In fact, I fear I am a jack-of-all-trades. (Posts tagged politics)

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
thewonderandodyssey
It is unfair to ask a woman to leave aside her personal experience and discuss feminist issues in the abstract. You are discussing the stuff of her life. Asking her to “not make it personal” is to ask her to wrench her womanhood from her personhood. Don’t play Devil’s advocate. Seriously. Just don’t.
Shakesville: I Am Not a Political Football (via veruca-assault)
Source: shakesville.com
politics feminism
warmbrightwings
motherboard.vice.com

What Really Smart People Worry About At Night
nevver

  1. The proliferation of Chinese eugenics. – Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist.
  2. Black swan events, and the fact that we continue to rely on models that have been proven fraudulent. – Nassem Nicholas Taleb
  3. That we will be unable to defeat viruses by learning to push them beyond the error catastrophe threshold. – William McEwan, molecular biology researcher
  4. That pseudoscience will gain ground. – Helena Cronin, author, philospher
  5. That the age of accelerating technology will overwhelm us with opportunities to be worried. – Dan Sperber, social and cognitive scientist
  6. Genuine apocalyptic events. The growing number of low-probability events that could lead to the total devastation of human society. – Martin Rees, former president of the Royal Society
  7. The decline in science coverage in newspapers. – Barbara Strauch, New York Times science editor
  8. Exploding stars, the eventual collapse of the Sun, and the problems with the human id that prevent us from dealing with them. — John Tooby, founder of the field of evolutionary psychology
  9. That the internet is ruining writing. – David Gelernter, Yale computer scientist
  10. That smart people—like those who contribute to Edge—won’t do politics. –Brian Eno, musician
  11. That there will be another supernova-like financial disaster. –Seth Lloyd, professor of Quantum Mechanical Engineering at MIT
  12. That search engines will become arbiters of truth. —W. Daniel Hillis, physicist
warmbrightwings

I disagree with the basic premises of ninety percent of these fears, as perhaps could have been predicted from the fact that two of the first ten people they chose to ask study evopsych.  (GOOD LORD, NUMBER NINE, GET A GRIP.)

- Hannah, self-certified really smart person

ETA Wait, I’m not done, this is too dumb.  We live in massively the most literate society in history, and we use writing with such enormous frequency and flexibility that it’s finally approaching speech; the idea that this will “ruin writing” is unbelievably absurd.  The “underpopulation bomb” and the “dearth of desirable mates” and the problem of Chinese eugenics are all racist and sexist concepts.  Every  theory that predicts the human race becoming stupider or somehow mentally “dulled” in any way is just flat-out not supported by the evidence.  Lord, these people.  There are a couple who are like “climate change!” and “people will stop dying!” and those are perfectly fair, and everyone else is like “being a successful well-educated white person stresses me out!  People might not want to fuck me!  People might not like what I like!  Technology!  Kids these days!!!!!!!!”

33. Men. –Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist

On the other hand, shout-out to my girl Helen Fisher.

nonnegative

lol evolutionary psychologists being considered smart people

OTOH, James O'Donnell of Georgetown and Robert Provine of UMBC (128 and 129) should be pals if they’re not already. They can found the No Worries Society.

eta: what drunky wrote this list?

‘72. “I worry we have yet to have a conversation about what seems to be a developing “new normal” about the presence of screens in the playroom and kindergarten” –Sherry Turkle, pshcyhologist, MIT’

oh ok

politics lol evolutionary psychology is a load
thewonderandodyssey
petitions.whitehouse.gov

Petition for the Untied States to make paid maternity mandatory.
razzledazzy

From the petition:

The United States is the only developed country in the world without paid maternity leave. Forcing families to choose between going without a salary and having a baby is unethical. Forcing mothers to give up caring for their newborns because they are going broke is not acceptable.

Yeah guys some of you might remember that infographic that went around tumblr a while ago that listed countries according to their paid maternity leave, well here’s your chance to help remove that big ‘0 weeks paid maternity leave’ from the United States.

This petition’s goal is 100,000 you can do that tumblr!

cute-ella

It depresses me too much to think about how different my life would be if paid maternity were a thing here.

fuckyeahchoice

We should get it retroactively. ;) 

theoppressedlittlefetus

Everyone should sign this.

EVERYONE.

nonnegative

This will undoubtedly affect someone you know, even if it never affects you personally. 0 days required paid leave is ridiiiiiculous and archaic and all that other good stuff.

politics
thewonderandodyssey

In today’s “Duh” News:

fuckyeahcracker

A study showed that wealthy people show less compassion physiologically (heart rate, etc.) when showed pictures of poor people than people who aren’t wealthy who responded emotionally.

People who make less than $50,000 a year donate about 8% of their disposable income which is about twice what wealthy people (making $200,000+) donate. 

In short, people who are not rich donate more and care more about low income people than rich people.

thewonderandodyssey

Obvs.

nonnegative

Water wet.

politics humans are kind of messed up
mostfrailgesture

tw abuse, ed, si

missvoltairine

“Teenage girls are the worst”, said the white 20something man, rolling his eyes at a demographic with some of the highest rates of sexual abuse, eating disorders, and self-mutilation. “Ugh, it’s not like they have any REAL problems.”

politics abuse i will actually stop talking to you forever if you consistently malign teenage girls it's up there with 'all my exes are crazy bitches'
thewonderandodyssey
deeply-ridiculously-in-love: “ “…although it is better than it was, having been in and around politics for many years now, there is still a double standard. And it is a double standard that exists from the trivial, like what you wear, to the...
deeply-ridiculously-in-love

“…although it is better than it was, having been in and around politics for many years now, there is still a double standard. And it is a double standard that exists from the trivial, like what you wear, to the incredibly serious, like women can’t vote, women can’t run for office, women are not supposed to be in the public sphere. But there is a spectrum of the double standard, and of the both legal and cultural barriers to respect for women, for the full participation of women…

I do want to see more women compete for the highest positions in their countries, and I will do what I can…I will do everything I can to make sure that women compete at the highest levels not only in the United States, but around the world, because I take seriously your question, and I think it’s not only for young women; it’s for young men, it’s for our future.

We have to break down these attitudes that kind of pigeonhole and stereotype people. Like what does a leader look like; well, a leader looks like somebody who’s a man…

…women are subjecting themselves to the political process, which is never easy anywhere, and I want to see more of that. You have to have a thick skin. I will tell you that. But it’s really important that women are out there competing at the highest levels of government and business not only to demonstrate the capacity and quality of women’s leadership, but also to take advantage of the talents of every person we have.”

- Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

politics hillaryclinton hils resigning and 30 rock ending make this january worse than most i'm mostly kidding about that but i'm also a little bit serious