Woman accidentally reverse engineers the foundational axiom of gender relations in every civilization that ever existed prior to 100 years ago
What 100 years of feminism has conclusively demonstrated is that "women cannot be held responsible for their own decisions" is the more powerful moral precept, it trumps actual equality in practice
Many people have decided Elon's influence was decisive for Trump's victory
I don't want to downplay this too much, because I think buying and uncensoring twitter did matter, as did his endorsement
But I think it's oversold
Here are four factors I think mattered much more
Oct 7 and the response on the left
Seeing their friends and colleagues justify or even cheer on an act of such immense barbarism alienated and radicalized a lot of left-centrists
It was the rare kind of event which makes people question which side they're really on
The migrant crisis being imported to major cities
Republican governors shipping migrants to liberal strongholds was one of the savviest moves this election cycle, it literally brought the problem to their doorstep and made its reality undeniable
There was a massive misinformation campaign in the 80s and 90s to convince straight teenagers they were at serious risk of getting HIV if they didn't put a condom on, everyone I knew believed it
Decades later I encountered information on the base rates of transmission per sex act and learned that it's effectively impossible for a man to get HIV having vaginal sex with a woman
Receptive anal sex is a unique risk factor overshadowing everything else
Even if you think that a 1 in 1,000 risk is unacceptably high, keep in mind that only applies if your partner has HIV in the first place
If your partner isn't a gay man or an IV drug user, they almost certainly don't have HIV in the first place
One question I keep returning to is whether the architects of no child Left behind actually intended it to destroy public education in the long run
I'm pretty sure the rank and file voting for it did not intend this, and I don't think Bush had nefarious intentions either
But I can't escape the feeling that the profligate waste we have seen as a result of the bill must have been intentional, because it was easily predicted
IEPs were always going to be a bottomless money pit that grew every year and never moved the needle on results
It really does seem like an insidious plot, forcing schools to pour endless resources into programs intended to meet objectives that cannot possibly be met
And you cannot object to it without giving up the game, "of course every child can meet the standard, only bigots disagree"
The rating economy for things like Airbnb, Uber etc. made a huge mistake when they used the five-star scale
You've got boomers all over the country who think that four stars means something was really good, when in fact it means there was something very wrong with the experience
Driver got lost for 20 minutes and almost rear ended someone, four stars
Boomer reviewing their Airbnb:
This is one of the nicest places I have ever stayed, the decor could use a little updating, four stars