bobbyfiend

"I have no response to that."

Wait, in the first one it looks like the S has a cape.

Assuming this is a reasonable representation of public opinion in the two countries (and I don't yet have reason to assume otherwise, despite the neoliberal position of the founders of the institute commissioning the survey), I now think it would be interesting to see a breakdown, country by country, of the discrepancy between public perception of democracy and independent observers' ratings of democracy in those same countries.

Just got defensive-asshole-insulted about this on mastodon. I stumbled on an "investment advice" account posting that a main difference between the poor and wealthy is financial education, specifically that people who aren't wealthy lack financial education and a kick-ass business plan.

I said they seemed to have an unrealistically individualist, and anti-evidence, view of the relative contributions of personal and systemic factors in wealth. Right away the personal insults.

This led me to understand two things about that account:

1. They also seem to not have a really awesome business plan
2. Their only business plan is to convince poorer people they can be rich by following their advice, but only if nobody ever publicly questions their dumbass assumptions.

It's my goddamn IBS again.

Depends on the crime.

White collar: Probably daytime, so your presence (real or virtual) doesn't stand out.

Physical property: I'm guessing this is mostly at night.

Illegal U-turns: first week or two of the month.

There's a much larger (and not resolved, even among statisticians and Serious Quant People) about what approach to take--and some people say don't take any--but just getting this info out to people who are unaware is a great thing to do.

Bob

As a man, I've found this applies to almost any traditionally* feminine activity.

• "Traditional" is a red herring, quagmire, and propagandum with gender roles. What is "traditional" for men vs women shifts around over time and place, and within cultures and subcultures. I actually mean something like "hegemonic" or "stereotypical within your specific cultural milieu."

Thank you for typing this all out. It was lovely and inspiring to read.

Thinking one step further: Even if I somehow got into MENSA (unlikely), I can't imagine ever saying, "I see you have a MENSA discount..." ugh.