Collected Over Spread @collectedoverspread@qoto.org

"...a somewhat annoying habit has developed where scientists will weigh-in on questions related to Covid NPIs or climate policy that involve complicated multi-dimensional tradeoffs as if 'the science' settles rather than informs these debates. This is bad."

Not the main idea of this piece but I'm highlighting it because I remember saying essentially the exact same thing a while ago.

"Trump's war on science" by Matthew Yglesias in Slow Boring https://www.slowboring.com/p/trumps-war-on-science

"...none of these five dogmas is entirely false. The problem is that they are not entirely true either, as a result of which their widespread promulgation generates completely unnecessary suspicion and controversy."

"The Five Dogmas of DEI" by Joseph Heath in Persuasion https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-five-dogmas-of-dei

"In my view, the right lesson from 2024 is that presidential elections are not about policy in the first place. ...[I]nsofar as election outcomes can be controlled, winning probably has more to do with charisma, authenticity, relatability, and responsiveness to the national mood, all of which can be leveraged in service of almost any policy platform."

"Move past the progressive v. moderate framing" from Exasperated Alien https://exasperatedalien.substack.com/p/move-past-the-progressive-v-moderate
#USPolitics

I've noticed a few times where people reference a #Bluesky account as simply "@ example" instead of (I assume) "@ example.bsky.social". Bluesky handles are domain names, so it's important to distinguish between, say, example.bsky.social and example.com.

Also, I again encourage anyone who's using Bluesky and has their own domain name/website to look into making it their handle instead of just relying on bsky.social.

"What Went Wrong In The 2024 Election?" by Ryan Beard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPTQWEoKz_4

As Beard says, it's not the most significant factor in Trump's victory, but it's honestly refreshing to hear the left-wing infighting being called out by someone to my left. I'm reminded of Freddie deBoer's criticism of a certain section of social-justice advocates who believe they are "exempt from politics" ( https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/social-justice-advocates-dont-get ); Beard's criticism of certain online leftists seems similar.

COS's California Ballot: https://collectedoverspread.tumblr.com/post/767355442735284224/coss-california-ballot-2024

Rather late post where I talk about how I voted for ballot measures in California this past election. #CaliforniaPolitics #USPolitics

Is it just me or are some people misunderstanding the upcoming changes to #Twitter 's block function? There's certainly legitimate criticism to be made, but I think it's important to recognize what is actually changing and what isn't.

Currently, if you block someone, that means:

1. You can't see their posts
2. You can't interact with their posts
3. They can't see your posts
4. They can't interact with your posts

Only #3 is changing.

Curious about whether Mastodon automatically links bare domain names like example.com or links without schemas like example.com/some/page.html

"I won't speak for the conservative critics who don't believe trans people are real. I think one of the main concerns among the liberal critics is the conflict between multiple frames of trans acceptance." https://old.reddit.com/r/IntellectualDarkWeb/comments/1566zx2/my_latest_at_queer_majority_about_the_reactionary/jtn0j3q/

The portion about the second frame/paradigm is worth highlighting. If we don't want to limit the concept of transgender to those who experience gender dysphoria (which I don't), then I think we need to consider that just *maybe* gender identities, including transgender identities, are influenced by societal concepts of gender including, yes, gender roles. And I do recognize that that conflicts with the ideal of removing gender roles and stereotypes, but until we live in some sort of "post-gender" society this is going to be a point of contention.

From another comment in the thread: "Anyway, that's about 8 paragraphs of saying, 'I think we're reinforcing stereotypes here'." https://old.reddit.com/r/IntellectualDarkWeb/comments/1566zx2/my_latest_at_queer_majority_about_the_reactionary/jts07wx/

Why in the world does a public transit agency, one that has its own website, put a Linktree link in its Twitter profile??

One thing I'm curious about is service charges specifically for large parties, which some reporting (e.g. https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2024-02-15/new-california-hidden-fees-law-service-fee-ban ) suggests would also need to be included in the advertised price.

I actually feel like this should be considered a fee for an optional service (in the words of the AG's guidance), that is, the service of waiting on/serving a large group of customers. Consider this: If you were a glutton and ordered ten dishes for yourself, in theory you wouldn't have to pay that charge, whereas a group of ten who ordered the same dishes would have to.

If the exemption doesn't pass, I'd like to see more specific guidance from the AG on this.