infamousbrad

[infamousbrad]

If you're doom-scrolling, knock that off.

Okay, do you all remember the advice we gave about doom-scrolling during Covid? It applies now, too. This is a slow apocalypse, pace yourself. There is no advantage to knowing the bad news or the good news hours before anybody else.

So if you need to install software on your phone or PC to throttle your access to news, do so. Maybe set up separate accounts for your Tumblr or BlueSky political and national news follows, and only check them once a day, too. Instead, find something that has nothing to do with the news to do with at least some of your time.

I'd say "go outside and touch grass" but it's January, so, I don't know, have a wank and a nap or something. Steam clean your floors. Hit the gym. Snuggle your pet(s). Anything that grounds you in your body.

[infamousbrad]

This TrumpCoin to MelaniaCoin rug-pull reminds me of the best part of the late P.J. O'Rourke's chapter on post-communist Romania in Eat the Rich, about pyramid schemes: "We all knew it was a scam. We just thought we were in on it."

[infamousbrad]

"Do you think the owl is a predator?"

"Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says 'Something is off here, watch out'? Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around."

(Context here.)

[infamousbrad]

Actually, (Biden HHS secretary) Xavier Becerra, going toe-to-toe with social media WAS your job. And you were bad at it.

“I can’t go toe to toe with social media,” Becerra said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday, arguing that even a Cabinet secretary can be hemmed in. As examples, Becerra cited the lawsuits the Biden administration faced after urging social media companies to take down posts the White House considered disinformation. And he noted that officials can’t formally disclose many details about negotiations to lower prescription drug prices. “I don’t get to write whatever I want,” he said. The health secretary never mentioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the longtime anti-vaccine activist’s shadow hung over Becerra’s answers. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run HHS has relentlessly criticized the agencies he soon may lead, amplified false claims about vaccines and offered alternatives to what he called government misinformation. Now, Kennedy, who has said he is not anti-vaccine, could occupy the office where Becerra was giving his exit interview.

Okay, I hear what he's saying, but here's something I've been saying since the first days of the last plague:

Effective public science education is a core part of the job of public health.

As soon as it became obvious that nobody in public health was doing public communication at all well, I started asking around. There's a first-rate college of Public Health just up the road from me; how many semesters of communication do they require to graduate with a masters degree in public health?

One. At the college sophomore level.

Yikes.

Y'know, my ex-wife was a technical writer, entered the field just as they were switching from hiring male engineers to female english majors, specifically because they found out that it was easier to teach engineering to english graduates than it was to teach engineers how to write coherently.

Public health administrators and staff don't need to be first-rate epidemiologists. They need to know enough about epidemiologists to understand what they're being told by the people in the actual contagious-disease labs and by the statisticians. What they do need to be is first-rate communicators. And they're just not. All the first-rate (and even more of the second-rate) communicators are on the anti-public-health side. May god have mercy on our souls, though mercy merit we none, because as a society we gotta fix this.

[infamousbrad]

Btw I think it's worth mentioning that I'm like. In some ways an extremely cynical person:

Literally, one of my major opinions on humanity is "Humans really seem to like committing genocide???" (Looks, obviously genocide is a fucking atrocity, and I'm in no fucking way diminishing that. It's just also something that people keep fucking committing.)

I work professionally with survivors of abuse, rape, and incest.

I think that most people are (by design, aka evolution!) fundamentally self-interested (and also that that's usually okay)

I am more caught up on the news than like/at least 90% of people.

So when I say that I think that:

Hope is real

There is real, substantial evidence for hope

I think we're going to beat climate change

There is a ton of evidence that supports us beating climate change,

We're going (continue) making the world a better place

The good of humanity and the world ultimately outweighs the bad

It's not because I'm sticking my head in the sand. It's really, really not!

I'm saying that in very real knowledge of how fucking shitty things are and can be.

And despite all that, I'm still hopeful. I'm still optimistic.

I still think hope is going to win.

You don't need to be some huge optimist to have hope.

Anyway here's a link to my masterpost on why we're going to beat climate change,

And here's a link to a great article on all the reasons that this century is, on average, the best time to be alive in human history.

[infamousbrad]

The New Atheists are only pro-science when it confirms their biases, never when it tells them that they're wrong. They're just reflexive contrarians: whatever statement angers the most people must be true and the biggest hero is the person who's hated by the most people. Trolling isn't heroic.

