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If you're interested in abortion numbers post-Dobbs, this thread is for you đ§ľ
(I'm going to reference some sources, which I'll hyperlink at the bottom of the thread, FYI)
(I'm going to reference some sources, which I'll hyperlink at the bottom of the thread, FYI)
In February I compiled a bunch of data from sources including Texas Health & Human Services, Texas Policy Evaluation Project, the Journal of the American Medical Association, & the US Census Bureau in order to figure out what abortions in Texas looked like post-Dobbs.
Since virtually all the abortion clinics in TX shut down, the obvious question for many would be, "What abortions? It's illegal now. Right?"
Wrong.
I was looking specifically for data on out-of-state abortions and mail-order abortions, and what the data suggested was tragic.
Wrong.
I was looking specifically for data on out-of-state abortions and mail-order abortions, and what the data suggested was tragic.
#Conservative MPs & peers hoping for their Party's fortunes to be rescued by continuing to cling to #Sunak, or for personal favours from #Sunak, really need to reacquaint themselves with the tale of the frog & the scorpion.
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As we know, the frog offers the scorpion a lift over a raging river. The scorpion accepts, but half way across, stings the frog, dooming both in the process.
The scorpion cannot help but be himself.
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The scorpion cannot help but be himself.
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So it is with #Sunak. He is unable to behave any differently to that which is his inner nature: to sting (fatally) anyone who uncovers that truth by lifting the rock he hides under. We've had him all wrong: he's not a snake, he's a scorpion.
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We have cause to be grateful to #Sunak, yes grateful. For he has done what no one else, not #Boris' friends, allies or supporters, could.
He has finally woken the sleeping giant.
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He has finally woken the sleeping giant.
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#Sunak has been a very silly boy. Even after everything #Sunak did to him, #Boris was content to sit quietly in the backbenches as a loyal #Conservative. But tonight, there was a turning point, the letter to the Privileges Committee. Finally #Boris had had enough.
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Conservatives stand athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.
Full remarks from the @TexasYRs board meeting: instagram.com/reel/CrEglwfJuâŚ
#Conservative #GOP anti-#populist
Full remarks from the @TexasYRs board meeting: instagram.com/reel/CrEglwfJuâŚ
#Conservative #GOP anti-#populist
At the @TexasYRs board meeting yesterday I stood up to those who want to reject the historic responsibility of conservatives: we are the party Reagan, not the self-labeled ânat-pops.â This radical wing is less Reagan and more Bernie Sanders with red lipstick. Clip 1:
Itâs important to know why you fight. This is why I do.
Clip 2
Clip 2
I don't want to *quote tweet* @MattWalshBlog but I'll quote him this way. he said something amusing (betraying his own fears) but it's also very telling, and typical of the "#conservative" (i.e. #fascist) set:
"The Leftist Rage Mob Turns On One Of Its Own | Ep. 113x"
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"The Leftist Rage Mob Turns On One Of Its Own | Ep. 113x"
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the *leftist rage mob*. heavens! those leftists (or "woke" folks or whoever) are so *angry*! all the time!
angry people are always wrong; just ask @mtaibbi or @NateSilver538 (or @MattWalshBlog) and they'll tell you: being angry is evil and only evil leftists are angry.
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angry people are always wrong; just ask @mtaibbi or @NateSilver538 (or @MattWalshBlog) and they'll tell you: being angry is evil and only evil leftists are angry.
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that's part of the doublethinkful game that right-wing people are used to playing with emotions: they can't make up their minds whether leftists are always *angry* or whether they're always weak and cryingâbut #conservatives are at least certain that *emotions* are bad.
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re-watching "All the President's Men" reminded me sharply of something that honestly should have been more *obvious* to meâit's a simple but telling thing.
the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @bariweiss fascist crowd don't champion *liberty* or *freedom*. only "#FreeSpeech".
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the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @bariweiss fascist crowd don't champion *liberty* or *freedom*. only "#FreeSpeech".
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of course one can't say that the @mtaibbi / @elonmusk crowd meaningfully believe in "free speech" as more than a convenient badge, a flag they wave, a message they wear on signboardsâfor that is how fascists see *all political language*. to them, it's all mere branding.
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but it's telling all the same that it's just the one very particular sort of #freedom that the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @ShellenbergerMD crowd pretend to admire (even though they don't, really.)
that's very typical of Western thinking, unfortunately. they're not alone.
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that's very typical of Western thinking, unfortunately. they're not alone.
