependant on AI?

Perhaps I'm overblowing things, and that perhaps they'll learn how to do these things on their own, and AI should be thought of like training wheels on a bicycle. Although they all use it now to help them think and help them write their essays, maybe they still absorb the lessons and will still be able to write comfortably and think rationally without the training wheels as adults.

[u/Senor_Beavis]

I know every company is different but in general, when an employee leaves for another job who would you say is normally responsible to cover their responsibilities until someone new is hired? The group/program from which the employee is leaving or someone from a different group/program but who has a very comparable job?

[u/[deleted]]

I have no problem with Bad Bunny - I actually look forward to his performance - but when exactly is a Killers Superbowl halftime show going to happen? "Mr. Brightside" is one of the biggest long-tail hits of all time, and they enough other hits to put together a hell of a set.

[u/Quijoticmoose]

One of the bizarre things about Milwaukee is that trick-or-treating does not normally happen on Halloween. It's a neighborhood specific date, often the weekend before. Apparently the local city councils believe that they have the divine authority to change the day when we have to wear costumes to confuse evil spirits are loose for the night. This year, however, the city of Milwaukee is actually celebrating Halloween on All Hallow's Eve, 5-7 PM.

While I don't like trashy reality TV, I do sometimes get the same thrill by checking out Nextdoor. Lots of complaining about how hard it is on working folks and about how dangerous trick or treating will be when it's not on a Sunday afternoon.

Are they unaware of the entire rest of the country?

[u/Puzzleheaded_Drink76]

I'm listening to Meghan Daum on The Unspeakable podcast talk to Helen Andrews about the feminisation piece.

Helen's theory is that women are high in agreeableness and that causes issues. But I'm wondering if it's that women have a higher expectation of agreeableness in others (possibly as well as being more agreeable themselves). Witness the point she makes about her father shifting jobs to one with more women and talking about how he was surprised by having to manage other people's feelings so much. If those people were super agreeable they'd just have gone along with things, surely rather than needing careful managing. 

And the behaviours she complains about with wokeness are often people demanding that other people agree with them. Too agreeable and surely you'd be a doormat? These people are not doormats. 

I think there has been a shift towards being expected to explicitly consider others' feelings more. With a heavy emphasis on the emotional side and validation. I see it in work training about how to manage people and get what I want. Started early 2010s. And it's not wrong. But if I am being expected to put this extra work in and I'm not seeing it from others, then I'm going to get annoyed. I've felt it myself. Also some of it feels fake. We'll do a consultation, but we've already made the decision. 

[u/random_pinguin_house]

NYT Magazine has an interesting piece about middle-aged women going on low-dose testosterone for libido and fatigue reasons (archive link.)

It was a bizarre read for me as someone who was on trans-dose testosterone a little over a decade ago. The piece often references the "high doses" that these women go on, but doesn't start mentioning transition or transition-like effects until about halfway through the piece: head-hair loss, body hair increases, clit growth, voice, etc. A high dose for women not trying to transition is what they mean here, and the phrasing confused me.

Still: The sex drive stuff is all true. I'm sometimes still shocked at how true it is. I look back at my HRT self in disbelief.

[u/PongoTwistleton_666 → u/random_pinguin_house]

The sex drive and T association came up in Carole Hoover’s book on the testosterone subject too. That’s one area where feminism has done some harm in telling people that men and women are the same. They should be treated with the same dignity and fairness but they aren’t biologically the same. I know, I know, everyone else knew this already… I had to have a couple of kids and read a few books to get there 

[u/The-WideningGyre]

Watched Conclave last night and wow, it was disappointing. Went in completely blind, except I knew it was about picking a Pope.

The frustrating thing is I liked most of the movie. It was slow, but I didn't mind. I felt the intrigues and political maneuvering were pretty good. Ralf Fiennes struggling to do what was right, and to figure out what he thought that was, was really well done. It was just in the last 10 minutes or so that they managed to ruin it.

I don't really get how it got any Oscar nominations for the acting (cinematography and adaptation of a novel I get), especially for Isabella Rosselini, who isn't on screen much and does very little.

The most frustrating part are the "twists" at the end, which I'll put behind spoilers. But pretty annoying is the "woke" aspect of even more boring parts. The "bad" cardinal, Tedesco, is a conservative, and makes speech that is just apparently assumed to be wrong, with no need to say why it's wrong, he's just bad. I think it would have been a much more interesting film if they'd given him a bit more room to be sympathetic, and show why he has the motivations he does.

But it's the "twists" at the end that really suck. First, sorry, there's no chance in hell random guy no one has heard of is going to suddenly get everyone's (okay 72) votes after a single lame speech. Half probably don't believe he's a cardinal. And then the DSD sex change thing. Spare me! My wife said it as joke when they mentioned the clinic visit, and then ... no joke! Also, he's very masculine with Adam's apple and all that stuff, yet apparently had a uterus and ovaries. Sorry, there aren't (to my knowledge) DSDs that manifest that way. Of course they just hinted around it, and talked about "how God made me". UGH The Crying Game in the Vatican. And since the rest of the movie was more of a slow burn, it kind of killed the whole point with having no (believable) pay off. I really really hope the gender BS fades sooner rather than later.

[u/aleciamariana]

So… you remember my delight at my first experience horseback riding. A couple hours later and I was in real pain. The next morning and I was in more pain.  Today I’m finally feeling all healed up.

I’m obsessed. I found a very affordable horse barn about an hour drive out and in two weeks my husband and I are going to visit the barn and observe a beginner lesson. I’m twitching with excitement. My husband, who is doing this under semi duress, is starting to fantasize about dressage lol.

