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TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
@tracewoodgrains
Oct 22 • 3 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
today's adventures in equity:

guest lecturer came in and said Hillsdale's claim that "the first end of education is ... objective truth about the world" is fascism Image
fuller context: she emphasized that every history curriculum necessarily includes elements of subjectivity in selection, presentation, and so forth

a reasonable note in and of itself, and I don't know that the Hillsdale people would disagree with that

but nope. fascism
the referenced letter

k12.hillsdale.edu/Curriculum/Hil…

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More from @tracewoodgrains

TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Oct 23
Were these three images real xray images of injured children taken in Gaza after October 7, 2023? Very likely yes. Do these demonstrate who specifically injured the children? No, and the op-ed author does not claim they do.

Warning: graphic images in thread.

Although the quoted bet is still pending resolution on the off chance more pertinent info comes out, it's worth outlining where I'm at and why. I want to emphasize that my task is very narrow here: not to adjudicate the tone and scope of the article, certainly not to adjudicate the war in Gaza, only to verify whether the New York Times published fake or substantially misleading images. I will briefly address implications and extrapolations, but my focus is the images. For context, the article claimed this about the images, placing them immediately after the author's story of having regularly treated children with gunshot wounds to the head:

These photographs of X-rays were provided by Dr. Mimi Syed, who worked in Khan Younis from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5. She said: “I had multiple pediatric patients, mostly under the age of 12, who were shot in the head or the left side of the chest. Usually, these were single shots. The patients came in either dead or critical, and died shortly after arriving.”

When I reached out to the article's author, @FerozeSidhwa, for additional details, he was extremely helpful, providing videos of the full CT scans and photographs of two of the three patients and giving me permission to publish them. Given the nature of the photographs, I will not include them in this top post; those wishing to verify can view them downthread. The middle image is a radiograph; the other two scout images from a CT scan (2D images taken to aid with positioning for the full CT scan).

I checked in with an independent radiologist, presenting the images and videos with as little context as possible to understand his reaction to them in isolation. I've attached the relevant conversation. Per him, the photographs, CT scans, and radiographs all match up. Many people reported concerns about the pixellation in the final scout image; he mentions that "quite a bit of artifact" is typical and it is not out of the norm. Bullet appearance tends to be highly variable, and the images are within the standard range of variance. Online commenters also found a number of similar-looking x-rays; I will link them below.

This aligns with the response from the New York Times. Many are inclined to distrust the Times, but my conviction is that distrust should be bounded. Framing, tone, and goals can and should be treated with skepticism. Publishing literal fake images, then doubling down on it, would do immense harm to their reputation. I do not believe they did so and I do not think anyone has presented strong evidence that they did so.

I cannot personally verify the precise provenance of the images and scans, but any hoax would have to be elaborate at this point. More to the point, it would be odd: Gaza is a war zone. Horrible things happen every day in war; doctors even in regular situations see horrible things constantly. The cleanest explanation is that the images are exactly what the caption purported them to be: pediatric patients in critical condition from her clinic in Khan Younis, tragically shot.

When I asked the author, he emphasized that there is no possible way the doctors could know how the children were shot—"killed by Hamas, Israel, Martians, the United States"—no way to know. They're physicians sitting in hospitals. He also noted that patients and family consistently report Israelis shot them—not that they know or that their testimony should be treated as fully reliable, but that that's what they say.

Now, a few words on the author: some have noted he is not an impartial observer, pointing to some anti-Israel articles he wrote on the Electronic Intifada some years ago, his appeals to messaging from pro-Hamas organizations like the National Lawyers Guild, his anti-Israel activism in the "Uncommitted" movement and elsewhere, and his belief that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. That he was explicitly an advocate for one side is, I believe, well established in the opinion article, but bears repeating. He was honest and forthright with me and is certainly sincere in his convictions. I believe he should be seen in a light akin to a prosecution attorney, not a judge. His frame is one of explicit anti-Israel advocacy. Take that for what you will, but it does not change the nature of the evidence.

It is also worth looking briefly at the specifics of other claims and advocacy in the article. These are not connected to the veracity of the images; they are independent statements at other points in the article.

The story from Dr. Khawaja Ikram:

“One day, while in the E.R., I saw a 3-year-old and 5-year-old, each with a single bullet hole to their head. When asked what happened, their father and brother said they had been told that Israel was backing out of Khan Younis. So they returned to see if anything was left of their house. There was, they said, a sniper waiting who shot both children.”

The Times questions to Israel:

"A spokesperson for the I.D.F. responded with a statement that did not directly answer whether or not the military had investigated reports of shootings of preteen children, or if any disciplinary action had been taken against soldiers for firing at children."