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So yesterday I was fed a story in my news app that enraged me. #Cdnmedia is in a crisis. The rank inability to employ logical reasoning, the pushing of a narrative for political ends, is not reporting. It is propaganda & it misinforms the public, not the opposite. #cdnpoli
It was more shockingly poor reporting on Chinese interference, implying a connection where no factual evidence is provided. Merely a faulty attempt to draw conclusions without substantiating anything. Just garbage reporting. #CdnmediFailed #cdnpoli
The article even admits it has no evidence, merely wild speculation implying that the drop in #Conservative votes is due to a vague implication of Chinese interference. Chiu lost & because he lives in a RW bubble, imagines that it must be âinterferenceââŚ#CdnMediaFailed #cdnpoli
*bigotry* is a subject that right-wing (and "independent") bigotsâ@NateSilver538, @DavidAFrench, @DKThomp, whoever, there's so many of these clownsâhave attempted to keep as confused as possible. they want to pretend "bigot" is merely a slur, not a meaningful word.
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but as I've pointed out before, bigotry is really just overdeveloped snobbery. the snobâthe person who has very definite ideas about their personal superiority, and the superiority of their own intellect and tastes and everything elseâis already showing "bigoted" behavior.
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just as one may exhibit abusive behaviors from time to time without necessarily being "an abuser" (i.e. someone whose whole personality is abusive behavior), a snobbish person may say bigoted things without necessarily being "a bigot", i.e. someone who does nothing else.
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so, let's talk about how #2A / #2AMaga cultismâyou know, @NRA-fuelled obsession with a comically absolutist reading of the Second Amendment of the @usconstitutionâis a tool of fascÄąst politics.
it's quite simple: rich people can hoard more guns. that's the core point.
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it's quite simple: rich people can hoard more guns. that's the core point.
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the *false premise* of Second-Amendment cultism is that unrestrained ownership of firearms is the great equalizer. "God made Man but #Colt made them equal," and so forth.
the @NRA, the @GOP, and bountiful #conservative propaganda promote this idol: equality through guns.
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the @NRA, the @GOP, and bountiful #conservative propaganda promote this idol: equality through guns.
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but guns are just *things*, just stuffâconsumer productsâand therefore, allowing "anyone" to buy a gun favors only the idle rich. it's privileged "passive income" types like @Timcast and @Cernovich, people who have great gobs of free time and leisure, who hoard firearms.
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Something else in this CSIS/Fife story, doesnât pass the smell test & once again, demonstrates #CdnMediaFailed. Who keeps being interviewed by @globalnews & others? None other than Richard Fadden. The former Harper appointee of @csiscanada, later Harper NatSec advisor. #cdnpoli
Richard Fadden was also Harperâs Deputy Minister of National Defence from 2013 to 2015. He was also Harperâs Associate Secretary to the Cabinet.
Fadden was also Harperâs Deputy Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Canada from 2006 to 2009. #cdnpoli #CdnNatSec
Fadden was also Harperâs Deputy Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Canada from 2006 to 2009. #cdnpoli #CdnNatSec
As we all know, there is zero chance that Harper would have anyone in his tight inner circle appointed to multiple positions without being a #Conservative partisan, which Fadden is. He worked closely with Jason Kenney (particularly), Vic Toews & Peter Van Loan also. #cdnpoli
Claiming China had the ability to chose đ¨đŚâs govât right down to whether minority or majority, it utter nonsense. How was this done, exactly? Someone @csiscanada showed #RobertFife âtop secretâmaterials? Is that legal? How did Fife obtain clearance to view such material? #cdnpoli
We all witnessed a tsunami of disinformation & info ops AGAINST the Liberals in the last 2 elections. We saw attacks & manufactured âscandalsâ. I monitored multiple media sites & donât recall disinformation about the #CPC in the almost entirely #Conservative owned #cdnmedia.
This recent skewed piece by #RobertFife has a political agenda. China absolutely interferes, as does Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, UAE & of course, the networks of US billionaires (ie Koch Network). But to suggest đ¨đł was able to choose our govât is suspicious as hellâŚ.
I ask my few readers to consider the following possibility: ALL "#conservative" ideology these daysâwhether it's from @GOP ideologues or the @Conservatives' ideologues or #Christian ideologues or "gender critical" ideologues of the @bindelj sortâhas a very specific motive.
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not the motive you might be thinking!
I suggest that ALL these peopleâ@DouthatNYT, @realchrisrufo, @Docstockk, @michaelshermer, whoeverâadapt their ideology specifically according to who humiliates them in arguments the most reliably. because these people *can't argue*.