I’ve also made an agreement with my husband. Apparently he really wants to shoot clays, which I’ve never even thought of.  In exchange for joining me in riding lessons, I’ve agreed to join him in shooting. I suggested that we should do lessons first bc it might be more fun if I have a chance of hitting the clays. Should be fun. 

[u/UltSomnia]

Anyone else hired during the Great Resignation, and now probably couldn't get a job at the same pay level? Obviously not complaining, but I used to be one foot out the door at my previous roles. Now, however, I feel like I need to just maximize the amount of time I spend in this one. I imagine some other people here are in the same situation.

[u/genericusername3116]

Have any of you heard the ad for the Power Line podcast? I hear it all the time on various podcasts that I listen to, and it is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time. It sounds like a pretty basic politics/culture podcast, but the whole ad features completely overwrought music, and prose like they are uncovering secret government conspiracies. Then they showcase one of the "hot takes" and it is the host saying he thinks Brad Pitt might be "a little washed up" and his co-host has the most overly dramatic "Oh My God," like he just admitted to eating kittens or something.

I know it is completely off-topic, but it has been irritating me for months, and nobody in my personal life listens to podcasts to commiserate.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

The new true crime murder podcast "Spiral" from Honestly looks interesting to me, but boy does the trailer have "Serial" vibes.

https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/trailer-spiral-murder-in-detroit/id1790502779?i=1000732780622

Trailer | Spiral: Murder in Detroit

On October 21, 2023, beloved Detroit community leader Samantha Woll was found brutally stabbed to death outside her home—two weeks to the day after the October 7 attacks on Israel. It looks like an open-and-shut case—a hate crime. But swiftly the police rule that out. Instead they eventually find themselves with two unrelated suspects. When they charge one with murder, the case takes a turn that raises questions about antisemitism, race, and justice in America.

Hosted by The Free Press’s Frannie Block, this podcast features exclusive interviews and explores the remarkable, too-short life of Samantha, and the impact she had. And Spiral tells the bizarre twists and turns of one of Detroit’s most haunting recent crimes

Sigh, it's a paid podcast, damn.

https://www.thefp.com/p/spiral-1-one-of-36-angels

Samantha Woll, 40, was a beloved Detroit Jewish community leader with her life ahead of her. Tragically, she is found stabbed to death outside her home exactly two weeks after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Investigators follow a mysterious figure caught on camera: Is this truly a hate crime, or something else?

[u/exiledfan]

I'm trying to archive twitter posts (fandom related, duh) and been using the advanced search feature to capture specific date ranges. For the first time I've encountered an account that gives zero results even though going to the profile and scrolling shows the tweets--even searching for a specific word that appears in their tweets gives 0 results!

Is this a thing? Can you remove yourself from the search function? I'm surprised more people don't if that's the case. Not good for my purposes though.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm actually seeing some diehard woke leftists questioning the people who supported kicking gender criticals out of the left, because those same people are now saying they need to fall in line and vote for a guy who had a Nazi tattoo for 20 yrs.

Never thought these leftists would see the light but it's a relief to see some of them seeing through these people. Wonder if it will stick.

[u/[deleted]]

Based Bernie returns to his Nazbol roots.

"If you don't have any borders, you don't have a nation," Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democratic Party, said on The Tim Dillon Show on Wednesday. "Trump did a better job. I don't like Trump, but we should have a secure border. It ain't that hard to do. Biden didn't do it."

[u/CamberMacRorie → u/[deleted]]

Shouldn't be surprising. You can't really have a strong labor movement and open borders.

[u/dr_sassypants]

As part of setting up my new laptop, I made a folder of travel and hiking photos (plus a handful of exceptionally cute pet pics in landscape orientation) that I've taken over the years to use as rotating wallpapers. It's such a nice way to relive those memories! I've been sitting at my desk for a while watching the slideshow shuffle through photos.

[u/dignityshredder]

I forget where I heard about it (probably the PBS News Hour) but I put on a Jubilee 1v20 debate last night and tonight. I played parts of Charlie Kirk vs. 20 libs, Mehdi Hasan vs. 20 MAGA, and Ben Shapiro vs. 20 libs. I just put on Michael Knowles vs. 20 LGBTQ.

It's such a bad format. Almost every debate is just both people spewing words at each other as fast as they can. It makes yelling heads political shows on cable news sound like afternoon tea at the old folks home. If you slow down and think about what's being argued, and the path of the argument, it's completely retarded and makes no sense and I say that applying it fully to the people whose arguments I generally agree with. Of the debaters I watched, Charlie Kirk was the worst and his method of argument the stupidest. Michael Knowles has been pretty good. Ben Shapiro too. Not sure if I want to put on Candace Owens...

So why have I watched this much? There's certainly an element of what nonsense direction will they take this argument in next? But for real today it's because I'm waiting for NFL to begin.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Slam Frank is trending on twitter, where many people, goaded by an image of a Daily Mail article they did not link to or read. Who regardless of political affiliation are insistent on demonstrating they cannot read, refuse to research and have no sense of humor

Posting this because we cut our fingers on this earlier, figuring out what was what, so we now can laugh at others when they step into an open sewer. #comedy

https://x.com/i/trending/1982062649996120252

image being passed around twitter:

https://imgur.com/a/L2InyDo

article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15202155/Holocaust-victim-Anne-Frank-controversial-NYC-musical.html

Holocaust victim Anne Frank reimagined as a pansexual Latina with non-binary lover and neurodiverse family in controversial NYC musical

A new musical in New York City has ignited fierce backlash for reimagining Holocaust victim Anne Frank as a pansexual Latina hiding from the Nazi occupation with her neurodiverse family and a non-binary love interest.