The article's later advocacy:

"American law and policy have long forbidden the transfer of weapons to nations and military units engaged in gross violations of human rights, especially — as a 2023 update to the United States Conventional Arms Transfer Policy makes clear — when those violations are directed at children. It is difficult to conceive of more severe violations of this standard than young children regularly being shot in the head."

The conclusion:

"The horror must end. The United States must stop arming Israel."

"And afterward, we Americans need to take a long, hard look at ourselves."

The article never outright states with certainty that Israelis are deliberately shooting children in the head, but it certainly implies it in those instances. The scout images and the author's explicit claims offer only indirect support for this, and again, the article is an advocacy piece in the Opinion section, not an investigative report into the nature of the shootings. The article certainly did not go out of its way to hedge by eg reminding readers that physicians do not know the details of how their patients were injured; it was written with intent to persuade.

My judgment on this is that the facts in the article as literally written are supportable, but that the implications drawn from them are used to support as anti-Israel a narrative as can be managed in order to sway public sentiment against Israel in the Gaza war. People can make of all of that what they will.

To return to the bet: officially, the bet will resolve on 11/24/2024, unless the parties want to resolve it earlier. There's always a chance more information will come out before then, but as things stand, I believe it is more likely than not that the 3 images in the NYT article are real xray images of injured children taken in Gaza after October 7, 2023. I make no claims and take no position on who shot the children or in what circumstances they were shot. If I were to resolve it today, I would do so in favor of @raspy_aspie.
Pictured: the images I was provided of the patients in question, alongside other photographs of the x-rays. Marked sensitive for obvious reasons; use your discretion. Image
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Thread: Examples of similar x-rays over the years.

Read 8 tweets
TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Oct 14
Incredible. The abstract mentions nothing about only interviewing people from "Abolish the police" organizations. It's just an examination of how young people experience policing.

The number of sociologists defending this is a good reminder of the state of sociology. Image
I understand the frustration of being criticized in public by a senior scholar. But once you publish papers, you step into the arena. You cannot look to influence public conversation without receiving public scrutiny in return.

I am, in my spare time, a law student. I choose to write visibly online about sometimes-controversial issues of public interest. If professors want to criticize me on this stage? Well, that's the price of admission.

Either engage in the arena or do not.
Read 5 tweets
TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Oct 4
"Grade-level standards" are a myth. They do not exist in any other skill. There is no level of mathematical knowledge a 13-year-old is "supposed" to have, any more than there is for chess or piano.

And yet schools refuse to teach students at their levels. They hew to the myth. Image
Teaching is already a difficult job. LA, and other places, insist on making it impossible. You cannot meaningfully help a classroom of students at wildly different levels in the way you can when they're all at around the same level. Image
"Detracking," framed as a way of avoiding putting people on dead-end tracks, instead ensures it. How would you like to be the slowest in every room you're in? How much effort would you want to put into school when you're constantly gasping for air? It's cruel.
Read 6 tweets
TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Sep 29
this is a provocative claim that I first heard from a Reliable Source (pictured) but have never had a chance to look into closely. reading about diagnoses of specific learning disabilities reminded me.

I've never closely examined dyslexia. how much truth is there to this?

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ok, so yeah:

per this paper, dyslexia was originally just defined as a discrepancy between full-scale IQ + age and reading ability.

but people criticized that definition... Image
and so now it just means...

being persistently bad at reading Image
Read 6 tweets
TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Sep 24
learning the history of Philadelphia's most selective public school

It was established as a middle school for advanced students. In 2021-2022, Philadelphia switched all schools to a unified lottery system, and the school's focus on excellence was systematically dismantled. 1/x Image
With the change, the school (along with all other Philly schools) had no discretion over who to admit. Its pipeline was broken: students from the middle school no longer received even priority at the high school. Image
Until 2020, it had an advanced math track for capable students. That track was eliminated due to diversity concerns. Image
Read 14 tweets
TracingWoodgrains Profile picture
Aug 27
What did this ruling involve? Thread to follow.

The core question: Does the Tennessee Public Records Act require the Nashville Police Department and Nashville city government to release public records related to the Covenant School mass shooting?

Answer: No. Why?
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How did the case arise? Multiple people filed public records requests to see the shooter's manifesto. The city denied them. The individuals sued. The church, school, and one victim family filed to intervene, joining the lawsuit to argue against release.
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The Tennessee Public Records Act aims to give "the fullest possible access to public records," presuming openness even in the face of "serious countervailing considerations," absent explicit exceptions. The burden of proof to demonstrate an exception falls on the government.

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Read 12 tweets

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