politics

“Woke” is a new ideology and its proponents should admit it
“What I find most fascinating about the wokeness culture war – and what makes it interesting – is that it is incredibly difficult to define what it is actually about.” I largely agree with this piece: it’s a new-ish thing (although not that new, it was around in LiveJournal days before catching on more widely) and it’s fair enough to identify it and give it a name.
(tags: liberalism woke Politics philosophy)

Liam Kofi Bright, White Psychodrama – PhilPapers
“I analyse the political, economic, and cultural circumstances that have given rise to persistent political disputes about race (known colloquially as “the culture war”) among a subset of Americans. I argue that they point to a deep tension between widely held normative aspirations and pervasive and readily observable material facts about our society. The characterological pathologies this gives rise to are discussed, and a normatively preferable path forward for an individual attempting to reconcile themselves to the current social order is suggested.”
(tags: race philosophy politics culture)

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe – The Atlantic
“In the past 30 years, the British economy chose finance over industry, Britain’s government chose austerity over investment, and British voters chose a closed and poorer economy over an open and richer one. The predictable results are falling wages and stunningly low productivity growth.”
(tags: economics politics growth)

KimberStormer comments on September 2021 Site update, includes membership graphs
Best comment on Metafilter’s slow death I’ve seen so far (not on the site itself, of course): “But what this doesn’t take into account is why governments and countries and elite clubs should be integrated. It’s because of jobs and money and power. But there is no economic benefit to joining metafilter. This doesn’t mean it’s pointless or bad to stop people from using ethnic slurs or whatever. But it means that there isn’t anyone clamoring to get in. There aren’t a bunch of trans Indonesian zoomers longing to join metafilter if only it wasn’t so hostile. All the BIPOC committees and moderation in the world can’t create them out of thin air.”
(tags: metafilter internet politics identity-politics)

The lockdown’s founding myth | Christopher Snowdon | The Critic Magazine
Argues that natural herd immunity was following the scientists’ recommendations at the time.
(tags: covid19 Politics)
It’s bizarre that this needs saying, but *of course* the UK had a Herd Immunity plan – Lessons From The Crisis
More digging into the history books from 2020.
(tags: covid19 medicine politics)

COVID-19: what health experts could and could not predict | Nature Medicine
Devi Sridhar in Nature: “Nearly a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, it is time to look back and assess what could have been predicted by health experts.”
(tags: science covid19 pandemic medicine)
I thrived on the tension and drama of British politics. Then I had a heart attack | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian
“I lived for the nerve-shredding rollercoaster of Westminster. But the stress got under my skin, and into my blood”
(tags: twitter Politics brexit journalism health)
I’d love to ignore ‘Covid sceptics’ and their tall tales. But they make a splash and have no shame | Media | The Guardian
Neil O’Brien on the fantasies of those in the media, and beyond, who oppose lockdown. There have been a few articles like this recently, hopefully it marks a tide rising against the loonies.
(tags: covid19 science lockdown pandemic)
Rise of the Coronavirus Cranks – Quillette
Another demolition of the smiley face crew.
(tags: twitter pandemic covid19 science)

My Brexit hell | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine
“What was Brexit like? America’s declaration of independence? A man leaving a golf club but demanding to still be allowed into the bar? Over the years, I went through a few analogies, but the one that persisted was of a married man who has for years enjoyed casually flirting with a work colleague. One evening he makes his traditional half-hearted pass, and instead of rolling her eyes, she replies: “Go on, then”. A month later, he’s living out of his car and negotiating through lawyers to see his children one weekend a month, and he can’t really tell you how it happened.”
(tags: brexit Politics funny)
Dr Andi Fugard on Twitter: “One benefit of Brexit – new jokes can be created by mildly editing old Soviet jokes. For example: A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish
A Twitter thread of Soviet jokes adapted for Brexit: “One benefit of Brexit – new jokes can be created by mildly editing old Soviet jokes. For example:

A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish. The shop that doesn’t have any meat is across the street.””
(tags: brexit funny doom politics)

radicle
Distributed GitHub, bit like that Gittorrent thing but seems to be actively maintained.
(tags: git collaboration p2p)

Covid: The War We Never Fought – Consumer Surplus
“England is about to go into a second lockdown, along with lots of other European countries. It’s possible that the second wave of Covid infections we’re experiencing was inevitable, but we didn’t really try to avoid it either.” Contains a handy list of all the failed predictions from cranks like Toby Young and the Great Barrington backers.
(tags: health covid19 medicine Politics)
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020
The full text of the SI. This looks a lot more tightly drafted than the previous ones I’ve seen (and so is a fair bit longer).
(tags: law covid19)