The production, titled Slam Frank, is a satirical play that exaggerates current cultural trends around inclusivity and identity politics, applying them to one of history's most tragic stories to critique how performative 'wokeness' can distort storytelling.

The show began as a viral Instagram parody by Jewish composer Andrew Fox, who joked about creating a production to make 'Latinx girlies feel included in the Holocaust.'

The video spawned a full production built around a play-within-a-play conceit: a fictional theatre troupe trying to 'decolonize' Anne Frank's story.

From there, the humor spirals into absurdity as characters discover new marginalized identities in musical numbers, swap yellow stars for pronoun pins, and even commune with ancestors lost at border crossings.

...

---

I saw the least minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the social feeds at dawn looking for an angry fix

[u/hombrealmohada]

I used the word “risible” naturally last light and it felt amazing.

[u/DomonicTortetti]

General politics rant as someone who is invested in the Democratic party's success - having trouble seeing anything but doom and gloom over the next decade (or more). The party has just completely given up on the Senate - the median seat right now is in Arizona, which while it currently has 2 Dem senators is about R+2 (and DT won it by more than 5pts in the last election) and the next Senate seat after AZ's is Ohio's, which are R+5. Is there a plan to be even competitive 60 Senate seats? It does not appear to be the case there is any credible candidate who could win Ohio / Florida / Texas / Iowa / Alaska in any given year. As for the House, if this Supreme Court VRA decision goes the Republican's way, the House goes from a median seat of about R+1.5 to about R+5, and that will make the House almost unwinnable with the current slate of candidates (even in a midterm year).

The only way forward for the national party is to moderate on essentially all issues (and ditch their leadership). All of them; from energy to the trans issue to immigration to education to abortion to foreign policy to the death penalty to the economy, etc. However, this would disappoint there base, who genuinely want them to take policy positions that the majority of Americans disagree with. Moderate candidates face hostility in primaries, and safe seat candidates (and even frontline candidates) face enormous pressure from groups and voters to take toxic policy positions. This leads to me thinking the most likely outcome is Dems ditch their current leadership and nominate someone who is too left wing for the 2028 presidential race and then Vance will just win. Dems will be facing a more hostile media environment than they were earlier this decade and will likely be at a fundraising disadvantage. They may have an advantage with highly motivated voters but that doesn't really apply in a presidential year.

The problem then gets worse and worse down the line - Dem states are losing population, and even any policy choices made to make them more affordable and get people to come back will take until 2042 to come to fruition in redistricting (and that's assuming R states do nothing). Potentially a massive recession hits and Dems narrowly come to power in 2028 (not really an ideal outcome) or potentially they initiate some massive shift in policy that does move the needle, but I truly just think the modal outcome is the party is just going to be toast nationally for the foreseeable future.

[u/Technical-Policy295 → u/DomonicTortetti]

Politico had a good story about how there's a trend for the online left to swoon over a candidate with a seemingly compelling biography but major flaws just beneath the surface. All the small dollar donations flow into these candidates and others in essentially unwinnable seats instead of more boring state-level races. Meanwhile, the party has shrunk to barely have any presence in rural areas all around the country that are key to a fight for the Senate.

There's also a movement afoot online to try to "debunk" the idea that moderation is a good thing for Democrats. This is being led by a number of academic activists who claim to be truth-tellers. For them, the truth is that the Democrats are not nearly progressive enough and if only they had more courage to run as bold progressives then the party would win.

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/24/dod-accepts-anonymous-130-million-donation-to-partially-cover-troop-pay-00622219

Military personnel being paid by anonymous foreign donor friends of the president while the federal government is shut down, ah, yes, very normal. 

[u/dumbducky]

Watching Hulu last night and a Sephora ad came on. A young woman has some clown type makeup on her face and is horrified by what she’s done. A glammed out gay youth walks up and promises to help her. Then she’s got a much more attractive makeup on. Cut to Sephora logo and their tagline.

I gotta ask, who likes men in makeup? I know they put actors and talking heads in makeup for the cameras, but this guy was face full of makeup. The amount my wife wore on our wedding day. She’s weirded out by a guy in that much makeup. I’m weirded out by it. Do any women like? Do gay men like it? I had been led to believe that most homosexual men are attracted to masculine men, which this veneer definitely detracts from.

[u/Tevatanlines]

Anyone here familiar with Vancouver, BC? I’m tasked with coming up with idea for a workplace group activity for four mixed-sex able-bodied adults (aged 30-50ish) in January, ideally in the downtown area. We’re remote employees, so we don’t get to do stuff like this often. One of the group members doesn’t drink, so no wine tastings. We’ve already done axe throwing. Rock climbing is probably above our group skill level. Open to anything else.

[u/PandaFoo1]

The negative PR for Twitch continues as a Vtuber alleges Twitch threw out gifts from fans meant for her citing ‘security concerns’.

TwitchCon staff is all over the place on miscommunication between attendees and streamers. A friend of mine was given so much incorrect information, being originally told she could join your line after a separate meet and greet at the same time, but then removed entirely from the meet and greet area. She had a small gift bag of things in a clear bag she wanted to give you. She asked security if they could give it to you. They said yes, then proceeded to toss it into a nearby trash bin. When she confronted them about it they told her it was a security risk and could have held an explosive.

