Scientific research increasingly suggests that yes, wearing a mask does help stop the spread of the coronavirus. https://t.co/vfUsPkuXgn
— Vox (@voxdotcom) July 18, 2020
The evidence for masks was NEVER weak. Lying about masks was what happened, which Vox gleefully participated in.
Even based just on the precautionary principle, mask-wearing should’ve started right away. We are a society filled with idiots.
‘Only those with plastic visors were infected’: Swiss government warns against face shields.
Notice here that masks protected the wearer against infection, which we were told was impossible.
The reality is that masks protect both ways. The higher the quality of mask, the better the protection. Thank you, “experts.”
What if they make a Covid-19 vaccine but Americans refuse to take it.
If they are adults, let them fucking die. If kids, forced administration against the parents’ wishes.
in the old days I'd go to a physical university library, find the topic section, go to the topic section and then pick the shortest book the subject. That would give me a succinct frame, then I'd read the longer books.
Not sure how to modernize that.
— Ian Welsh (@iwelsh) July 19, 2020
Here’s what I do to learn fields rapidly:
1) Find reviews online for undergrad textbooks and closely read at least three of the best ones of those you can find.
2) Then, once you have the vocabulary and ideas in your head from these books, find some of the canonical papers in the field and read those. Look up any words you don’t know or concepts you can’t understand.
3) Once you have read a few dozen to a few hundred scientific papers in the field, then move on to upper-level textbooks that are also well-reviewed. Read at least two of those.
4) At the same time as above, read some pop science books (if any) about the field, recognizing they are often distorted. However, many are much better written than the textbooks and can lead to understanding in areas that textbooks omit as “obvious” or that just aren’t seen as relevant to the field because academia is so very narrow.
5) Go back and re-read some of the papers you didn’t understand well before and find some new ones, too. Preferably a few dozen more at least.
6) At the end of all this, you’ll often have a better understanding of the field than most undergraduates who actually majored in this area, if you are diligent and have a decent brain.
7) Repeat and prosper for any field that interests you.
Every time I see the word privilege now I groan. God I hate that they chose the word privilege to include things like "not being beaten up by cops" or "perhaps having your rights respected."
Just such a stupid fucking self-own. Cannot take privilege discourse seriously.
— Ian Welsh (@iwelsh) July 19, 2020
Agreed. That discussion and framework is fine in academia. Never should’ve escaped there, though. Outside of that milieu, it’s actively misleading and harmful.
People tell me I was as a kid “privileged,” for instance, but I started my life in a trailer park in rural North Florida, living in a 1960s trailer with literal holes in the floor. Some privilege that was. My point is not to bemoan my past circumstances, but to point out that privilege talk outside of the academy conceals more than it reveals. It just causes misunderstanding and resentment and perhaps that’s the point of it among many “progressives,” as they wish to resegregate the world in their own preferred way.