Apparently Americans hate America – why?
Everyone hates America, and apparently most of those doing the hating, are privileged Americans. It makes no sense.
Rent: Every year the media falls for this
Every year, an activist/lobbying group issues a report saying people earning minimum wage cannot afford to rent an apartment anywhere in the country. They play a sleight-of-hand trick by obfuscating (and not revealing) that they are saying such individuals cannot rent an apartment priced at the 40th percentile. Stated another way, this report finds – every year – that people earning minimum wage can not rent apartments priced in the top 60 percent of the market – yet obviously, lower earners likely rent at the bottom of the market, not the top. Every year, the media morons run the same story, never understanding what this report says.
Rule by technocratic experts
The inventors of “public relations” (the name given to the field after “propaganda” grew out of favor) argued for rule by technocratic elite, thinking that important decisions should be left to “experts” and not democracies.
The asymmetry of “Freedom of speech”
Academics have long maintained they have a “freedom of speech” to pursue whatever they want to pursue in terms of research; this freedom extends to political opinions. In my state, all public sector workers have protection on their off-the-job speech. Private sector workers have no such protections and may be fired or receive negative performance reviews for their off-work speech. Which means when it comes to speech, some have more freedom than others, and that means, for example, that viewpoints of academics and public sector workers could be more influential because others may not be able to counter their comments.
Twitter Blue Checks
I had never investigated the Blue Check program until moments ago. It is used to further our neo-feudalism of elite versus the plebians, ensuring that we know our place. Only the truly elite are supposed to get Blue Check marks. Blue Checks are a mark of techno-nobility.
“How junk science got spread like wildfire”
Two appalling bad studies were widely shared by “experts” on social media. One was so bad, and its errors so obvious, that they only way they could have decided to share was to do so without having read even the abstract of the study.
UK lawmaker proposes requiring social media companies to give a “truth score” to all users
UK lawmaker proposes requirement that social media companies evaluate and score the truthfulness of every statement made online, and issue a cumulative “truth” score for each individual. What could possibly go wrong?
Chinese researchers say they can use AI to measure party loyalty
Researchers in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui say they have developed a device that can determine loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) using facial scans. Source: Chinese researchers develop device they say can test loyalty of ruling party members — Radio Free Asia Says it uses facial recognition and emotion detection AI, combined with EEG and other metrics to determine one’s political party loyalty.
Kremlin “kids” grow up in the countries their parents say are evil
Russian officials denounce the West while simultaneously sending their kids to universities and jet set lifestyles in Europe and the U.S. They pretend to believe their own propaganda that the West is evil.
What happened to Doctor Science? He’s kind of disappeared
Dr. Fauci has barely appeared in the media for the past 4 weeks, and possibly not at all in the past 2-3 weeks. After 15 days to flatten the curve turned into 2+ years, he may have exceeded his “Best if used by” date as many politicians want to bury the pandemic fast as they can (it is a Congressional election year).