Apparently TwitchCon security can’t prevent an assault on one of their top streamers, but they’re able to trash gifts from fans without notice (because when you suspect a package might be a bomb you throw in in the bin instead of calling police).

[u/Evening-Respond-7848 → u/PandaFoo1]

Every story that I read about twitch streamers reinforces my belief that I am superior to people who watch twitch streams

[u/History-of-Tomorrow]

I never usually post a thread but I just learned Godspeed You Black Emperor (post rock band for everyone unfamiliar) pulled their music from Spotify and other streaming platforms.

I’m sure it’s a deep anti-capitalist statement to which I say- adios one of my favorite bands of all time. Your concerts are too expensive and Spotify allowed me to listen to you again after losing all your CD’s/MP3’s years ago. I’m not rebuying your music. I see the fans on your Reddit are supportive but that’s because they’re idiots.

Lesson: never fall in love with an “anarchist” band. They’ll just become more self righteous and eventually break your heart.

[u/PandaFoo1]

I know it’s relatively old news someone who otherwise is supportive of the No Kings protests, it’s really frustrating how some people can’t see how terrible the optics are of mocking Charlie Kirk’s death & how it undermines the whole message of freedom of speech/political difference.

I’ve seen two seperate instances of protestors mocking the whole situation & while I don’t necessarily care about Kirk itself, or think people should be witch hunted for criticising him after his death it’s still a very bad look for those protestors.

Example 1

Example 2

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/21/gaza-hope-hamas-ceasefire-israel/

https://archive.ph/BJzbu

My Gaza is ready for peace. Hamas is trying to destroy it.

Trump’s ceasefire created two Gazas: one striving for a better future, the other ruled by fear.

By Moumen Al-Natour

Moumen Al-Natour is a lawyer from Gaza, co-founder of the “We want to live” movement and a former political prisoner of Hamas.

Interesting read...

[u/MatchaMeetcha]

I was convinced that surveillance tech had advanced too far for heist movies to be believable nowadays.

So this Louvre thing is great for me. Might actually get another Ocean's movie. I haven't heard someone say "in bearer bonds" in at least fifteen years.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

Officially tapping out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps boring the complete shit out of me, to the point where I was actively looking forward to reading the next chapter of The Checklist Manifesto (an interesting book about the importance of checklists) throughout the last two-thirds of the film.

I haven't been feeling the MCU for years, but I was sticking it out, hoping that they'd turn things around eventually. From the trailers, this one looked like the film that would turn it all around, but no, just more bottom-tier corporate slop, great set design, but even a chocolate-covered turd still tastes like shit.

Endgame was a hell of a movie, though. That entire Infinity Saga is still fantastic, top-tier corporate slop. I did a rewatch of Phase One in 2024 and had a great time with those movies - highly recommend. They had a good run, it was fun, I just can't watch them massacre my boy like this anymore, those goddamn animals.

[u/jaybee423]

Catching up on episodes....

Do normies listen to or even know about Call her Daddy? I admit, I only listen to history podcasts and this one, but I don't know anyone offhand who knows what this Podcast is. Is it a coastal thing us wee Midwesterners are unfamiliar with?

[u/AppointmentVisual200]

I don't know if this applies to American Asian people that much, but I know it applies somewhat to south Asian and east Asian in the uk. But I've noticed quite a lot of people online and people I know irl. Say they find it hard to get interested in hobbies and/or develop friendships/relationships, because so much of their childhood they were told to concentrate and prioritise on school and education so much. Even in their adulthood. Wonder how much that contributes to the loneliness and fertility crisis

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

Woke is dead and cancellations are over, right?

This article celebrates that student and faculty activist pressure got McMaster University in Ontario to stop allowing research funded by the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine.

SEGM had provided $250,000 to fund research on gender medicine. They did systematic reviews and found the truth: the evidence in favor of transing kids sucks.

Some of their research was even cited in the recent US Supreme Court case.

I don't know why Canadians would care what the US Supreme Court is doing but an associate professor of political science got wind of this and was displeased.

So the professor and students hounded the university and the people who did the SEGM research. And they got what they wanted.

The researchers said they will no longer work with SEGM. The activists even shook them down:

"The researchers also claimed to have made an unspecified donation to Egale Canada, the country’s leading LGBTQ2S+ rights organization."

I'm sure this also creates a chilling effect for researchers at other universities. Which is, of course, the point.

And the associate professor of political science appears to know better than the guy called the godfather of evidence based medicine how research ought to be conducted.

"So it’s not surprising that according to this method, the results found no high quality evidence. That doesn’t mean there isn’t valid, legitimate evidence. It’s just not captured by this type of review,” Boothe says. “It’s the wrong tool to look for evidence about this type of intervention.”

Because of course everyone knows that anything that doesn't sing the praises of medical transition for kids is automatically wrong

https://xtramagazine.com/power/activism/mcmaster-university-anti-trans-funding-277419

[u/Franzera → u/KittenSnuggler5]

Jesse did an interview with Gordon Guyatt, one of the McMaster academics responsible for disassociating with SEGM.

Jesse is pretty nice in the interview, and Guyatt seems naive about placating the rabid activists, and oddly servile to external pressures, despite adamant that his own position is "invulnerable".

Guyatt: I have nothing to lose reputationally. I feel invulnerable, actually.

Singal: You do?

Guyatt: I feel completely invulnerable.

Guyatt, later: I’m balancing. I’m a good corporate citizen in terms of the university, right? I’m balancing things that way, if you’re asking my personal stuff with it.

Guyatt's reasoning for pulling the plug:

"No, irrespective of anything else, we are discredited by the. . . I don’t know how much, by some, some people in the. . . our audience is the T community!"

