A RANT: Are my polls unscientific? Depends on what you mean – but largely I hear the word 'unscientific' used in place of 'does not have enough sciencey aesthetic' – for example often people say my twitter polls aren't 'scientific' by pointing to some of my joke polls 1/

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) December 10, 2021

Great thread by Aella. She pushes back well against the “believe science” ideology and the priesthood who promulgate and enforce it. Nice idea, the “sciencey aesthetic.” I’d had a similar thought that would’ve been dozens of sentences. She condensed it well.

Does this address all flaws? No! But evidence doesn't have to address all potential flaws, it just has to be evaluated in context. Plenty of research is done on way less reliable samples and nobody gives a shit cause it's done by credentialed people writing in the passive voice

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) December 10, 2021

That’s mystified me for so very long. I see papers and statements by scientific “experts” all the time that are just obviously complete bullshit and that people take very seriously because someone in a lab coat put them forth. Meanwhile, true statements I made and ideas I came up with with years ago were laughed at, if anyone paid any attention at all, and were deemed worth nothing because I had no credentials. But I was right and the “experts” were wrong.

Science shouldn’t be de facto ecclesiastical and should not have a clergy, but it is and does.

We Can Live Better Lives While Being Smart About Covid.

Sense from the NYT? Well, it does happen occasionally. Taste those glorious lockdown lifer tears, though. Just taste them. Aren’t they delicious?

Book Twitter has lots of “follow your dreams” stuff. Here’s one for the rest of us: few pursuits require so much rejection with so little concrete reward. It’s OK to take an extended break from writing. The world won't end, & you might feel better about yourself for a bit.

— J.R. McConvey (@jrmcconvey) December 8, 2021

Most men are used to tons of rejection with very little reward. It’s called “dating.” For men, anyway. 🙂

Interview with the Vampire blew my middle school mind and threw gasoline on an already-voracious reading habit

The Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches were sumptuous, heartbreaking, romantic, and queer books that kept me company through my awkward teen years

RIP Anne Rice

— mx claws (@alicegoldfuss) December 12, 2021

Interview with the Vampire was the first book aimed at adults that I ever read. I was 6 or 7. I found it and began reading it accidentally. It was on the floorboards in the back of the family car. I picked it up and started reading it out of boredom and was utterly transfixed. I knew after just a few pages that I was never going back to childrens’ books again, and I did not. That was the first adult book I ever read but whatever the last book for kids I read prior to that one was the final one I ever touched.

I’ve not read Interview since then and will probably never revisit it, but it began my more advanced fiction reading career and that’s worth something.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

No moral judgement indicated here, but I am glad I don’t fear needles.

I don’t even fear death. What do I fear, then? Wallowing in loserdom, mainly. That’s what I fear.

This resonates with me as I head off to my 97-year-old grandfather’s funeral this weekend. He spent huge parts of the last ~18 months of his life in isolation. Just incredibly sad. (And he also got Covid despite all that, luckily a mild case.) https://t.co/OYy48Qac2b

— Virginia Hughes (@virginiahughes) December 9, 2021

But the libs fucking love isolation, lockdowns, concentration camp schools (when they are open), school closures and other “completely safe” assclownery. They like to keep gramma and gramps safe by making sure they are in solitary confinement and then die of loneliness. Can’t get Covid if you’re dead! It’s a perfect Covid prevention method.

Now I’m seeing pseuodoscientific propaganda about how kids weren’t “really” depressed about being isolated from their friends for 1.5 years and having their entire social lives destroyed. Sure, right, seems likely to me. Anyone who believes that….well alrighty then. You go right ahead. Lordamercy what the fuck c’mon.

The ascetic prude anchorite “believe science” horseshit enrages me beyond all measure.

Javid advised to take ‘stringent’ Covid measures within a week, leak reveals (LATEST date for "Plan C" is the 18th; we may already be past the point of being able to avoid a harsh lockdown before Christmas) https://t.co/WQVc7OYeYM

— Charlie Stross (@cstross) December 10, 2021

Realizing that people like Charles Stross and many liberal types are just ecstatic with pleasure at the possibility of lockdown is kind of sickening. It really does seem to give them some form of perverse sexual thrill. How has it come to this? What the fucking hell is wrong with these people?

I can’t tell you how much I hate the article I wrote about here and everything it stands for. Talk about how to harm women (and the world) greatly in three easy steps.

I sent this article to a friend of mine that I was planning to photograph and her reaction was, “Those half-naked photos I wanted you to take of me have now changed to be at least three-quarters naked.”

Yep, I understand. I understand perfectly.