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I suggest that ALL these peopleâ@DouthatNYT, @realchrisrufo, @Docstockk, @michaelshermer, whoeverâadapt their ideology specifically according to who humiliates them in arguments the most reliably. because these people *can't argue*.
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right-wing ideology can't be supported *logically*, because the core and center of "movement #conservatism" is irrational and emotional: they like old beliefs and old concepts, old ways of wielding power and regulating human beings, and they don't want anything to change.
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Western culture does not regard children as human beings. the values of "the West"âthe values instilled by authoritarian #Christianityâdo not permit children to be respected as human beings who deserve to have their feelings and wishes respected, like any other person.
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no better example of the general Western *contempt* for children can be imagined than the "gender critical" cultâthe @bindelj / @Docstock / #JKRowling brigadeâwhich functions almost entirely as a kind of support group for abusive parents who loathe their LGBTQ+ children.
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they cling to the faded celebrity of @jk_rowling as a shield against the charge that they despise childrenâafter all, #JKRowling is the Best Fantasy Writer in the Universe, according to the @HJoyceGender / @AbigailShrier gender theorists. she's the friend to all children!
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PJ O'Rourke once quipped that "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." But conservative parties have unlikely allies in the project to discredit public service: neoliberal "centrist" parties, like @liberal_party. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/31/mck⌠2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/31/mck⌠2/
The Liberals have become embroiled in a series of scandals over the explosion of lucrative, secretive private contracts awarded to high-flying #consultancy firms who charge hundreds of times more than public sector employees to do laughably bad work. 3/
one more rumination for tonight, I think. this one is about something that's been called "contrarianism"âa word that's been coined in some attempt to describe the perplexing behavior of celebrity 'influencers', specially the more toxic ones like @mtaibbi and @mattyglesias.
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but the behavior is probably quite general. just about *all* of the #journalist and #media figures who have some privileged access to the press and to mass audience have learned to behave in this way on @Twitter and social media: they run away from challenging questions.
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the blue-checked "influencers" of the @LPDonovan / @StevenTDennis / @JakeSherman sort (I've picked three names almost at random) are the people who have *benefited the most* from the #Internet-ization of #journalism. social media has amplified their social privilege.
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Western #education is in abysmal state, and #capitalism is to blame.
the noisemakers at all levels of the #conservative noise machine, from the august @AEI propagandists (like "race scientist" @charlesmurray) to circus sideshows like @Timcast, try to blame "woke", but...
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the noisemakers at all levels of the #conservative noise machine, from the august @AEI propagandists (like "race scientist" @charlesmurray) to circus sideshows like @Timcast, try to blame "woke", but...
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that "woke" game is extremely thin by now. really it's just rebranded Red Scare nonsense. in 1950, it was Commies who were "destroying our youth" with virulent ideas that right-wing ideologues didn't like, like abstract algebra; now @mtracey and @DouthatNYT blame "woke".
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but ask any low-level right-wing expert on "woke"âask @realchrisrufo or @ConceptualJames what "wokeism" actually *is*âand you'll get the word "Marxism" in no time: "woke" is, in other words, nothing new at all. it's the same old paranoia about pinko Rooskies in closets.
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I am not a #Christian; my friend Chara (who writes at @KrisAtLarge) is Catholicâalbeit a heretical oneâbut I am no "believer". as I've said, I tend to leave religion to others.
all the same, it's tough *not* to have opinions about #Christianityâwe're inundated with it.
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all the same, it's tough *not* to have opinions about #Christianityâwe're inundated with it.
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in the United States especially, right-wing politicsâwhich infallibly promotes an extremist and hyperpoliticized form of #Christianityâpours enormous effort and money into publicizing #Christian political demands.
@GOP politics and Bible-bashing are practically the same.
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@GOP politics and Bible-bashing are practically the same.
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in fact, it seems like *all* public spokespersons for Christianity in the U.S. are political figures. #Christian @GOP politicians and activists and corporate executives proudly proclaim their purpose in public office to be the promotion of "Jesus" and "faith" and "values".
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#geopolitical tedium is not for me. I like the world of ordinary matter and energy (and physics and chemistry and all of it) far too much. I like tools and instruments and equipment, and knowing how to use them. fretting about #Russia or #China is not my highest priority.
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yet American #politics and political #media have completely inundated popular cultureâbecause @jack Dorsey and #MarkZuckerberg permitted the politicization of #Internet #socialmedia. on specious grounds they kicked down the door between "public" and "private" online.
