I mean, look at the POW Camps in the South at the end of the Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_prison_camps

When regular citizens are starving, when the army is starving, then it only stands to reason that the prisoners of war will be dead from starvation. Add disease into that scenario and you have a recipe for millions of people dead.

It's just another thing, isn't it? Can't actually have a discussion about it because the crazies on both sides come out. It's entirely possible millions of jews were rounded up, put in labor camps, submitted to hellish conditions... and died like many prisoners of war do, especially on the losing side. It's still genocidal, but it's a little less maniacal, and we can't ever have that.

I'm not going to give the left more credit than I need to.

They are not masters of language manipulation. They have created their own words which have parallel meanings to people in "The Cult" and no one really understands them but they're used as a cudgel to silence heretics.

Trust me, I've been deep down the rabbit hole in my time. I'd spend 2 hours reading a dense postmodernist article and think myself crazy because NOTHING I had just read made any sense... then I'd get in to class and everyone would have such great clarity, but they would also say a whole bunch without saying anything.

They're just parroting things. They're not listening to you or considering your perspective.

All you need from this article:

One of SBI employees said "we're not interested in tokenism."

So, basically, minus the rest of the screed, let me translate:

"We would never push for race changes or narrative changes to just make a fool of a character, we push race changes and narrative changes for The Message."

It's a really insidious slight of hand, where they deny what they're doing, and then bury the lede and admit to everything they're accused of, but, it's "(D)ifferent" for some stupid woke or sociological buzzword-laden reason.

No, they won't.

New York has already collapsed, but the power structures won't admit that.

How else can I explain infrastructure that instantly feels dated as soon as you cross state lines? How else can you explain traffic signals that aren't regularly maintained and are so out of sync you frequently get stuck at a red light just as you get to the light, just to watch no one cross and a wave of traffic arrive just as it turns green for you.

How else can you explain a complete breakdown in services? I have called police numerous times (work-related) and I can confirm that "hello there is a knife-wielding maniac in the street smacking school buses and stopping traffic" is the kind of call that goes completely unanswered.

How else can you explain the state moving today to put Illegals at the front of the motherfucking line for State Jobs?

The left is a doom cult locked in their hubris until it all blows up on them. There is no saving blue states, there is only attempting to prevent the rot from spreading.

Will collapse overnight? My friend, blue states have been there for a long time.

There are some other good answers here -- I would say it's largely because the economy is shit.

It's the same with sports media companies. The money on the balance sheet keeps going up, but the profit never appears. Companies have gone from 7-figure contracts to 10-figure contracts in the last 20 years but these same companies are now laying people off and claiming insolvency.

Same with game companies.

Same with housing.

Same with education.

Same with everything.

At some point, this huge bubble is going to collapse.

Partly a problem of even the westerners living in expat bubbles and not really adapting.

Not unique to Japan, either. A significant percentage of the western population in Korea lives in Seoul and frequents these same kind of bubbles. I knew Westerners who lived in Korea for years who couldn't read basic Korean, which is sad because it takes about 15 minutes to learn.

But I do think Japan is easy to navigate as a tourist if you pack your humility. I've fucked up numerous times myself, including walking into a hotel lobby with my shoes on. The reaction to that transgression was severe - imagine one of those record-scratch moments in a movie - but was quickly moved past by listening.

This also helped me out quite a bit when my wife's lab brought in a Japanese postdoc. We helped his family navigate US society a bit and we made some lifelong friends out of the deal.

Of all my international friendships, my Japanese friends are the most rock-solid.

I hate this song, but it isn't the worst shit she's put out recently. I don't even know the title of the song but I am sure it has Young in the title and she sings about how she used to be so hip and fun but now she's old and settled.

Bitch you're fucking 30. Just because you chain-smoked every phallic shaped object and dove headfirst into every vice imaginable doesn't mean you're old. You're fucking chewed up and spat out, there is a difference.

It's the same sort of clown world logic that has the BBC talking about all native blacks throughout history.

They are trying to rewrite history.

I would have some respect for them if they admitted "obviously there have been few women leaders throughout history."

But no, we have to pretend that other cultures have always had this utopian gender balance that white people came along and screwed up.

That's just the best logical assumption I can make.

Bold of you to assume anyone in NYS matters to the government.

This state jumped the shark long ago. Representatives don't even pretend to represent. The gas stove ban they rammed through last year (which will 100% be repealed before it goes into effect) despite the fact a clear majority opposed it.

This state is a rotting corpse that will suck every well-intentioned citizen dry.

Get out, don't look back, and don't ever set foot into this hellhole of a state again. It is the only option.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but I am still waiting for someone to show me some evidence that unions have any positive role in the 21st century.

I have been in two unions in my life, and both were absolute and abject disasters. The first one, about 20 years ago, was when I worked gameday staff for an MLB team. When one of my coworkers was fired for a really bullshit reason (clear and open retaliation) it took six months before he was cleared to come back, and by that time it was almost Thanksgiving.

Last year I was in another union that was only for entry level staff (I was in the midst of a career change). That union was worse: their primary concern was providing febreeze to my coworkers who couldn't manage to get to work without smelling like a dispensary. When I raised a complaint (I was scheduled on doubles 17 days in a row), the union told me verbatim "I hope you don't think it is our job to listen to your complaints."

Fuck them... and I can say that now as management who is definitively not in the union.

Just... give me one example of a union doing something that is a net positive. Demanding a 30% raise because the democrats fucked the economy doesn't quite qualify.

For all of us that keep our head down around the DIE bullshit, this is an aspect of the current situation that I have had trouble articulating.

Just another example of boys being left behind or viewed as "defective girls." Extra sad considering people have been hitting this same drum since at least 1990.

Yeah, fully agree everything that came after was woke bullshit. I mean, the original LiS had a bunch of woke nonsense in it, too, but it was set at a private art school in the pacific northwest. If anything, it made the environment more realistic.

Agree to disagree about the ending, though. AFAIK the devs have confirmed there's a "canon" decision (the really stupid decision), but that's after the fact. It's Dumbledore is gay in its importance for how I experienced the story. I thought it was risky to offer a choice in how the game ends, but I like it. The essence of the game is built on really key decision points and how the player handles them... but the ending just comes down to a simple emotional choice. I liked it, B/B+ game -- I did not see the twist coming.

Make no mistake, this is meant to appease the radicals and nothing more. This is a lame attempt to stir up the idea that the democrats hear the concerns before they shrug and go "well, you still gotta vote for biden."

I dunno, maybe I'm crazy... but this makes me optimistic.

There is no liberal pipeline. They never use anyone younger, and if they do it's because they are literally a paid actor (AOC). The young democrats are all toxic, radical, stupid, or some combination of all three.

The fact they were desperate enough to drag stewart back to the daily show is kind of sad, honestly.

While you aren't wrong, I refuse to believe any game's fanbase is worse than Life is Strange's.

Want to talk about the interesting implications of time travel? Care about the story (I know the dialogue was cheesy, but the story was great)?

Too bad it's softcore lesbian fantasies all the way down.

I think the elites underestimated how much everyone hates California --- or at least recognizes it aint a place you want to live.

No one would take Newsome seriously. I think they have moved on. There really isn't anyone. I mean, when "former first lady*" is your best backup plan... you're fucked.

Klobuchar and Warren are radioactive because they radiate Karen energy. AOC is too dumb, Bernie is too much of a cuck. No one takes any of their diversity hire congresscreatures seriously.

Their cupboard is bare. It is good news, but it underscores how desperate they are

Every time a liberal uses that many words, you can be sure they don't even understand it.

It's just a collection of big words that is supposed to quantify an emotional reaction to something into empirical data... and it never will be.

I am slightly... confused, I guess.

I read the article, and their methodology seems sound. They used recognized and peer-reviewed clinical assessment tools. Their sample is solid, recruiting from patients who were already linked with the hospital seeking the old chop and swap.

But... I have the same question as to how they recruited people from this particular population to submit to the research. And I have bigger questions about how this article came out of the University of Tehran of all places.

I guess I assumed that the social contagion hadn't reached Iran, or that they wouldn't be tolerant of it. Even if they are, a sample size of 70 seems high for Iran.

I also have lingering questions about bias in the research. Again, based on what little I know about Iran I assume this kind of thing isn't tolerated (and the journal of publication has Islam in the title...). I think it is reasonable to question whether there might have been an incentive to conclude mass personality disorder comorbidity in transgenders.

I like the conclusion as much as anyone here, but I will always advocate for good, solid, verifiable data. Given other data I have seen suggesting a high prevalence of autism among the population, and these results contradict/don't address that, I regretfully have to hit this one with a DOUBT.

I truly don't think you even need to be punitive. Let these assholes hang themselves:

Though this is an obvious and drastic oversimplification:

1. Figure out some way to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy. Fuck Joe Biden and this law in particular. In theory signing an affidavit that you are not and will not claim to be a graduate of that program seems to be a good starting point. Logically, people who need their degree will not declare bankruptcy. Doctors and lawyers and other "high debt but high earning" professions would never renounce their degrees, but your sociology, _____ studies, theater, etc majors will en masse.

2. When that happens, pull the universities in front of Congress and ask them to explain why. They can't, of course, and will embarrass themselves trying. Then the media (presumably less cucked at this point) can run all their smears "tuition up 2000%, ROI down 352%"

3. At some point the solution becomes clear: do not punish the borrowers, who made mistakes but there are clear reasons why so many young adults were actively pushed into making those mistakes... and do not punish the taxpayers, who never made the mistake in the first place. Punish the universities. Punish the people actually committing the fraud.

From this point we should be on our way to a better situation.

It seems simple, though: ask the universities to explain the increases in tuition while decreasing ROI and... they can't. There is no explanation.

Fuck em. Take their endowments. Maybe we won't make this mistake again.

This may be a controversial opinion around these parts (not with you, I surmise):

I think Philosophy needs to return to the bedrock of education. I am in favor of a true liberal arts education, as it does produce critical and independent thinkers, and that alone lends itself to a diverse range of professions.

But that is not feasible in the current paradigm. It has to be rigorous and there has to be failure.

The problem is not in the disciplines themselves. Sociology is not useless -- in a more sane world sociologists would have been at the forefront of the fatherlessness crisis, instead of egging it on. Human society is inherently complicated and does merit study and inquisition -- but it should be rigorous and empirical and unbiased.

I don't see how where get from where we are to where we need to be without completely starting over. I hope I'm wrong, but -- I think the rot is too deep.

I said "every liberal arts discipline" for a reason. We are saying the same thing.

Sociology is just as bad if not worse than the spinoff "____ studies" fields. Psychology around 2010 was starting to move towards STEM and the Bio-Psycho-Social model that was fueled by empirical evidence and rigorous standards. As far as I can tell that has largely fallen by the wayside, as well.

But sitting here and saying "it's not all disciplines" is a farce, because unless we finally start addressing the problem, this is going to become the norm throughout the academy.

There is no penalty for plagiarism if you are in the favor of the powers that be. They will help you plagiarize, sign off on it, and elevate you to do the same thing. You really think that isn't already happening in the medical field? Do we need to repeat 2020-2022 for you to understand?

The same people that said "trust the experts" are the ones who made sure the "experts" were sycophantic lapdogs incapable of independent or critical thinking.

Burn. It. Down.

Salt the earth.

Rebuild it and never forget.

Every liberal arts academic in a position of power has done this. It has been the standard for decades, all while they increase tuition by 500% to make more room for administration positions for these corrupt assholes.

Seriously, burn the academy down. Start over.

Now do EVERY diversity officer... hell, every graduate from a "liberal arts" graduate program for the last 10 years.

I personally know people who have a Master's degree who never even WROTE a thesis, let alone plagiarized it. I also know first hand of professors who basically wrote their students' theses just to pass them.

You may think you know how bad it is. You have no idea, because nothing revealed in this article is shocking to the people that did it. They are aware and proud and don't see anything wrong.

That is the problem.

EDIT: for the students who didn't write a thesis, the department offered them a degree so they would leave the phd program, and were transparent it was to "ensure our graduation rate is still 100%"

100% graduation rate in a graduate school. Its a RUBBER STAMP.

Having just worked directly with intellectually disabled adults, this is the one word out of all the words that I watch.

Here is my reasoning: if Taylor Lorenz gets offended that I called her a fickle dumb bitch, she can chew on that. She can be offended and feel threatened or whatever - I assume she has the mental capacity to understand what I meant and how I mean it.

But if I say she is retarded, and someone with an intellectual disability hears that... i will never be able to explain what I meant and be understood. That is hurtful no matter what. So, in that context I was cautious and it seems to be for a good reason.

But outside of that context (and to be clear, a fox news segment is very far outside of the spongebob and paw patrol context of adults with DDs), it is absolutely retarded to police the word.

I think what most people fail to understand is that this isn't a Harvard thing. This is endemic to every last corner of the American Academy and is a direct result of policies around loans and administration requirements.

If Harvard was able to get away with really shoddy plagiarism, this should throw every university and researcher's credentials into question.

If there was room in Sociology for conservatives (and to be clear: there is not), I would title a chapter in my Dissertation on the effects of fatherlessness "Where has Carl Winslow gone?" (media representation matters, right libs?)

But you could also apply the same rhetorical question to perceptions of police officers, especially minority officers. Could you imagine a TV show on today about a black cop and how he's a good, moral father figure?

Maybe you'll hear an actual country song on the radio next.