Are we wired to see it that way? Adam Mastroianni’s surveys may explain our persistent gloominess (New York Times): Two well-established psychological phenomena could combine to produce this illusion of moral decline. First, there’s biased exposure: People predominantly encounter and pay attention to negative information about others — mischief and misdeeds make the news and dominate our conversations. Second, there’s biased memory: The negativity of negative information fades faster than the positivity of positive information. Getting dumped, for instance, hurts in the moment, but as you rationalize, reframe and distance yourself from the memory, the sting fades. The memory of meeting your current spouse, on the other hand, probably still makes you smile. When you put these two cognitive mechanisms together, you can create an illusion of decline. Thanks to biased exposure, things look bad every day. But thanks to biased memory, when you think back to yesterday, you don’t remember things being so bad. When you’re standing in a wasteland but remember a wonderland, the only reasonable conclusion is that things have gotten worse.
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There are few people I despise more than those who conflate being anti-zionist with being anti-semitic.
Anyone who does this is a write off to me. Worthy of no respect; moral or intellectual. I only hope they are being paid well to be both evil and intellectually dishonest.
“We are going to emigrate to Palestine until we are the majority, then use force to steal Palestinian homes” is not defensible in any terms except “the strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.”
And no one who is Jewish should want to live in such a world.
Some Jews are Zionists, but not all Jews are Zionists. This is fairly basic.
One can be against the Zionist project and not be against the Jewish people. It is evil of Israel to wrap themselves in Jewishness, and push their crimes onto people who had nothing to do with them.
New research by Byline Times reveals that billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch – behind hundreds of millions in annual donations promoting climate science disinformation and right-wing causes in the US – has been contributing to academic research in UK institutions
Last month I decided to revisit that odd 1981 calendar with the missing cover. I have it on my fridge so every once in a while I’m inspired to give one (or two) of the drinks a spin. Those all seem to be pretty standard. Although the Harvey Wallbanger has fallen out of favor. DoContinue reading May 1981 Pink Lady & Mint Julep
There is a trade-off in economics (and elsewhere) between rigor and relevance: the more we achieve deductive certainty in our arguments, the less likely it is that we will achieve socially and politically relevant conclusions. This trade-off, as we shall see, is not logically inevitable but, nevertheless, it is rarely avoided in economic theorizing. Sraffian […]
Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Fortune for Your Disaster is a book of poems that feels like it got written not because the poet thought he should write it, but because he had to. There’s a breathless, headlong quality here:
the lips thick
with a familiar slang
flooding the tongue
get me to the curve
of lover’s neck
while I am still alive enough
Norms are values systems Left, right. Liberal, conservative. We reflexively map out political morphology in America as dichotomies. Us, them. Urban, rural. The problem the country faces as tensions build across the modern political divide is that the framework of the United States of America, flaws and all, is built upon a set of values the framers shared: self-evident truths, unalienable rights, a government built to promote justice, domestic tranquility, the general welfare, etc. Even then, agreement was not universal. The colonies were home to federalists and antifederalists, slave states and free, colonial rebels and Tories/Royalists. Dahlia Lithwick and Michael Podhorzer imply that it was always thus, that the greater “We the People” never really shared those values, the same truths, or else did not view them the same way. How left and right view governance today reflects the same contrasts. Donald Trump saw the Department of Justice as “his” to deploy against enemies. Joe Biden left the prosecutor investigating his own son in place.
1. A nutritious range of fresh fruits.
2. A single green leaf, at any point.
3. Chocolate cake, ice cream, a pickle, swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, and a cupcake.
4. Five sausages, three chicken wings, four slices of watermelon, mashed potatoes, one pancake, sixty-four fries, four Jello cups, and an experimental lychee.
5. A dollop of chicken jalfrezi, a handful of green olives, a blob of moussaka, and a glob of something that turned out to be marmalade.
6. Second helpings of dessert, even with breakfast.
7. Just whipped cream in a bowl.
8. Dogged determination to eat one’s money back.
9. Stomach ache.
10. Regret.
11. Acid reflux.
12. Mammoth constipation.
13. Two-week food coma.
14. Substantial weight gain.
15. Suddenly too much bum and not enough underwear.
16. A pleasing conclusion to the narrative in which the protagonist ultimately learns portion control, and becomes a better Lepidoptera for it.
17. Cankles.
Both Labour and Lib Dems are tactically channelling resources for the forthcoming by-elections, eyeing Tory-held seats. But there's no sign of a formal pact
Göran Perssons ord från mitten av 1990-talet ekar fortfarande genom svensk politik. Varje politiskt förslag som kan höja statsskulden bemöts av varningar om hur Sverige på den tiden stod på ruinens brant. Perssons resa till New York, där han enligt egen utsago tvingades gå med mössan i hand till Wall Streets lånehajar och utlova nedskärningar, […]
The cost of childcare in the UK has become untenable for the majority of parents, and it’s a problem that now spans social classes. Currently, parents are able to access thirty hours of free childcare per week for children over the age of three, and that’s only during term time. Between the end of parental […]
Why the climate crisis and the global rise of fascism are inextricable. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th June 2023 Round the cycle turns. As millions are driven from their homes by climate disasters, the extreme right exploits their misery to extend its reach. As the extreme right gains power, climate programmes are […]
Turkish analyst Gönül Tol discusses how, despite economic and social problems, Erdogan won the recent elections.
The post Turkish Elections: Erdogan’s Autocracy Continues appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Aeon Video
- by Mike Rucker
Five research associates at the St. Louis Fed are off to top-20 Ph.D. programs. Their experience working at the St. Louis Fed helped them set a path to graduate school.
As Byline Times reveals that around half of the Government's biggest outsourcing partners are failing to hit minimum targets, experts warn that attempts at reform are not enough
Despite problems in meeting key performance indicators, these companies seem to be managing a significant and growing share of public services
Today is set to be agreeably alliterative across an assortment of areas although the occasional metaphor may cause some faces to cloud. Idioms will be coming down like stair rods in northern regions, while the south may experience the odd outbreak of similes, like an unexpected shower of arrows. In coastal, littoral, and seaside areas,…
The post Doctor Who Magazine 592 appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.
It’s Wednesday and I cover a few topics usually in less depth than usual and provide a musical entree. From tomorrow (June 22 to 23), the so-called world leaders are meeting in Paris for the – Summit for a New Global Financing Pact – which is being hosted by the French president. The aim, apparently,…
On the actual relationship between the Queer community and corporations.
Some ~bipartisan reflections~