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now, both @TheDemocrats and the @GOP, both @UKLabour and the @Conservatives, and political parties and political figures all over the world freely do business in full public view; @elonmusk openly conspires with @mtaibbi and @lhfang and @bariweiss in full public view.
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let's try again. I wanted to write more *specifically* about Mr. @elonmuskâspeculating about why he's the catastrophic person he is, based on what's popularly known about him. everything I'm going to mention is something reported in the popular press (not by @mtaibbi.)
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we know that Mr. Musk had an abusive father, whom @elonmusk has had little good to say about. the man was typical colonialist trashâa South African grifter and speculator who *got lucky*, making a lot of money quickly with a partial share in an apartheid-era emerald mine.
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Every night at 8PM Central this weekend, Iâll be showing episodes of my recent talk with two American #communists, Tyler McConnell @tjmac87 and @RealCalebMaupin.
In Part 2 of âMaking Alliances,â we ask: âwhat do #libertarians and Communists agree on?â
In Part 2 of âMaking Alliances,â we ask: âwhat do #libertarians and Communists agree on?â
Lol I know this show will trigger some folks who might say that libertarians and communists canât agree on a damn thing, but watch and you might be surprised!
Perhaps @RealSpikeCohen, @angela4LNCChair, and @ComicDaveSmith would enjoy this conversation as well. âď¸
You too @nick_brana!
@PeoplesParty_US @LPMisesCaucus @LPNational @beinlibertarian @LarrySharpe
You too @nick_brana!
@PeoplesParty_US @LPMisesCaucus @LPNational @beinlibertarian @LarrySharpe
oh right! we were going to write something about the power of language.
hm, how to start.
let me begin with talking about a concept that I learned from classes in ancient Greek: the *grammatical particle*. it's a type of word, in linguistics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrammaticâŚ
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hm, how to start.
let me begin with talking about a concept that I learned from classes in ancient Greek: the *grammatical particle*. it's a type of word, in linguistics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrammaticâŚ
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I remember being impressed during @SDSU Classics classes by this entire book on ancient Greek particles: abebooks.com/book-search/tiâŚ
*particles* are words that have no inflection or clearly defined "part of speech" in a sentence.
"um" and "er" are particles in English.
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*particles* are words that have no inflection or clearly defined "part of speech" in a sentence.
"um" and "er" are particles in English.
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we could regard "um" and "er" as linguistic fillerâwords with no real meaning, merely taking up spaceâbut the insertion of such particles does give us some information about the *mood* or *feeling* of the person speaking.
here, "um" and "er" convey a sense of uncertainty.
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here, "um" and "er" convey a sense of uncertainty.
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#capitalism broke #computing and the #Internet, and it's tough to see how to repair the damageâand by the way, @TheDemocrats assisted in this destruction. @BillClinton's presidency was *disastrous* to technology.
the worst was this: capitalism made the #Internet a *joke*.
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the worst was this: capitalism made the #Internet a *joke*.
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it's still a joke. @mtaibbi and @jessesingal and @mattyglesias, and the rest of the elite "influencer" set who have proliferated in American #journalism (and polluted it), have assisted immensely in this massive _trivialization_ of a technological achievement.
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Take note of the new fascist costume worn by wealthy privileged #Conservative elites in order to hoodwink the gullible. #NeverVoteConservative #cdnpoli #PierrePoilievreIsLyingToYou
Theyâve ruined plaid shirts.
Western civilization has failed.
there's no way to avoid this. #COVID19 proved to be the "final straw", as they sayâthe West's general response to the challenge of the Covid19 pandemic was to abandon its commitment to public health. the next pandemic will scythe us down.
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there's no way to avoid this. #COVID19 proved to be the "final straw", as they sayâthe West's general response to the challenge of the Covid19 pandemic was to abandon its commitment to public health. the next pandemic will scythe us down.
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the breakdown in the West's ability to respond to crises of disease has been ongoingâmany decades in the making.
#capitalism has been corroding and corrupting the apparatus of Western health care, especially in the United States, which became a vast reservoir of #COVID19.
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#capitalism has been corroding and corrupting the apparatus of Western health care, especially in the United States, which became a vast reservoir of #COVID19.
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the needs of *public health*âmeasures to ensure that ALL inhabitants of a nation receive some acceptable minimum of medical care of all sorts, including mental health careâconflict with the needs of #capitalism: the more _profitable_ #medicine is, the more costly it is.
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