(https://bsky.app/profile/infamousbrad.bsky.social/post/3lfdbjwo5m224)

[infamousbrad]

Brad: I'm really glad you are still around and active, and that I've found you here. I used to read your LJ although I rarely if ever said anything. I remember an entry on drumming at Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary and why you stopped, which I had a great deal of fellow-feeling with after my and my colleagues' experiences at several Rainbow Gatherings in the mid-90s. Do you still have a copy of it? I believe it was in the spring of 2004. Thanks, Bluejay

I don’t even remember that one, but so far my whole old blog exists on the Wayback Machine. Good luck with your search.

[infamousbrad]

1. Don’t Panic — Autocracy Takes Time

Legal battles, congressional pushback, market forces, midterm elections in 2026 and internal Republican dissent will slow [Trump] down and restrain him.

2. Don’t Disengage — Stay Connected

The answer to political defeat is not to disconnect, but to organize.

3. Don’t Fear the Infighting

For the Democratic Party to redefine itself as a force for change, and not just as the custodian of the status quo, it needs fundamental shifts in how it relates to working people in the U.S. There is time to do so before the midterms of 2026.

4. Charismatic Leadership Is a Non-Negotiable

Voters seek authenticity and a connection — give it to them.

5. Skip the Protests and Identity Politics

Any grassroots action must be coupled with a clear, relatable economic message and showcase the leadership potential of Democratic mayors and governors. Identity politics alone won’t do it.

6. Have Hope

America will survive the next four years if Democrats pick themselves up and start learning from the successes of opponents of autocracy across the globe.

[infamousbrad]

The way my theology instructors explained it: TULIP.

Total depravity: don't ask God to be fair, if he was being fair we'd all go to Hell.

Unmerited election: God creates certain people ("the elect") who are receptive to the Holy Spirit; if you weren't made that way, and most of us weren't, there's nothing you can believe or do that will get you into Heaven. Go ahead and try, but don't blame God for being fair and saying you didn't do enough; He made you unable to do enough and too bad for you.

Limited atonement: Jesus didn't die for the sins of the world (no matter how clearly the bible says otherwise!), he died for the sins of the elect and only theirs.

Irresistible grace: If you were created as one of the elect, when the right evangelist explains the gospel to you, you will convert and accept Jesus' sacrifice for you, you have no free will in the matter there, either. And ...

Perseverance of the saints: Once saved, always saved; no matter what sins or crimes you commit as one of the elect, you still go to heaven.

It's the most extreme formulation of the "Just World Hypothesis" in the history of human thought, and it's almost entirely incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. It's the kind of craziness that happens when people read words in the bible like "unlimited" or "uncountable" and transpose the mathematical concept of "infinite" instead of recognizing that, before the mathematicians took over and redefined the word "infinity," all it really meant is "at least a little bit more than anybody else."

Ironically and importantly for my fellow Americans: the entire Baptist movement was founded as a repudiation of Calvinism, and it wasn't taught as bible truth in any Baptist seminary, except as a heresy, prior to about 1975. That's when the Southern Baptist theologians started flirting with it as part of their project to get Baptists to vote Republican, to distract Christians from the frequent and plain-language teachings all over the Bible that rich people are all evil.

Me, starting a video that says it's going to explain how Victorian poorhouses fucked up the concept of charity forever: ok, show me what you've got

Video: it starts with the ideas of the Christian philosopher --

Me: DON'T SAY IT DON'T FUCKING SAY IT

Video: -- John Calvin

Me:

[infamousbrad]

If dirt-poor redneck Scott County, TN can do this much in this little time, then it could be done everywhere in this country just as cheaply and effectively. Which means living in a society with intimate-partner homicide is a choice we collectively make at the ballot box.

[infamousbrad]

I love that the internet saw people comparing women and other alienated groups of people and went, “they’re dating,” and, “they support each other.” We’re improving as a society.

[infamousbrad]

Lambert Field changed their name to St. Louis International airport many decades ago. Some day, I may yet meet a St. Louisan who doesn't call it Lambert, but that day has not yet come.

[infamousbrad]

(To avoid skewing the results, I'd request that, while the poll is active, that you not put this on a blog specifically about chronic pain; "your personal blog, where you happen to talk about chronic pain" is fine.)

[infamousbrad]

Yep. Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are bible fanfic. So what?

