Interesting Links for 08-06-2021

[andrewducker]

Should we hold people's awful opinions from a decade ago against them?

(tags:opinion sexism history twitter )

David Dushman, last surviving Auschwitz liberator, dies aged 98

(tags:Auschwitz Jews genocide history death )

French set to replace English as EU's working language

(tags:language France Europe )

This reverse city-builder is all about making the world green again

(tags:games nature )

I have a new favourite maths joke

(tags:maths jokes pi pirates funny )

Are you most helped by science, magic, or chicken soup?

(tags:psychology therapy counselling )

Spontaneous Period Drama (I assume this will be on Netflix next year)

(tags:drama history funny satire janeausten )

non-Amazon shops don't make it nearly easy enough to buy from them

(tags:Amazon shopping internet OhForFucksSake )

Rates Of Postnatal Depression Among New Mothers Rose Sharply During Lockdown

(tags:depression babies pandemic loneliness )

How Neil Gaiman kept control of the Sandman characters

(tags:sandman dc comics intellectual_property )

Is it possible to overturn a US election?

(tags:usa elections )

What's the state of phone calls in 2021

(tags:phone Technology communication )

Comments

French as the EU's working language.

[ironyoxide]

And yet they, apparently with no irony, refer to the version of English the EU uses as ersatz.

Re: French as the EU's working language.

[andrewducker]

A perfectly cromulent English word.

[supergee]

The science/magick post was a major nostalgia trip for me because I was a huge Eric Berne fan in the 60s and 70s. A lot of his ideas still work.

[calimac]

5. Not getting the joke. Is this something to do with Bitcoin?

[danieldwilliam]

I think it's the pi rate.

[andrewducker]

22/7 is a close approximation of pi, and therefore (as per the other comments above) a "pi rate" pun.

[mlknchz]

My dad fought in WWII, in 1993, a few years before he passed away, I learned his unit helped liberate Falkenau, one of the subcamps of Flossenburg concentration camp. I asked him about it. He resolutely refused to talk about it, almost 45 years after the fact. But the look I saw in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

[danieldwilliam]

A great uncle of mine was at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. It had a profound impact on him and influenced his political activities in Palestine after the war.

[mountainkiss]

Do you think we should hold people's awful opinions from a decade ago against them?

[armiphlage]

My take:

If people still have awful opinions, yes.

If people no longer have awful opinions, then no.

If someone clearly and unequivocally states that they no longer hold awful opinions, or that the awful opinions are bad (ideally in the same forum or medium in which the awful opinions were stated, or to the same audience, with the same amount of exposure or emphasis), I generally accept that their current opinions are not awful.

If someone carries out deeds that would not be carried out by someone with awful opinions, I consider that equivalent to stating that their awful opinions have changed.

An exception is when someone continues committing awful deeds while stating that they no longer hold awful opinions.
Another exception is when someone continues to state awful opinions to a broad audience while communicating non-awful opinions to a targeted audience. Which is hard to do in an age of internet and ubiquitous recording devices.

[anna_wing]

It depends entirely on circumstances. What the opinion is, the societal context of the speaker and the audience and myself, etc etc etc.

[andrewducker]

I'm prepared to believe people who say that they've changed their mind in the last decade. Definitely worth looking at what they've said in the meantime to see if there's evidence of a change.