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Ending a post with "let that sink in" is almost always code for "everything above is ." It's the counterpart to starting with "," which is a nice compact way to say "everything that follows is bullshit."

Huh. I wonder, if you start with "technically" and end with "let that sink in," do they negate each other, or act as intensifiers? Clearly more is needed.

New taxonomy just dropped.

†There are reasons to doubt the very worst of the accusations against , but what we know is true is bad enough.

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The screenshot is a post by a friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, from several years ago. It's horribly relevant again, for obvious reasons.

I'd prefer to know, on the whole. Particularly when the artist in question is still alive: I may (or may not) still be able to enjoy their art that I already have, but I want to know whose pockets to avoid lining. Once they're dead, "separate the art from the artist" becomes a lot easier for me.

Of course I'd far rather there were nothing *to* know. I wish with all my heart that Edgar Rice and HP were not raging racists, that Marion Zimmer were not at the very least an enabler of child molestation and perhaps† a molester herself, that Joss were a feminist in deed as well as word, that JK believed the messages about equality and inclusion she gave a whole generation of children and their parents, that Neil were a kind and decent person who created mythologies to tell thoughtful stories about the human condition. But since they are what they are and were what they were, that's not an option.

There are writers I still regard as role models *as writers* even if I don't care for them much as people. Not monsters, for the most part, just garden-variety jerks. The way they put words together speaks to me, as I want my words to speak to my readers. I'm not in a hurry to give up what they've taught me by example.

Still. I don't have a whole lot of money to spend, and I'd rather that what I do have go to people I don't despise. Knowing is almost always better.

I was there, Gandalf, three thousand years ago ...

@vivtek Fair point. I think that's our talent for showmanship manifesting in a particularly unpleasant way.

Another day, another "LOL are so dumb, no one else would go the way they have" argument.

The modern antivax movement was kicked off about thirty years ago by Andrew , who is . These days it's , and the US is not at all the worst offender: e.g. see nature.com/articles/s41467-022

I know it's very satisfying to think 'Muricans are uniquely stupid. People in other countries who smugly believe that are blinding themselves to a lot of homegrown dangers.

@micahflee It's like if Fawkes et al. had been invited to join Parliament.

@OhOkKay I sure hope so. Right now, to me it looks grim AF on both sides of the border.

We already knew the would fall today. Looks like will too.

Another day, another "it's , it doesn't need to be realistic!" argument. Therefore, another canned reply.

The first word in " " is "science." As both a scientist and writer, I really appreciate it when writers put as much thought into making their work as credible as possible, and try to do the same in my own. Break whatever rules you need to tell the story you want (faster-than-light travel, that can cross-breed with humans, whatever) but don't ask readers to *unnecessarily* suspend their disbelief.

Or as the saying goes in fantasy, "If you want me to believe in , get the right."

... now I suppose I should really get back to either writing science fiction or doing science, because deadlines are absolutely part of the here-and-now.

I'm mostly on Quora for the snark opportunities these days.

It is the . We can observe the echoes of its hatching as the from the Big Bang. Eventually it will grow larger than the itself, at which point everything will collapse into a new and be reborn in another unimaginable blast of fire and fury. The myth reflects our ancestors' dim understanding of this cosmic truth.

With and fighting over who gets to be , I guess you could say has been ... couched.

A fairly recent aerial shot of Denver and the Front Range. Yes, I'm old enough to say things like "I remember when half of this was farmland!" My mountains (I'm old enough to say that too) are increasingly crowded, and the city has drastically outgrown its infrastructure. I'm a bit *too* old to enjoy the constant surge of people the way I used to: I've been a city boy all my life, but lately I find myself craving quiet.

With all that said, I surely do love this place. My mountains, my city, my street, my block. Home.

I'm trying to concentrate on my , but I keep getting pulled away by . There's even more doom to scroll these days than usual, it seems.

Much of what I'm scrolling is discussions in -focused spaces, started and (somewhat) moderated by people who want thoughtful and informed discussion. Often they stay that way for quite a while. But the loons always find them, and descend in hordes. Like locusts without the charisma.

is the most common, but and change denial always put in a good showing. More recent crankeries like the explosion of flat-Earthers: please don't try to tell me they're all "just trolling." Others too numerous to list.

There are the hardcore who don't try to mask it, and the "just asking questions" crowd who are just as much true believers, minus the honesty. And another circle beyond that, people who genuinely don't know enough to know what questions to ask. Some of them might still be reachable—

—if you have the time and patience. Which I no longer do.

I did, you know, for much of my life. I'd give clear explanations, "as simple as possible but no simpler," and I've been told I was pretty good at it. Hell, I *enjoyed* doing it, and maybe still would. Answer questions. Smooth out sticking points. Engage with anyone, any time, anywhere.

I just can't anymore. And I hate that.

More and more of the people who look like they might want to learn, who can at least be given what they need to know to *start* asking the right questions, are really clever ideologues. Or they're just happy in their . It's a trap either way.

Like I've said before: nearly everyone is ignorant about nearly everything. The sum of human is too vast for anyone to learn more than a sliver of it in a lifetime. This is nobody's fault.

Science is fractally complicated. Each field is complicated, and each subfield is equally complicated, and each sub-sub-field ... you get the idea. No matter how much you know, you still have just as much to learn as you did at the start.

Maybe everything worth knowing is like this. Again, nobody is to blame.

But it is your fault, very much so, if you don't know anything about the subject at hand—and insist on spouting off anyway. If you react to those who know more with anger or mockery or baffled rage. If your deliberate, willful ignorance gets you and people around you killed.

So you know what? It's not my fault if I can no longer make myself care.

I'll keep on answering questions, and asking them too—and *listening* to both the questions and the answers. That's in my blood. I know there are many, many people in the world who do want to know more than they do now, and if you're still reading this, there's a fair chance you're one of them.

Everyone else can go to hell. That's where they're headed anyway, a hell they make for themselves, and the only remaining reason to try to get through is that they'll drag the rest of us with them. When that effort fails, as at the moment it manifestly is ...

Back to work. That may still be one place I can do *something*.

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