Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@Z_Zed_Zed ageism and cringe I can see – but how is this racism or misogyny?

@mike I don't know, I'm wondering what's happening in typical US schools these days. I don't think I've seen any evidence that any aren't teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, etc, but I keep hearing vague claims.

It seems usually if you dig deeper into book bannings it's at least nominally because the book isn't age-appropriate or something. e.g. "Beloved" by Morrison is banned in some schools. It discusses slavery. But... it also has bestiality, etc. Commonsensemedia says 15+ for whatever that's worth – I'm not saying I agree it should be banned from school libraries or high school literature curricula (I haven't read it), but I think this maybe doesn't support the claim that we're too insecure to confront our history.

I guess one can choose to see banning books like this as racism (whitewashing our history) or one can choose to see it as a quibble about what age certain material is appropriate for. Of course neither take is 100% wrong: I'm sure there's someone out there who wants this book banned because they're insecure about slavery.

If we ban books like that, but still teach about slavery in schools, does that mean we're insecure? I don't think there's any kind of serious effort to ban all books about slavery.

@mike How is this meme that we don't teach our kids slavery taking off?

I know some states have laws prohibiting things like teaching that "an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual's race or sex;"

Is that playing out in some weird way in schools that I don't know about?

@Popehat looking forward to reading this; it's a difficult problem.

@Miragee Not to speak for Buffett, but I think his point was probably that the tax system is too easy to play. Just think how complex it is: there's a lot there that needs to be fixed.

@alantrapulionis It's a narrative, of course: "hey income tax is great! look at how wonderful things were in the 50s when we had absurd top rates!"

But reality isn't so simple. I think typical billionaires probably don't and didn't really pay the top rate on a ton of their wealth anyway, so it probably won't matter much if we change it from 37% to 110% in terms of overall revenue.

It's just rhetoric.

@TootUncommon@mas.to Well, they ("MAGAheads") would point to how manufacturing jobs were moved offshore since then, and propose fixing that through isolationist tariffs or whatever.

I don't think that's a good idea, for hopefully obvious reasons, but it's not clear a 94% top tax rate would be much better. How much revenue is that going to get us anyway.

@herid The problem with this game is that 15% of the time he's just trolling us.

@Mxhrad @Green_Footballs Nah, that's not how science communications should work at all. We're all much better off for people who are willing to answer questions coming from ignorance.

Besides, lots of people have those degrees you're asking for and still make silly arguments that are almost just not worth answering at all. (Just one example: Alan Feduccia)

@Spijder @ffranny @Green_Footballs I think we have no reason to doubt her sincerity, but if that's how she feels she picked the wrong server. 😂

@bouriquet I don't get your question. I never said idpol lefties were stupid or anything? So sure: they do some good work fighting some of that kind of power. Also in fighting unintentional systems that make some people's lives worse (e.g. "systemic racism") – IMO that's where they really shine. I think they get a few really important things wrong, but yeah! What you said.

That doesn't mean it's useful to call someone you disagree with a fascist, of course. That's trash political marketing, aside from any issues with intellectual honesty.

@bouriquet Because it's a lefty idpol echo chamber.

@avram @Joaquincastrotx His family were refugees in Egypt when he was very young. I don't know if this really supports Castro's point, although there's plenty in the Bible about kindness to strangers/foreigners without that particular example, so I'd say the point mostly remains regardless of Jesus' personal status as an immigrant.

But I don't know what "hateful laws" he's talking about that he thinks Republicans have a monopoly on: it's not like Trump deported more people than Obama or anything, we still have "kids in cages" even though the Democrats are back in charge. etc. Fix your party first, Castro.

@bouriquet "not be far left" It's all relative. Here, yes, I'd say you are correct; any support of capitalism pretty much makes you a fascist around here.