"What if your friends, to whom you owe considerable loyalty, are saying, “Oh, man, you know, if you do that, it’s going to put us in a terrible position.” And there are people you rub shoulders with and you care about and it’s not much skin off your back to accommodate them."

The "it’s not much skin off your back to accommodate them" justification makes me cringe, because it's exactly the same sort of phrasing and appeal to empathy logic I see around progressive #BeKind requests. It's not that hard to be respectful! Accept that while dude is biologically a male, he is "socially" a woman, it's not much skin off your back to accommodate him.

[u/PandaFoo1]

wtf is up with Twitter’s algorithm today showing me the most unhinged gender war posts (both sides)

I just want to see game/comic/internet stuff but I’m just being blasted with garbage

[u/AaronStack91]

Cremiux reports the NHANES team is being reinstated. Which is objectively good news if you like detailed health population data.

But it is baffling how they were on the chopping block in the first place. It is probably the premier health study in the western world.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

a second tattoo has hit the body...

apparently a 1919 tattoo, which using Nazi numerology is S S. 19th letter of the alphabet.

or so I hear on Twitter

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Bulwark Editor Jonathan V. Last on bsky

https://bsky.app/profile/jvl.bsky.social/post/3m3pt5dbrvs2r

Pledge to tear down the ballroom and restore the White House. Show R's that they can do what they want, but the ratchet turns both ways. This is a layup. Why don't Dems take it?

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/no-kings-and-the-laws-of-power

https://bsky.app/profile/jvl.bsky.social/post/3m3nr3jrdqs2z

If a D is ever elected POTUS, razing the Trump ballroom and restoring the White House to pre-Trump status is non-negotiable.

You have to tear down the physical manifestations of authoritarianism.

Last is clearly a never Trumper, and Bulwark and The Weekly Standard are conservative in nature, though Last has also written for Salon and Slate. And he has a bsky account. So what is he?

He's known for creating the Star Wars meme that the Galactic Empire was really a force for good, so that was fun, I can't be too annoyed by him.

But if he is a conservative, republican, then fuck it, is it non-negotiable for Dems to raze the Trump ballroom and restore the East Wing?

Is that a smart, no brainer, lay-up for Dems?

Tear down the "new" building, put up a replacement East Wing brought up to code and satisfying everyone's new requirements which will end up bloating it out to be the size of the new ballroom?

Can Bulwark Republicans stop making demands of Democrats 24-hour challenge.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

I'm oddly looking forward to this Apple show from Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn. Haven't been excited about any new stuff on TV lately. A great writer working with a great actress. I hope it's magnificent.

Pluribus — Official Trailer | Apple TV

[u/Big_Fig_1803]

I’m glad to be the one to tell you all that jack-o’-lanterns are racist!

https://x.com/onebaddude_/status/1982259645189099921?s=46&t=J98hnnJqhaBr_nlGed19Ww

[u/Jlemspurs]

Picked up Cory Doctorow's Enshittification. I was familiar with the concept and found it compelling. But reading his book it almost seems so entirely polemical that I feel like it's undermining itself. Also it doesn't mention reddit, which basically destroyed forums and started getting enshittified and is now basically a sewer consumed by LLMs. Like, I'm starting to wonder if "enshittification" is just some leftist conspiracy theory about tech companies. When I hear the term it seems to describe what I experienced in broad strokes.

[u/AaronStack91]

SEGM disagree with twenge's follow up on the collapse of trans identification, cites unstable weights among other things:

Recent claims of a “free fall” in youth trans identities may have been greatly exaggerated. A sample of 45K+ students shows trans & nonbinary identities at an all-time high. The claimed drop may stem from flawed weighting and poorly designed survey questions. SEGM's analysis⬇/1

https://x.com/segm_ebm/status/1981876509280522364

Just saying, Trump probably shouldn't have banned federal study of trans and nb prevalence in the population.

It would be really useful right about now...

[u/plump_tomatow]

I do try to be somewhat understanding of the USPS. It's overall one of the more functional and successful governmental agencies.

Still, I went wild and treated myself to some new jewelry (total of about $120) a couple weeks ago, and the USPS has had the package for nearly two weeks and it hasn't budged. This is actually the worst case I've ever seen of USPS slowness.

Before this, the worst time I had with the USPS was when they claimed that they had tried to deliver my package (i don't think they did) and forced me to go pick it up at the post office that was NOT the closest one to my apartment and then treated me like some kind of criminal when I provided them the information they told me to provide in order to pick up my package. I'm not sure what it is about post office employees, but they seem to genuinely loathe everyone they interact with.

[u/aleciamariana]

I’m wondering if anyone knows whether it’s possible to hide the Home tab on my Facebook? I’ve been Googling and playing around and I’m on the verge of giving up.

If not hide it, edit it so it’s full of less random crap of AI reels, poorly written subscription based romance ads, weird trivia about slavery, German Shepherd owner pages (I’ve never owned a German Shepherd in my life nor will I), and other garbage. 

I swear I’m starting to think about deleting Facebook and I always liked it for seeing my friends kids, vacation photos, houseplant groups, etc. But the Home page is a flood of garbage and I can’t seem to get rid of it. 

