InappropriateEmote [comrade/them, undecided]

Given that you recognize there are multiple factors that are going into declining education and student performance, deep systemic problems that long predate 2020, what makes you think you have enough information to blame any of it on lockdowns?

They lost important years of socialization,

Lockdowns didn’t last for years.

I can literally give them the information to take notes on, ask a question that is directly answered by their notes, and their first instinct will be to Google the question and write down the first thing that comes up.

I had this exact problem with students (it was a widely discussed phenomenon) many years before Covid. I knew instructors frequently complaining about it even in the 00’s.

This is not exclusively a lock down problem, but it exasperated and multiplied already existing trends.

I don’t usually care when someone doesn’t know what a word means and uses it instead of the correct word, and even if I did I wouldn’t normally point it out. I’m sure I make errors like that at times too. But given the context here, I think it’s relevant and fair of me to do so. “Exasperated?” Really? Anyway, you say it’s not “exclusively” a lockdown problem, implying that lockdowns were still a major cause of the problem. But what evidence do you have that they contributed to it at all beyond a vibes-based opinion?

I’m not trying to be overly harsh with this response, but it really bothers me that people are blaming these long-standing, well-known issues on lockdowns when not only were lockdowns not the problem, but had they been longer (and better implemented in general) they could have actually saved millions of children from the cognitive decline they are now and will continue to experience as a result of a pandemic that literally gives them brain damage.

Exactly. The monkey’s paw didn’t even hold up its end of the bargain with a tainted promise. Covid killed millions, is still killing at a rate that isn’t even permitted to be tracked while causing repeated incidence of brain damage with increasing severity, and yet we’re still poisoned by microplastics (along with vast swathes of the rest of the biosphere) which is likewise a serious and worsening issue that isn’t getting covered much for similar reasons that Covid is ignored and denied.

On top of that, I’d bet my life that PFAS (“forever chemicals”) are doing more harm in more places than almost anyone realizes yet. So far as “leaded paint of our time” goes, the difference now is that instead of pretending to give a shit and make at least some inadequate efforts to correct or regulate the issue, the response ranges from “yeah, there’s all kinds of nasty shit out there like lead but that’s just how things are,” to “lead isn’t actually all that bad” to “there isn’t lead in the paint, that’s a hoax so there’s nothing we need to do.” Hell, they won’t do anything about lead in the water now so long as it’s only poisoning the poors. Shit is bleak.

Mate the chuds and creationists are uniquely your country’s fucking problem

White supremacist right-wingers are uniquely a US problem? I’d agree they’re uniquely powerful in the US but that’s a major reason why the US is “uniquely” the world’s problem. What a strange take to read here, that chuds are only something USians need to be concerned about.

You’ve constructed a straw man from this

That makes no sense. I’m not attacking anything, so there is no strawman to create. You just quoted someone else who said something that Dawkins himself never said, so it seems pretty obvious where the strawman is and who is creating it.

It’s been decades since I read it but the selfish gene was absolutely full of this genre supremacist shit

“Gene supremacist”? lol, what even is that? Understanding how genes replicate is not “gene supremacist shit,” it’s scientific consensus. “The matter of the world around us is made up of atoms and their interactions? That’s just atomic supremacist shit.” These sentences have no meaning.

his evo-psych trash clearly infects all his views

To the extent he believes in evo-psych, I’m sure it does effect his views, some of which I explicitly addressed. That doesn’t invalidate the real science, which despite being a terrible person, he has also done and made contributions to. He’s hardly the only scientist who had a lot of shit views on other topics, that’s even the majority. Plenty of them think their expertise on one topic makes them an authority on others and they are wrong, and Dawkins is one of these as well. That doesn’t make him wrong about how genes work or the broader biology and it certainly doesn’t make the premise of The Selfish Gene wrong.

