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Once Again, I Will Have to Take a Heavier Hand with the Comments [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By Spencer Chen
In Freddie deBoer
January 31, 2023
255 views
O

• The publisher had posted a divisive cultural topic and the comments had become anti-LGBTQ, so the publisher had to go back to the drawing board.
• The publisher is a leftist and has conventional left-wing views on almost everything, including a commitment to progress on LGBTQ issues.
• The publisher is critical of the contemporary American left of center and many left-of-center people right-code him.
• The publisher believes that many people on the right have an obsession with gender issues and need to ask themselves about their mental health.
• The publisher reminded readers that they can always take their ball and go home, and that he has to make decisions that are consistent with his values.
• The publisher also reminded readers that most drag performers are not trans.

Published January 31, 2023
Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post Once Again, I Will Have to Take a Heavier Hand with the Comments

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Of Course Drag Isn’t Dangerous, It’s Just Played Out and Corny [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By Spencer Chen
In Freddie deBoer
January 30, 2023
237 views
O

• The interviewee is a progressive person who is fighting against anti-LGBTQ bills in Republican states.
• They recognize that drag shows have become normalized and embraced by a sports league, which is a sign of progress but also a loss of something that was once countercultural.
• They argue that drag shows are not inherently sexual and that parents should be able to make the choice to take their children to a drag show or not.
• They point out that the same cultural processes that make drag shows more acceptable are also making gay marriage possible.
• They argue that normalization and assimilation are the same thing and that marginalized people cannot have both respectability and radicalism.

Published January 30, 2023
Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post Of Course Drag Isn’t Dangerous, It’s Just Played Out and Corny

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Professionalize the police [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]

By Spencer Chen
In Noah Smith [Noahpinion]
January 29, 2023
200 views
P

• Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten by Memphis police, sparking protests across the country and raising the question of what to do about police brutality.
• The “defund the police” movement was a failure, and even Black Americans wanted more spending on policing in their neighborhoods.
• Compared to other developed countries, U.S. police have far fewer hours of training and are more likely to use deadly force.
• Increasing the required hours of police training in America by a factor of 4 or 5 is an obvious policy to try, but some activists are resistant to the idea.
• Professionalizing the police should go beyond training to include education, such as requiring a college degree, which would create positive selection effects and lead to healthier lifestyles.

Published January 29, 2023
Visit Noahpinion to read Noah Smith’s original post Professionalize the police

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Spill it [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 25, 2023
249 views
S

• Popular Information has exposed an extraordinary assault on academic freedom in Florida.
• Bruce Friedman in Clay County has removed over 100 books from school libraries and is seeking to remove thousands more.
• Vicki Baggett in Escambia County is trying to ban 150 books from school libraries, including one about a legendary sprinter who overcame racial prejudice. Baggett allegedly said she opposed interracial marriage in class.
• Florida schools are using the “”Don’t Say Gay”” law to justify the erasure of LGBTQ people.
• Teachers in Manatee County are being told to make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution.

Published January 25, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post Spill it

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Twitter can’t handle the truth [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 24, 2023
288 views
T

• Popular Information reported that the Manatee County School District instructed teachers to make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution.
• The directive was issued as part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
• After the report was posted on Twitter, a “Community Note” was appended stating that “all books are not being removed from classroom libraries”, which is inaccurate.
• Teachers in Manatee County have been told to remove all books from their classroom libraries.
• The Community Note feature has been championed by Elon Musk, the billionaire who purchased Twitter for $44 billion in the fall.
• Musk has argued that Community Notes will be a corrective and cannot be biased towards the right, but since taking over Twitter, he has repeatedly catered to the far-right.

Published January 24, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post Twitter can’t handle the truth

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Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 23, 2023
258 views
F

• Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution, in order to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
• The policy is based on the premise that teachers and librarians are using books to “”groom”” students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies.
• The law requires that all library books selected be free of pornography and material prohibited under s. 847.012, suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented, and appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the materials are used or made available.
• Teachers must make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students until they can establish that each book has been approved by a librarian.
• The process of restoring student access to classroom libraries is complex and requires cross-checking each book in their classroom library with the district library catalog, and any book not currently held in the district libraries must be individually evaluated and approved by a librarian.
• The review must also be consistent with a complex training, which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week.
• The Parental Rights In Education Act prohibits all instruction on “”sexual orientation or gender identity”” in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is “”not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.””
• The teacher training approved by the Florida Department of Education, however, does not inform librarians that the Parental Rights in Education Act and Stop WOKE ACT do not apply to library books.
• Manatee County schools have already removed several books from school libraries because they contain LGBTQ characters or themes.