The Paradise Lost trilogy is bible fanfic. Dante's Inferno is bible fanfic. The Great Divorce is bible fanfic. It's a Wonderful Life is bible fanfic. The Late Great Planet Earth is terrible fanfic, and the Left Behind series is even worse fanfic, but they're both bible fanfic too.

And y'know what? The bible says so little about the details of the afterlife it practically invites fanfic. And you know what's even more true? If you asked a focus group of bible-believing Christians to list, from memory, everything the bible says about the afterlife? Nearly everything on that list would be something that isn't in the bible, their ancestors adopted it as fanon from long-ago popular fanfics.

This is literally how cultural transmission of knowledge works.

We could argue all day on wheter "Viv makes OCs not characters" makes sense or not (because OCs ARE characters), but that doesn't change the fact that the people saying this see OCs as a bad thing that can be used as an insult, and THAT is the problem here that automatically makes them in the wrong.

Also, isn't that LITERALLY what the Hellaverse is?

OCs and ideas Viv had that enough people liked, so she got it funded and off the ground as actual shows? Like, if these haters wanna be "right" so bad about there "technically" being a difference, then sure, she makes OCs instead of characters. But it says more about you than about her that YOU think that's a bad thing.

Viv grew up in fandom culture and embraces "fandom cringe", which is literally what makes her shows so good in the first place.

I've talked before how HB and HH are literally if you take the 2000s fandom (with a bit of modernization, because obviously the 2000s weren't perfect) of a show and make it the actual show instead. So, as someone who grew up in 2000s fandoms as well, how in hell am I supposed to see that as a bad thing!?

[infamousbrad]

Moxxie was too broken to even try.

Loona, who knew from her father's own mouth that his greatest fear was dying alone, tried but couldn't do it; at the last moment whimpered and shut her eyes and turned away.

Millie almost let her tears overwhelm her, but she caught herself, looked up, opened her crying eyes almost as wide as we've ever seen them and LOCKED eyes with Blitz. They all "knew" he was going to die right in front of them (as so many of their victims, let's not forget, died in front of their friends and family) and it was clearly ruining her to do it, but Millie made sure that Blitz wasn't going to die alone.

She kept the promise that Loona couldn't, and it was the bravest thing anybody in this show has done in two whole seasons. (As the saying goes, dying is easy, living is what's hard.) I was so proud of her. And I cried with her. Cried hard.

The animation of that scene was amazing, best thing I've seen since the re-fusion of Steven Universe. This fscking show, man.

Millie didn't look away.

Watching it happen, actually seeing the axe sever his head, would almost certainly scar her even more than the rest of the situation was doing. There's just no way to unsee some shit, no matter how strong you are. Millie is undeniably strong, maybe the strongest of them all, but she loves Blitz. She loves him, and she was willing to sacrifice part of herself to give him comfort and strength in the end.

And she did give him those things, she absolutely did. Millie kept eye contact with him. Even when he smiled and said his final words, when she could have looked away and no one really could have blamed her, Millie stayed with him. She couldn't hold his hand or hold him, not physically, but she held Blitz all the same. She saw him, saw what he was doing, saw his love, and she held him, best fucking friends until the literal end.

And Blitz didn't feel alone.

He hated that they were all there, that he had gotten them into this. Still, if they had all been looking away, it might have been more terrifying than it already was. He wouldn't have blamed them for it, he would have understood, but all the same... All the same, he would have felt so alone in those last few seconds.

But he didn't feel alone, and so much of that was Millie. Her courage. Her kindness. Her steadfastness.

Blitz was grateful to her in that moment, and will be grateful to her for the rest of his life.

[infamousbrad]

[infamousbrad]

For years, it was a mystery: Seemingly out of the blue, therapists would feel like they’d tripped some invisible wire and become a target of UnitedHealth Group. A company representative with the Orwellian title “care advocate” would call and grill them about why they’d seen a patient twice a week or weekly for six months. In case after case, United would refuse to cover care, leaving patients to pay out-of-pocket or go without it. The severity of their issues seemed not to matter. Around 2016, government officials began to pry open United’s black box. They found that the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate had been using algorithms to identify providers it determined were giving too much therapy and patients it believed were receiving too much; then, the company scrutinized their cases and cut off reimbursements. By the end of 2021, United’s algorithm program had been deemed illegal in three states. But that has not stopped the company from continuing to police mental health care with arbitrary thresholds and cost-driven targets, ProPublica found, after reviewing what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy expenses. The insurer’s strategies are still very much alive, putting countless patients at risk of losing mental health care.