You’re not misremembering because those were major misconceptions about what he was saying, especially in the premise of the book that made him famous, The Selfish Gene. But that book as well as his other ones on evolution, genetics, and biology are accurate, with Selfish Gene just being a popular-accessible explanation of the scientific consensus on the role of genes in evolutionary biology. It was misconstrued, often intentionally and said to be this nihilistic justification for human selfishness, which it’s not, and I think that’s what you’re remembering. It’s one of those instances where someone who may be an asshole and totally worthy of criticism gets criticized for mostly the wrong reasons, and those wrong reasons are what end up getting solidified in memory incorrectly as why they’re an asshole.

Replicating molecules (like DNA) replicating and propagating themselves is the “reason” for the whole thing in terms of how biology at the molecular level works. It’s not an answer to a “why” question, but a description of what’s really going on at scales we aren’t used to thinking about or readily able to see. But neither Dawkins or any other evolutionary biologist I’m aware of ever implied that DNA is all that “matters” or that or that other systems aren’t at play in reality. Just like the fact that “all the matter we see, including life, is composed of interacting atoms” does not negate the presence of society or human emotion, neither does the genetic description for the foundation of life and how it evolves.

But all of that is aside from Dawkins’ Islamophobia, misogyny, deep misunderstanding of systemic racism (i.e., just racism), his flippant disregard of (CW) SA victims with the justification that he was one himself and therefore had the right to extrapolate everyone else, his creepy views on human sexuality, etc. In other words, Dawkins is a shit person and absolutely should be called on all the disgusting nonsense he’s said, but let’s call him on what he actually got wrong and not perpetuate misconceptions about all the stuff he got totally right regarding evolution and biology, which ultimately just carries water for the chuds and creationists.

Dawkins is a piece of shit for a number of reasons, but where did he ever say anything like that?

There are certainly different people with different preferences, and most Chinese people are indeed fine with CCP. A dictatorship has an obvious need to maintain many nationalist, so it is not surprising that you can find Chinese who loves CCP.

Lol “it’s no surprise the vast majority of people approve of and appreciate their government, since a dictatorship has to be maintained.” Yeah, what an awful, terrible dictatorship that rules with such an iron fist that it forced the approval and support of over 90% of the population. Clearly, in any real democracy, everyone hates their government, like the in the US. You sinophobic liberals are such a transparent joke.

Many people are more than willing to turn a blind eye on all the artists, journalist, and lawyer, who were arrested, since it has nothing to do when them. This is a emotional topics for me, because one of my highschool classmate has been seperated from her father, for he was advocating more transparent laws and enforcement.

And the lead protesters in the US who advocated for… the state to stop murdering black people openly in the street were themselves murdered and disappeared. It’s an emotional topic for me since people I knew in school were beaten half to death and permanently blinded by the police. The US is an infinitely more heinous dictatorship than China, violently suppressing anyone it deems a threat, while pretending they have “freedom” because they don’t crack down on the ones that are of no threat.

There are plenty of Chinese mastodon instance. Go there talk to them and see what they think.

I don’t need to, I can and do talk to plenty of people from and currently in China. Even a few irl!

Of course, you don’t need to believe me, or people on mastodon, or journalist from all “mainstream media”; and just trust people on hexbear. But that will likely be no different from people who only believe fox news and infowars.

It’s not about trusting people on hexbear, it’s about trusting the population of China, which again has overwhelming support for the CPC. It’s also about being able to plainly see what the CPC does both domestically and internationally. I trust the Chinese people.

[email protected] did. Oh wait, they didn’t paste the specific numbers that are both widely known and readily available, able to be found within a few seconds using search engine, they only referenced them. My mistake, I had assumed you were capable of doing that. But since you’re not:

World Incarceration Rates If Every U.S. State Were A Country

Looks like someone couldn’t handle some actual statistics when presented with them.