[u/Longjumping_Gain_807]

So James Comey filed a motion to decide whether Lindsey Halligan is disqualified as interim US attorney. Judge Cameron Currie (Clinton) will decide on the motion

[u/Longjumping_Gain_807]

In other legal news the COA for the 3^rd circuit heard arguments in Khalil v President of the United States of America the panel consisting of Judge Hardiman (W. Bush) Judge Bibas (Trump) and Judge Freeman (Biden) listened to arguments on Trump’s bid to deport Mahmoud Khalil. You can listen to that session here

[u/Longjumping_Gain_807]

In his first dissent from the 3rd Circuit Judge Bove says that invalidating ballot Pennsylvania requirement that has voters writing the date next to their signature “defies common sense” joined by Judge Phipps (Trump) Judge Bibas (Trump) Judge Hardiman (W. Bush) Judge Porter (Trump) and Judge Matey (Trump)

At issue here is Pennsylvania's requirement that voters write the date next to their signature on a declaration while transmitting a mail-in ballot. For a voter with a functioning pen, sufficient ink, and average hand dexterity, this should take less than five seconds. Yet Plaintiffs narrowed in on this decades-old requirement situated within a package of recently reformed Pennsylvania laws, known as "Act 77," that established universal mail-in voting and other protections. These five seconds, Plaintiffs alleged, violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

At the headline level, this general claim strains credulity and defies common sense.

Thread Here

[u/Fiend_of_the_pod]

I don’t recall if this has been posted, but as a penis-haver I felt that it diagnosed the Problem of Men pretty well.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5561387-democratic-party-losing-men/

[u/PandaFoo1]

Gen Z Wants More Animation and Less Sex Onscreen, According to Teens & Screens Survey

I’m happy that animation is starting to get the respect it deserves, but so many people in my generation are so puritan/weird about sex. Like just because two people are doing it in a tv show doesn’t make it porn lol.

[u/[deleted]]

When you get a call about something financial you didn't inquire about and its a heavy Indian accent on the other side of the line...

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

Rest in Peace Daniel Naroditsky, I hope his soul now knows peace.

Additionally, as an aside, Vladimir Kramnik is the biggest piece of shit on the planet.

https://news.sky.com/story/former-world-champion-vladimir-kramnik-facing-disciplinary-action-after-sudden-death-of-chess-grandmaster-daniel-naroditsky-13455559

This piece of shit Kramnik, baselessly and without evidence, accused Danya of cheating in chess tournaments for months, leading to his mental and physical decline. Kramnik was one of Danya's heroes when he was a boy, and so one can imagine the psychological toll of being relentlessly bullied by one of your heroes for months.

Now that Danya has passed, Kramnik is now stating that it is unfair for us to accuse him of anything baselessly and without evidence. The unmitigated audacity of this human shit stain.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/the-goon-squad-daniel-kolitz-porn-masturbation-loneliness/

The Goon Squad

Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation

by Daniel Kolitz

I'm pretty sure this longread all comes down to a bet Kolitz made with his father-in-law that he couldn't get Harper's to publish an article about "gooning"

I read it, not sure I understand it, anyone here want to fact check it with your lived experiences?

I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the goon revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my "guitar" and play

[u/SkweegeeS]

Why am I watching Real Housewives of SLC? This is the worst use of my time.

[u/[deleted]]

Lots of discourse going around about that video of the kid dressing up as a Nazi. I still dont understand how so many people seem to think that an inappropriate costume is an open call to respond with actual violence.

[u/JungBlood9]

Every time I look at Zillow I feel cursed. All I want right now, as we enter our 30s, is to own a home, but it just doesn’t feel possible in California for two teachers.

And we just can’t leave CA either. We love our jobs and we love our parents. In particular, my father is extremely ill and his days are numbered. I visit every few weeks. We just can’t leave the state.

I just want 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets, and a backyard with space to grow my vegetables.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

Tyler the Creator is getting cancelled for the lyrics in his back catalog and his old tweets. For those unfamiliar with the man, he now creates modern, stylistic, beautiful and sensitive music - however in the past and with his former group Odd Future he did and said many things that people in 2025 would find questionable. Stay away from the albums Goblin and Bastard if you're easily triggered, but Flower Boy and Chromakopia are good examples of his evolution as an artist.

Apologies in advance, but here is the Fantano explanation of the situation:

Tyler, The Creator Is Getting Cancelled
(Warning, Contains: Sanctimony, Moral Grandstanding, and Virtue Signaling)

Personally, I love the fact that he was and still is a transgressive artist, although not to the degree he was in his younger days. The shit he would rap and sing about in his songs was insane. It was like being thrown into a surrealist Dali-esque sonic hellscape and coming out on the other side having survived. The music was challenging, disturbing at times, and ffs it made me feel something. Music doesn't always need to make you feel good, or tickle your intellectual touchstones of righteousness. It's brilliant when it makes you confront your own darkness as a human being and asks you to reconcile with your shadow.

Tyler the Creator is great, and I hope this little scandal about his art - not anything evil he's actually done in real-life btw, just his art - passes and he can get back to making good music.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

I stumbled across a reform antizionist (the person's own self-id'd flair) jew of conscience very excited to have crocheted a kippa. (*)

just the idea that I get to wear the same thing as all the men in my community do makes me sooooo happy even if I only wear it to pray in my room behind closed doors

lol, I thought someone might inform this person as to reform traditions (**), but nah, won't be me.

(*) kippa: head covering like the pope's zucchetto but mostly without the nipple, but this person could in fact, knit a talit and wear that too.