Published January 23, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

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Which Political Victories Cause Backlash? [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By Spencer Chen
In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]
January 19, 2023
179 views
W

• Trump’s beliefs became less popular when he became president, and a similar phenomenon occurred after a major conservative victory (the Supreme Court overturning Roe).
• Americans’ opinions shifted heavily in a pro-choice direction after a long period of stalemate, regardless of political affiliation.
• The author speculates that the effect may be due to a thermostatic effect, where voters want some medium amount of abortion, and if they hear that pro-abortion forces are winning, they say they’re against abortion.
• However, the author found no clear turn against gay marriage in 2015 after the Supreme Court ruling, and no effect on people’s opinion of government-run health care after Obamacare was passed in 2010.
• The author suggests that the public may only backlash against conservative victories, due to liberals controlling more of the media, or because liberalism is “on the right side of history”.
• The author also suggests that it may have to do with how quickly people can find a case of the new law going wrong, or it may be random.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post Which Political Victories Cause Backlash?

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America’s Police Exodus [Leighton Woodhouse, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
January 19, 2023
251 views
A

• Brian Lande, an officer in the Richmond, Calif., police department, had to draw his gun to stop two drunk men from clobbering each other to death with metal rods, and another time to stop a fight between two more drunk men, one of whom was armed with a hatchet.
• The Richmond police department has seen resignations jump by 18 percent and retirements by 45 percent over the previous year, with hiring decreasing by five percent.
• The shift in police officers’ perception of how they’re viewed by the public happened gradually, starting with the first Black Lives Matter protests of 2013, and culminating with the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
• In response to the racial reckoning, some cities set up police review boards with the power to subpoena police records and oversee day-to-day policing, while other states tightened use-of-force standards.
• It became popular for politicians in progressive circles to flaunt their anti-police credentials, and the Richmond City Council cut the police budget, forcing hiring freezes and threatening to slash officers’ salaries by 20 percent.
• Many officers left Richmond for smaller, suburban departments, where they wouldn’t have to fear getting laid off or having their salaries and benefits reduced.
• Brian Lande left Richmond for Kensington, a 15-minute drive away, where he is now Sergeant Lande and his job involves far fewer risks.
• In August 2022, President Biden announced his Safer America Plan in response to rising crime, which includes plans to hire 100,000 more police officers, but this has been met with criticism from the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
• Peter Moskos, the former Baltimore police officer now teaching at John Jay College, has called for legalizing drugs in response to the drug war’s ineffectiveness and its disproportionate impact on young black men, and is mystified by progressives who insist that the single greatest threat faced by black Americans is systemic racism.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Leighton Woodhouse’s original post America’s Police Exodus

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Who is included by “inclusive” language? [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 18, 2023
225 views
W

• The article discusses the use of etiquette in elite educational institutions, such as Carne and Harvard, and how it has changed over time.
• It compares the traditionalist religious schools to the Fancy-Pants Prep Schools, which primarily serve an elite demographic.
• It notes that many of these institutions have gone all-in on DEI rhetoric, despite their exclusive nature.
• It uses the example of eating an apple to illustrate the arbitrary folkways of the British elite.
• It references philosopher Liam Kofi Bright’s essay on culture wars as white psychodrama and how etiquette work is not enough to achieve real change in material conditions.
• It mentions a recent memo from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work about replacing the term “field” with “practicum” as part of an effort to be more inclusive.
• USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work recently announced they would replace the term “field” with “practicum” in order to be more inclusive and anti-racist.
• This change was met with criticism from right-wing circles and USC administrators.
• The author argues that language is always changing and that it is important to consider who is included and excluded by the language we use.
• They also point out that elite educational institutions often have their own codes of manners and language that are used to maintain an elite class and exclude those who are not up to date.

Published January 18, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Who is included by “inclusive” language?

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Conspiracies of Cognition, Conspiracies Of Emotion [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By Spencer Chen
In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]
January 13, 2023
309 views
C

• Conspiracy theories can be divided into two types: those that are used to explain away anomalies in a narrative, and those that are used to explain away emotions.
• The first type of conspiracy theory is often used to explain away anomalies in a narrative, such as the bullet trajectory in the Kennedy assassination or the Great Pyramid’s latitude matching the speed of light.
• The second type of conspiracy theory is often used to explain away emotions, such as hatred of the global elite or anger at a partner.
• These conspiracy theories are often driven by emotions such as anxiety, depression, and anger, which can lead to biased processing of information.
• In the case of Trump-Russiagate, the conspiracy theory was appealing because it provided a single, irrefutable reason to hate Trump.
• In the case of the Global Adrenochrome Pedophile Cabal, the conspiracy theory was appealing because it provided a way to justify intense antipathy towards the global elite.

Published January 13, 2023. Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post.

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