Honestly, I am quite surprised how low tankies are willing to go to defend China. As a Chinese, it is very disheartening to me that people have never experienced or seen the suffering of living under an authoritarian government, are more willing to blindly defend it

There are literally some “tankies” on hexbear that are in China and posting from China right now. @[email protected]. There are some users here who are Chinese and grew up there (not sure if they’d want to be tagged though). There are journalists who decided to go live there in part because of how much more freedom they are afforded there, people like Ben Norton, who you would probably also label a “tankie.” All of whom can attest to how baseless and sinophobic all the fabricated “suffering of living under an authoritarian government” stories really are. We aren’t all just clueless westerners, but your assumption that we are is also telling.

That doesn’t matter you numbskull, she not only endorses but is the enforcer and overseer of the racist system that does execute black people regularly (and they do it with trials or not, it doesn’t matter - it’s literal state murder with racist motivations). Your position is the same as “but did HITLER pull the lever that released the zyclon b gas?”

And yes, Harris actually did convict people, including black people.

you aren’t necesarily a racist for arresting a black person

Yes you are. You’re racist if you enforce a deeply racist system, especially one that regularly executes black people with and without trial.

This was an extremely informative read. It answered a number of questions I’ve had rattling in my brain that I just never dug around enough to get good information on. Thank you for these comments.

I’m not sure if it’s a different situation in Europe than where I’m at as far as things like self checkout, surveillance, how much store employees care, etc., but I’ll tell you what works for, uh… some friends I know in the US. This is only for grocery stores with self checkout and using a handbasket. First, buy one of those reusable grocery bags you bring from home if you don’t already have one. It should be opaque and fairly rigid. Grab a handbasket and put your normal, green-friendly grocery bag in it with the bag open. Expensive + small things go into the bag. Larger, hopefully cheaper things go in the basket but on top of the bag. You will be paying legit for the latter things. Do not put things into your bag if it would exceed 1/3 of your bag volume and don’t put stuff on top that would exceed 2/3 (a little bit more is fine). Go to the self checkout. Take the things out of your basket but not out of your bag which stays in the handbasket along with its contents. Scan those items and pay for them as normal. Start loading your purchased groceries in your grocery bag on top of your unpurchased groceries that never left your bag. Casually leave the grocery store with bag in hand, along with a receipt for a bunch of stuff in your bag, right there filling the top 2/3rs of it. There’s just more stuff beneath it that isn’t on the receipt.

There are a few things that can go wrong and you can probably think of them. However, having known people who have done this for years and never had a problem is a pretty good indication that these things rarely do (if ever) end up going wrong, so long as you’re really careful, casual, and only do it in the appropriate stores. And yes, this is done with cameras all over the store and at least one employee managing all the self checkouts. That last part is why it’s better to do this when it’s busy at the store, but it usually seems to work fine even when it’s not.

edit: typos fixed.

The United States Empire doesn’t have much time left on this earth. I think they are already into the process of ruining it for the rest of us on their way out.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this were in fact true, but if you or @[email protected] can point me to where you saw this, I would really appreciate being able to read about it. Regardless of what heinous crimes against humanity and all life on earth that the US would actually perpetrate in a large scale nuclear war scenario, I was under the impression that their nuclear posture and targeting strategies are “highly classified” and even though they don’t have any NFU policy, they still at least pretend it’s about deterrence.

Ok, well I appreciate the comment and I stand corrected. Your meaning in the first comment was a bit ambiguous but on rereading it I can see that it makes sense that you’re referring to the post title, not to the article title. That said, the post title is referencing a meme and might make more sense in that context, but it is also not wrong. This war continues to be waged due to the insistence of NATO (essentially the US) that it continue. The opinions or consent of the Ukrainian people is immaterial to those in control, and Ukrainians will keep being sent to fight and die regardless of whether or not the majority of them actually wants to sue for peace or make territorial concessions (a position that is almost certainly being suppressed).

but arguments of the type “and your more” have never led any movement anywhere.

Also immaterial. What I said had nothing to do with leading a movement, it was merely calling a spade a spade and pointing out hypocrisy.

I have no idea what Reddit China relationships are and I doubt there even is one.