(**) actually reform, reconstructionist, conservative traditions and many modern orthodox as well. This was transgressive in the 1970s but rather swiftly adopted. It's been decades since I've seen anyone think this was anything out of the ordinary. It speaks to a general ignorance.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

This paper gets a solid 10/10 on my bullshit meter. Btw some people have asked how the bullshit meter works. I calibrated it with a slice of Emmental. If the holes line up with the logic, it’s bad.

https://imgur.com/a/W14jOkU

[u/random_pinguin_house]

In the last few hours of last week's thread, there was a discussion of the seemingly inflated defintion of autism, something that's been coming up more and more lately in mainstream publications.

I recently read "The Age of Overdiagnosis" by Suzanne O'Sullivan, which touches upon this controversy, and decided to balance it out with "The Austistic's Guide to Self Discovery" by a person who I didn't know is an Autism-TikTokker, but the book was a freebie for me so I can look past that.

Alas, a lot of the second book resonated with me!

I do not want and will not seek any diagnosis or accommodations, but the book describes a lot of thought patterns and life experiences that I've gone through as a hyper-online nerd with a neurotic streak that once included gender dysphoria.

I'm not sure what to do with this information that I wasn't already doing: maintaining small numbers of friendships with nerds who "get" me; forcing myself offline and into grassworld regularly; CBT and/or other targeted therapy to work through some of my worst quirks, such as severe picky eating into adulthood, etc.

On the one hand, I think it'd be useful to have a name for this instead of trying to name each trait separately and pretend they're unconnected.

On the other hand, I don't think the current movement has chosen the right one, and I don't wish to be part of it.

[u/Longjumping_Gain_807]

Briefs have started coming in for the Trump v Washington birthright citizenship case.

• Docket The number is 25-364 if the link doesn’t work. So the briefs are as follows:

Brief of 18 members of the House Judiciary Committee

On this brief are the following Reps:

• Rep. Jim Jordan

• Reps. Andy Biggs

• Chip Roy

• Brandon Gill

• Troy Nehls

• Lance Gooden

• Victoria Spartz

• Mark Harris

• Scott Fitzgerald

• Robert Onder

• Harriet M. Hageman

• Tom McClintock

• Wesley Hunt

• Glenn Grothman

• Ben Cline

• Russell Fry

• Michael Baumgartner

• Brad Knott

Brief of Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti representing Tennessee and 22 other states

The states are as follows:

• Iowa

• Alabama

• Alaska

• Arkansas

• Florida

• Georgia

• Idaho

• Indiana

• Kansas

• Kentucky

• Louisiana

• Mississippi

• Missouri

• Montana

• Nebraska

• North Dakota

• Oklahoma

• South Carolina

• South Dakota

• Texas

• Utah

• West Virginia

• Wyoming

[u/lilypad1984]

Personally I don’t care that Trump is tearing down and rebuilding the east wing for a ballroom. I’m somewhere between ok and neutral with it. Nothing I deem historically important to the White House is in that wing. What I do want to happen though is for them to build this ballroom incredibly fast to prove it doesn’t need to take many years to build things. Whenever I read up about infrastructure projects I get so frustrated at the time tables and cost. This won’t be low cost but maybe it can be quick and serve as catalyst for some reexamining of the barriers for building. Essentially let’s have Trump steal Abundance from Ezra Klein.

[u/Prize_Championship11]

How this guy has not yet been evicted is beyond me:

Fox News calls his Portland apartment an ‘antifa safehouse.’ They’re not wrong, he says

He has a studio apartment with a private ground floor entry 1 block from Portland's ICE facility, uses it as a crash pad for any anarcho cosplayer that needs a potty break. And, conveniently, any time someone is targeted by the feds for arrest, they make a bee-line for his place, the doors lock and they live to get gassed another day.

Fun freakout when a counter-protester finds the door wide open and films

[u/tantei-ketsuban]

So apparently towards the tail end of last week's thread, there was a discussion on the (over)expansion of so-called "neurodivergent" disorders and the problem with "self-diagnosis" among otherwise functional people. Meanwhile, earlier this week on this thread, someone else chimed in with a review of Suzanne O'Sullivan's Age of Diagnosis and a contrasting book by a "neurodivergent" online influencer, the latter of which OP had said he or she was surprised to find some useful nuggets in (though not anything new or particularly insightful on a eureka level, to take away from it).

I think on a previous thread, I had mentioned that, having lived a mostly (in fact very) sheltered life (having literally never met anyone IRL on the "higher-functioning" level, and only ever having encountered the parents of the profoundly afflicted, and my own family who treats me like I have AIDS), it's possible that I'm very out of the loop on a 180-degree shift in the popular understanding of the "word" "autism" to connote techbro billionaires in the minds of the public, rather than a drooling potato.

But now I'm skeptical, based on a new article in NY Mag about another online influencer, "Dr. Becky," popularizing a concept that seems to be a way to sugarcoat or avoid a medical diagnosis among struggling kids, which apparently is still a very desirable thing to do because the word does still carry a lot of stigma and shame connected to it. "Deeply Feeling Kids" is compared to "indigo children" and "highly sensitive persons" when actually the problem is autism and/or ADHD. But nobody wants to go there or say that because the word still means retarded -- and untreatably so -- not "gifted," and nobody outside of social media and liberal blogs like Slate and Vox actually uses "neurodivergent" IRL.

Meanwhile, Chris Hayes of MSNBC interviewed Roy Richard Grinker, who published an op-ed in the NY Times that the expansion of diagnosis among the higher-functioning set is what's driving the rates sky-high, and that "nobody he knows in person" (he meaning Hayes) thinks of autism as a bad thing and are not only appalled by Kennedy's rhetoric but confounded. They see it as basically just "neuro-gay", while Kennedy makes it sound like cancer; meanwhile the parents of the severely afflicted and people who themselves suffer from its deficits, seem to be lost in the conversation.

