The republican grifter obsession with cancel culture is bad, but another bad trend is that nobody defends these decisions anymore. The argument now is universally "you care about small things that don't matter" and I don't accept that. This stuff always starts from the bottom.
Also the problem isn't the changing of Mr. Potato Head or the removal of some Dr. Seuss books. The problem is when people start getting in trouble for letting their kids play with a Mr. Potato head or bring a problematic Dr. Seuss book to school. THAT'S where things are headed.
Josh Hawley losing a book deal over things he himself did as a public official is not cancel culture. Someone getting fired or shunned or shamed on social media for reading Josh Hawley's book is cancel culture and that shit absolutely happens.
The flak J.K. Rowling gets is a separate problem from Emily VanDerWerff telling Vox she doesn't feel safe from Matt Yglesias because he signed a letter with 150 other people, one of whom was J.K. Rowling. The latter is where the real societal rot lurks.
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I can see the book he tried to sell listed on ebay so I'm not sure why it would get flagged (he says he used the ISBN number, so maybe that's how).
Looking now, "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street" has many different ISBNs depending on which edition it is. If ebay only plugged some of them into the algo, that would mean only specific versions would get auto-flagged.
Finally getting around to this. It's very nice. Packs a wide punch in the "mid" area of the palate (not too deep, not too bright). Has a really long tail and a complex aftertaste.
A thing I've noticed about 100+ proof bourbons is that the really good ones can mask how high the proof is with the flavor. Cheapo high-proof whiskey just tastes like Everclear that had oak chips soaking in it.
I still have my Elijah Craig barrel proof B520, which is 127 proof, that I haven't opened yet. That will be its ultimate test, but the small batch EC is such a flavor bomb that I feel like it'll pass this test easily.
For fuck's sake - tell people the ways in which their lives will improve after they get vaccinated, not the ways in which their lives will stay exactly the same. What the hell is wrong with your brains???
I guarantee that these recommendations will include more things that people CAN'T do than things they CAN.
It obviously makes sense to tell vaccinated people to keep following local safety regulations because there's no way to tell who is or isn't vaccinated, but the focus should be that getting vaccinated should make you feel way more confident about neither getting it nor giving it.
I think the two main factors driving covid pessimism and gaslighting are: 1. An attempt to scare people into being cautious; and 2. The fear of the political toll of optimism that'll turn out to have been misplaced. Misplaced pessimism isn't as politically risky.
Trying to scare people is backfiring horribly because they keep preaching more severe measures (like double masking) when things are objectively improving with repeated good news regarding vaccines. It's creating a dissonance that ends up backfiring.
I see a tweet that says "new study shows vaccine reduces transmission risk 90%" and the very next tweet is "health officials say don't change any behaviors after getting vaccinated." It's getting really nutty at this point.
"Wow, that's not good but we're still flying normally and this is a Boeing 777, which is designed to fly using only one engine in a pinch, so we're probably going in for an emergency landing and this will most likely just be a cool story I tell people later."
Here's the thing about modern aviation - don't worry about how bad something looks. Worry about how bad something feels. If the engine is on fire but the plane is still flying normally, that's less scary than no engines on fire and the plane bucking and doing steep banks.
Over the ocean this situation would have scared me for sure. It being not long after takeoff and you being able to safely turn around and land is a big factor.