So are you genuinely ignorant about how redditors are constantly engaging in sinophobia with the encouragement of their mods and admins, all while being a major vector for spreading ridiculous anti-China propaganda? Or are you so dense as to think that u/yoink was referring to some official state relationship the CPC has with a US social media company?

Ellen pao is Chinese and she was a Reddit ceo.

Ellen Pao was born in New Jersey. Like, do you think olympic medal winners from the US who have Chinese heritage should be said to have won a medal for China?

Stop acting like a removed and grow up.

I’m not sure what slur you just used, but stop being a shitbrained bigot and grow up.

So what you’re complaining about is a biased title… even though the subtitle explicitly makes clear the way in which you think the title could be interpreted as biased? Putting that in the subtitle is the opposite of how you think it’s being manipulative. And even if it weren’t, that’s not “childish.”

If you think that’s manipulative, let me blow your mind by introducing you to NYT, WaPo, BBC, or literally any mainstream western media that straight up lies in the title, doubles down in the subtitle, and maybe if you’re lucky buries a nugget of truth near the bottom of the article in a passing mention surrounded by weasel words.

Also, do you think the (checks notes) Kyiv Post is a Russian propaganda rag, and they’re being manipulative on the part of that dastardly Putin or something? lol

Then you need to do more reading because I did work in this field and have read the science on it as well. First all, you have to take into account what time scales are being discussed. What you’re reading is, I’m all but certain, just talking about the coming few decades, in which yes, millions at least will likely die. And even then the science that tends to reach the public is toned down, pacified, and doesn’t represent the whole truth. You should be familiar with this as a communist trying to get an understanding of what’s really going on with the world via popular journalism. Is what you’re reading about “catastrophic weather events” also discussing what will be happening 1000 years from now? 10,000? Despite the longer scale, what we are doing right now and in the coming decades will have an effect on those longer scales. Climate change is so much more than simply an intensification of weather events. It is literally a rapid change to the composition of our atmosphere. An atmosphere which has, by the way, been completely altered by life in one of the most chemically fundamental ways possible, from a reducing atmosphere to an oxidizing one. This is what I mean when I say even many leftists just do not understand how extreme the risks are here. A runaway greenhouse wouldn’t just kill a billion, it could well end our species and most other species of “higher lifeforms.”

Well… Earth becoming more like Venus is an inevitability in the high hundreds of millions of years (and for scale, multicellular life has been around for roughly 5-600M years, with the more than 3 billion before that just being simple single-celled prokaryotic life), but that is completely independent of anthropogenic climate change, it is because of the expansion of the sun towards it’s red giant phase. In terms of being habitable to life, Earth is easily past the half-way mark already, no matter what. However, that is far enough out that it doesn’t bear worrying about and isn’t something we can have any sort of impact on.

That said, the climate change that we as a species are causing right now could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect on much shorter time scales. The fact is, there have been times in Earth’s history where it has been so hot that complex life could mostly only survive at the poles (with the equator being a death zone to all but simple, single-cellular extremophiles) and there have been times where Earth was encased almost entirely in ice except perhaps at the equators - not just our usual conception of an ice age, but “snowball earth,” and this was likely caused by certain forms of simple life, fascinatingly enough. The feedback loops we are triggering right now have a potential to drastically change the composition of the atmosphere on a far shorter timescale, one in which we are talking about an end to most complex life (obviously ourselves included). It was almost certainly volcanism that caused Venus to go from a mostly habitable planet to the completely, utterly inhospitable world it is. Volcanism has also been responsible for extreme heat and mass extinctions on Earth, but obviously it never tipped over into Venus-like territory. The thing is, right now we’re changing the atmosphere at a rate far faster than volcanism has in the past! And rate of change matters a lot with this kind of thing. I’m repeating myself, but again, it is not a certainty but it is a possibility that anthropogenic climate change could hit tipping points that Venus-ifies Earth on a much shorter, nearer term than anything relating to the expansion of the sun, on time scales that are worth worrying about (if we value humanity as a whole), and is the sort of thing we can have an impact on.