Yup. Empathy and validation are the beginning of a process, not the end of it.

the *problem* is that klein starts feeding that "empathy" back into his own principles. it's not enough to argue with the other side, you have to start by accepting what they believe. and let's just ask the pertinent question: did charlie kirk do that? is that how charlie kirk operated?

My most controversial post-ejection take is that treating voters as adults with agency and telling them the truth isn’t looking down on them, while telling voters things you know to be false to validate their feelings in an attempt to manipulate them is considerably more condescending.

This isn’t even the wildest quote from a professional in this article! The actual therapist is quoted as saying there was no reason to doubt that these were real memories!!!

Wait wait wait. I realize that asking caliper-fuckers to be consistent is a fool’s errand but: Brazilians? BRAZILIANS?! Lady you are gonna have to make up your mind here and “Afro-Latino-indigenous mixes are fine as long as they’re really hot” does not count as “no race mixing.”

let these assholes be six voices out of 100.

until there's a Republican congress and a Democratic president, in which case it will suddenly be very important. the country cannot function as a real democracy with corrupt, partisan serial liars controlling the Supreme Court; it has to be the first priority of a new administration.

they just don't make goons like they used to. politics designed for a decade where every man under 30 had personal experience at killing people, was totally fucked in the head from surviving WW1, and had literally nothing better to do than join a goon squad is not gonna work in the 21st century.

The more I think about this post and the discourse it’s spawned the more I find myself asking, “wait, who are you talking to?” Well, that and “countries aren’t people.”

like broad principles - we should try to bring back the good things that USAID did by whatever means are practical at the time, we should work toward a pro democratic alliance, etc. but the specifics and who will pay for them and who leads what are going to be very dependent on Events

my take is that we have no fucking idea what the world will look like after another three years of THIS so it seems bizarre to try to plot out What The Next Foreign Policy Looks Like

you can be a roman catholic grown-up boy scout, a republican, and a cold-war throwback G-man, but you write ONE lesbian novel and straight to the gulag

I don't think the people of Okinawa believe that the United States is the greatest evil in world history. I think their grievances with American military facilities on Okinawa are a lot more concrete than that.

This is really great reporting from Mother Jones - the "godfather" of evidence-based medicine disavows the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine for misusing his work. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"there's no word for [x] in [language spoken by group i am condescending to]" is always a terrible sapir-whorf bullshit move that i hate, but this is far and away the funniest word you could do this with for arabic www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

"If I understand the YIMBY/Abundance"-- okay but you don't so

We, as people, do a really bad job of understanding that things happen for no reason, or a reason outside of our control. We love to have agency, and woo preys on that. We also love being judgy and, well, woo also preys on that. It’s so toxic once you start peeling it away.

I think we are in fact pretty clear on the science for a drug that a billion people take every year that has been on the market for 75 years

30 rock make it 2013 again through science or magic dot jpeg

seems to me the main reason bluesky has a lot of desperately unhappy people freaking out about politics and world affairs on it instead of being like twitter was in the middle of the last decade is that you are using and discussing it in 2025 instead of in the middle of the last decade

Just finished my first therapy session with a real client!! I did basically okay! I think!

America has one of the most transparent budgets in the world. We also have a fuck ton of projects explained by their creators along with what we do. Tens of thousands of hours have gone into trying to educate the public but because it's not deep fried they didn't give a shit.

Anyway Me Too was a women’s free speech movement.

I'm still proud of this column I wrote on Olivia Nuzzi and the ethics of using sex for professional advancement. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I do think it’s conspicuous that no real public conversation has emerged over the reality that the rise of AI means that women and girls no longer have a choice about whether their image is made into porn; that this is now a cost of entry for their participation in public life.

I wrote about the Trump administration’s false claims about Tylenol, and the moral—not scientific—burdens they place on pregnant women’s bodies. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In the context of the US, thalidomide is a regulation success story: Frances Kelsey, an FDA reviewer, was convinced it was unsafe for developing fetuses, blocked its approval for use in pregnant women, and was entirely vindicated as more data came out

I know Nigel is British, but for the record, the FDA refused to approve thalidomide for morning sickness. I think this is important to emphasize, because I've seen MAHA types try to specifically try to use it to demonize the FDA.

People say they want a more restrictive immigration system, but only because they have no idea what the system is. If you'd ask them to describe their ideal system (especially for spouse visa's) it's always more liberal. And it's a fucking /disgrace/ that there is no push back

Okay the conservative argument on abortion and birth control being bad for women is based on bunk cherrypicked science, and the link between vaccines and autism is based on bunk cherrypicked science, and the anti COVID vaccine stuff is based on bunk cherrypicked science. But this one is legit!

You guys do yourself a favor and look at what Eric Adams wore to Rosh Hashanah services at the Sephardic Lebanese Congregation

Increasingly persuaded that it's journalistic malpractice to not lead with headlines distinguishing between crank bills, message bills, and legislative bills

are ur kids talking about autism? ttyl - take tylenol you loser aita - autism is tylenol ahhhh wtaf - where tylenol? autism fiending gtfo - get tylenol, freakin out g2g - got to go (pick up tylenol)

Our current era sometimes gives random PR people the worst day of their professional lives for no reason at all. A few years ago Kanye went on a massively anti-Semitic rant that prominently featured YooHoo. Today our senile president & literally brainwormed HHS sec. accused Tylenol of causing Autism

Maybe if I doomscroll long enough I will finally see the magic post that fixes my brain and makes me feel good about my life

H1B thing is just example 486 of how republicans can't deal with Real Problems. The system is flawed, it is a Real Problem. They are not interested in reform to do things like streamline the process and reduce the potential for fraud, they are interested in being racist to Indians.

Tikhleh shanah ve-killeloteha! Let the old year begone — with all its curses! Let the New Year begin — with all its blessings. Shana Tovah.

A woman protesting outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, was brutally assaulted by goons who used mace and sting balls on her.

obligatory meme

So like, if I were to buy my dad the entire set of Robert Caro’s LBJ books for his birthday, that would make me Queen of All Daughters, right?

Robin Hood and Lil Jon

during the late Blog Times, before GoFundMe, Sara got sick. possibly terminally. i was in law school. she ran a relatively small feminist blog at the time, in Idaho, and Ezra had intermittently reposted her stuff on his original Blogspot blog. he raised about $42k in actual checks mailed to us.

Wow. From an article in The Guardian.

musicians are groups of 30-50 feral hogs. "musician" is an oppressive class, like ceterosexual people or amorasexual people.

How is she genuinely talking like he’s the first person to ever die

Seems like Ben Shapiro / AOC is a common ship. Disgusting, the FCC should get involved.

One of the best continuous action scenes to ever do it www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWhm...