Interesting Links for 15-07-2018

[andrewducker]

Rainbow Six Siege players who use slurs are now getting instantly banned

(tags: games abuse GoodNews )

In the wake of the ArenaNet firings, women game devs are experiencing a new wave of online harassment

(tags: games software harassment women )

"I asked my student why he voted for Trump. The answer was thoughtful, smart, and terrifying."

(tags: politics lies history usa racism )

Council to 'force' re-route of Orange walks in Glasgow

(tags: bigotry religion Scotland Glasgow )

In about 20 years, half the US population will live in eight states (with huge implications for politics)

(tags: usa politics demographics )

Labour opens up biggest lead over Tories since general election

Mostly, it looks like, because of UKIP regaining a few Conservatives
(tags: politics polls uk europe )

Well-meaning mental health awareness campaigns are over simplifying to the point of harm

(tags: mentalhealth media )

African baobabs live for millennia. 9 of the oldest 13 have died in the last twelve years.

(tags: trees death nature )

Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

(tags: Facebook Labour fraud )

British public backs legalisation of cannabis so it can be sold like cigarettes and alcohol (51 to 35)

(tags: marijuana legalisation )

The hotel bathroom puzzle

(tags: hotel design )

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

From '"I asked my student why he voted for Trump. The answer was thoughtful, smart, and terrifying."' --

"Many still dry clothes by hanging them on wires with clothespins outside."

OH MY GOD THE HORROR OF IT.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, that was my first hint that maybe the kid had a reality problem...

[jack]

Yeah, that stood out to me. The idea that washing lines are unusable does seem common in America -- I don't know if that's because it's more common than it used to be for everyone in the family to work and leave no-one at home to look after the washing[1], or if it's purely cultural. I don't know how common hanging clothes out actually is -- I can imagine it being essentially impossible in many cities.

[1] I guess you don't absolutely need that, I don't know how inconsistant the weather is or how untrustworth the neighbours are.

[calimac]

It's not that hanging out clothes is impossible, but that in America, clothes dryers are considered a standard household item. If you don't have one, you're deprived. It's not that your life is an eldritch horror, it's that you're being singled out by being denied a convenience that everyone else has.

The argument is used in reverse too. Republicans have been known to claim that, since almost every US household has a television, there can't be any real poverty in the country.

[cyprinella]

There are areas where clothes lines are actually banned. Usually by home owners associations as it "lower property values". Because only the dirt poor do it or dirty hippies.

[calimac]

Unfortunately, the article on the student who voted for Trump, though thoughtful and well-written, demonstrates nothing. Why did the student vote for Trump? For economic reasons, basically.

But this is not news. Dozens of articles I've seen since the election have patiently explained to their puzzled readership that Trump voters turned to him for economic reasons.

But not one of those articles - not one! - explains why those economic reasons led them to choose the plutocrat Republican who may make populist noises but who has never in his life helped anyone but himself, rather than the Democrats for whom economic welfare is the party brand.

This one reports that the student considers Clinton irredeemably corrupt. But if he believes that, he doesn't need economic reasons not to vote for her. True, his people's economy didn't improve much under Obama. But it cratered under W.

This leaves him in the first category of my theory of the three categories of Trump voters:

1. The gullible who believe his lies (in this case his lies about Clinton instead of or in addition to his lies about helping people);
2. Nihilists who just want to blow the system up (hard as it may be to believe such people exist, you see them in the UK among those who are positively advocating the hardest of Brexits even though they now know full well what that will mean);
3. Racists. (If, as is faintly implied in the article, the student resents minorities getting economic assistance, then he's a racist too. He also doesn't get that if you consciously enable racism, you're a racist too. It's not a red herring.)

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it's the "Even people who are fairly smart are terrible at questioning the things they were taught as a child" problem. And a lot of places seem to have spent the time since the War on Slavery teaching their children lies.

[dewline]

And worse, believing the lies to be true themselves.

[nojay]

I calculated a while back that 30% of the US population currently elects 70% of the US Senate.

[andrewducker]

Not much change coming up then!

[dewline]

They will keep trying to punish the urban population for voting to ensure that the latter survive their own immediate circumstances, then.