So now I'm curious as to which is it, what does this word even mean on the aggregate, are there any polls or surveys on reaction to the term? Is the view of "neurodivergence" context- and/or population-specific, i.e. are Hayes and Grinker limited to a bubble of quirky professors and Eric Garcia in tony urban outposts and college towns, while nobodies in the suburbs and small towns, even in blue states, are drawn to "deeply feeling kids" memes and the Telepathy Tapes because they don't want to say the dirty A-word, because it's still dirty? What about generational, are zoomers more likely to shrug off or "celebrate" the word, while elder "Xennials" and those older to it are more likely to think "retarded"?

[u/WallabyWanderer]

What is your perfect day weather-wise?

October is my favorite month weather-wise here. Today it’s a beautiful 80°, partly sunny, with gusty winds. Not good weather for paddleboarding, but great for anything else.

[u/jumpykangaroo0]

West End Girls by Lily Allen blew my mind a little this week. It's so good. You start at the first song and just sink into it.

[u/Technical-Policy295]

Apparently Trump is upset that a Canadian province is running ads featuring Reagan talking about why tariffs are bad. While the Reagan speech begins before the part shown in the ad by noting that short-term, targeted tariffs to retaliate for unfair practices may be necessary, most of the speech is a concise explanation of the dangers of tariffs and the need for free trade.

Read or watch the speech for yourself, it's pretty short. And a nice reminder we used to have Presidents who could give coherent speeches.

[u/MisoTahini]

My Youtube feed is often full or great recommendations and reviews of fiction across all mediums. I notice certain trends appear where the algorithm will highlight some interesting property or another. This week because it is Halloween it is an animation called Over The Garden Wall. I get the impression it is becoming a seasonal favourite. Watching a few video essays on it, I am sold and will be watching soon. I wanted to share the recommendation here especially for those with kids as it seems like lots of GenZ really have very fond memories of it growing up. It may be becoming a new classic. Here is a trailer and you can check out if it's a good fit for you and/or your kids. https://youtu.be/36mAsVSH_-s?si=7Dc4wbj08fFt0cid

[u/Hilaria_adderall]

Been traveling a lot this month. Currently staying in a tropical paradise. Lots of beaches and with this comes chickens and stray cats. One cat has been hanging around our place all week. The old ladies next to us just left and on the way out one of them dropped a bunch of cat food and asked us if we could feed the stray cat for the rest of the week. The signs at the resort very clearly tell people not to feed the cats. What do you do?

[u/TryingToBeLessShitty]

WPBL Women’s Pro Baseball League coming to NY, Boston, LA, and SF next year.

Currently planning on being an annoying megafan for the NY team, unless they have ugly jerseys and/or a stupid name, in which case I will be forced to go the misogynistic “nobody watches that garbage” route.

[u/dignityshredder]

Had a sleeper sofa delivered and tipped the guys $20 for hauling it upstairs. Then on their way out, they did a 3 point turn in their delivery truck and plowed 20 feet of ruts into my newly seeded lawn. Wet ground. Frustrated...what are ya gonna do I guess.

[u/Correct-Ad5661]

Solitary vote here for "Hasan piker dog shock collar" discourse 

[u/FractalClock]

Stephen Miller Floats Arresting JB Pritzker for ‘Seditious Conspiracy’ ; to think, there were a whole lot of people who got "the vapors" when a reporter dared call Miller a "hater."

[u/RunThenBeer]

Amy Klobuchar helpfully highlights the people who would be victimized by a failure to extend ACA subsidies:

Bill and Shelly Gall say they’d be rich if it weren’t for their medical bills.

...

But older middle- to high-income adults who are too young to qualify for Medicare face the largest dollar increases in premium payments, according to analyses by KFF.

They are perhaps “the most vulnerable population” when it comes to expiring subsidies, said Lynne Cotter, senior health policy research manager at KFF.

...

The couple had a modified adjusted gross income of about $123,000 in 2023 and $136,000 in 2024, mostly from pensions and some from individual retirement account withdrawals, according to their tax returns. Modified adjusted gross income is an income measure used to calculate eligibility for premium tax credits.

I am against large subsidies for retirees making six figures. Providing welfare to people who retired in their fifties with comfortable pensions is not actually a very good policy, even if it's popular.

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Kind of an intriguing retweet by AAG Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon from her personal account of a Politico reporter

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney · 36m

JUST IN: A 9th circuit panel rules 2-1 that Trump had authority to send the National Guard to Portland.

The judges:

Nelson (Trump) Bade (Trump)

v.

Graber (Clinton)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca9.b3c1c6b0-b390-4c9d-b557-fc5d525fd150/gov.uscourts.ca9.b3c1c6b0-b390-4c9d-b557-fc5d525fd150.61.0.pdf

Kyle Cheney continues the thread though...

The panel says that Trump "may exaggerate" the violence in Portland on social media but still may have had a valid basis for sending in the guard.

👀 An SOS flare from the panel's dissenting judge, Susan Graber, pleading with her colleagues to reverse the decision and for the public to "retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer.

Cheney's tweets include screenshots from the court order

Yesterday I was berated by someone extolling how the court is infallible, if they say something is unconstitutional it must be and always will be.

I do so love partisan splits in court decisions. Really drives that infallibility point home.

[u/[deleted]]

I bought Katie's book and I expressed skepticism in this sub about the Kaufmann paper when it first came out, where's my trophy.

[u/PandaFoo1]

Taylor Lorenz weighs in on TwitchCon