You know an ideology is hegemonic and utterly dominant when scads of people squirm like worms from the woodwork to insist that it does not exist.

Neoliberal Democrats constantly say Sanders supporters who voted for Trump or stayed home were traitors. They don’t realize that when they say that, they are admitting Sanders had more support than Clinton and would have won.

— Will, Folk Devil of the Internet (@ClassFirster) December 27, 2019

I do think Sanders would’ve won, though it still would’ve been close. No one was excited about Clinton except pseudo-hippie-ish feminists between the age of 50-70. That’s about 0.4% of the population so not very significant.

Diet and exercise are the hardest things to grow discipline around. It is human nature to be lazy and to consume.

If you can be disciplined and defy these primitive human instincts, then you can discipline yourself anywhere in life.

— Preethi Kasireddy (@iam_preethi) December 27, 2019

I tend to agree with this. It appears that the “willpower/ego depletion” study does not replicate, by the way. Anecdotally, in my own life I’ve found the more will I exert in one area the more resolve I have for successfully tackling other tasks and goals. I don’t know if this is the same for everyone, but for the most successful people I’ve observed it appears to be the case.

Just like any muscle, willpower seems to grow stronger when you exercise it. Why we ever thought the opposite (including me) I have no idea.

People are just now figuring out that neither Harry Potter nor its creator were somehow magically perfect? Woke stuff is so funny because it’s all so tedious. It’s like the most boring school tattletale got control of culture.

Funny, I remember when Harry Potter was lauded for being forward-thinking and inclusive. Times, they do change….

All these articles and tweets coming out defending cancel culture. Like when you leave a cult and then a year or two later hear what the cult is actually saying.

— stephen (@S___Elliott) September 20, 2019

It is strange. I’ve seen the very same people defend cancel culture, claim that it doesn’t exist, and then participate in social outrage mobs canceling people.

It’s just mind-bogglingly bizarre.

“These cybernetic devices first appeared in the workplace shortly after the end of the Second World War, primarily in manufacturing and petro-chemical industries. At first, their components were introduced in a piecemeal fashion, and only gradually connected in increasingly self-regulating complexes. This process was, however, accelerated by the industrial revolts of the 1960s and 1970s. Advanced versions of the new systems, aimed at a maximum reduction of the workforce and seamless, centralised control from managerially-controlled command centers were brought into the car factories, chemical plants, and steel mills where mass worker militancy had been strongest. Even where these experimental systems were so expensive as to be, in strictly economic terms, inefficient, their labour-eliminating capacity was frequently critical in crushing the most advanced elements of working class organisation. Today, however, such systems are being experimented with throughout all sectors of work, from nursing to pizza-making to lighthouse-keeping; while the fully implemented versions are still futuristic islands in a sea of more traditional work methods, their discrete elements are widely disseminated, and the tendency toward integration evident.”

–Nick Dyer-Witheford in Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism

A Good Man Is Getting Even Harder to Find. The future of mating looks grim as more educated women compete for fewer eligible males.

At least 50% of the #metoo movement is related to this fact. From noble causes, it became about high-status women pursuing assortative mating strategies and enforcing norms thereof. No surprise; that’s power and that’s neoliberalism asserting itself. That many of the women participating believe they are doing good for the world makes it all the more effective. Sincere belief, after all, is hugely motivating.

When I first came to the US a friend took me to Time Square and showed me you can shout "F Obama" at the top of your lungs and no one would bat an eye, not even the cops.

It was a powerful moment, I admit. But now I look back at it as the "empty calories" of free speech.

— Amjad Masad (@amasad) December 26, 2019

That’s the game. If you can say anything you want, but can do nothing to change anything, what does it matter that we have free speech?

I have pretty high resting vascularity (visible veins), in my forearms particularly, which is often a sign of steroid use. Can’t wait till inevitably people start accusing me of that. It’ll go from “I wish I was naturally skinny like you” to “He’s really jacked, he must use steroids” soon enough.

Ain’t naturally a goddamn thing, and never touched a steroid a day in my life. Never will. Not on HRT, etc., either which is just steroids by another name.

Just a bunch of hard fucking work is all.

Canning of food began as early as 1812

The can opener was not invented until 1855

In between, cans were opened with hammer & chisel (!) pic.twitter.com/kteOTA3g6o

— Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford) December 26, 2019

Well, that’s not very canny.

It’s sad that you can buy less than $100 of used books and know more about interface and interaction design than the entire staff of Mozilla and Google put together.