#Studies in Higher Education in 2020

[drdemonprince]

Between 500 to 1,000 study subjects were recruited from each of the 23 countries sampled in Napier’s study, for a total number of 16,756 participants. Each participant was asked to report their attitudes toward transgender women and transgender men on scale from 1 to 9, with 1 representing “extremely positive” feelings, and 9 representing “extremely negative” feelings. Attitudes toward gay men and lesbians were also recorded, to echo the Bettinsoli et al 2020 paper that Napier’s work builds upon.

In addition to reporting their feelings toward trans and gay people, Napier’s survey respondents were also asked whether they believed it was possible for a person to be a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth (Napier calls this a “gender identity denial" measure), and to report their religiosity, conservatism, age, and education level. Region of course was also a crucial variable in the study, and so analyses are performed both on the level of individual country, and pooled in order to draw comparisons between Western- and non-Western people.

The first important finding to flag here is that, when collapsed across all countries sampled, participants were consistently more biased against trans women than they were trans men.

When isolating survey respondents by region, however, Napier found that non-Westerners reported a greater bias against trans women. Participants in Western nations still appear to have greater dislike for trans women than trans men, on average, but when isolated by region, the pattern did not reach the level of statistical significance. As in her previous analyses, Napier found that the men in her sample were more biased against trans individuals overall, compared to women, and that non-Western men were particularly prejudiced.

Next, Napier turned her focus to the measure of “gender identity denial” — which asked participants where it is possible for a person to be a gender other than the one they were considered at birth.

Participants from Russia, China, India, Peru, Hungary, South Africa, Poland, and the United States disagreed the most strongly with the idea that a person’s gender can change, of all the 23 countries sampled. Spain, a nation that offers hormone replacement therapy on an informed consent basis, ranked as far and away the least transphobic region in the sample, with respondents generally considering it possible for a person to change their gender identity from what they were considered at birth.

After this, Napier combined attitudes toward both trans women and trans men to compute an overall measure of transphobic attitudes, and built a model examining the effects of all variables in the study, as well as how those variables interacted with one another. Once again, she discovered that men feel more negatively toward trans people than women do, and that non-Western men, in particular, expressed greater transphobia.

Napier also discovered that more highly educated people were generally less transphobic, regardless of region. Older people, on average, were more biased against trans people, and this effect was heightened in non-Western countries. Conservatism was associated with more transphobic bias, particularly in Western countries such as the United States. In Western countries, higher religiosity predicted greater transphobia, though it did not in non-Western countries.

So far, these results mostly line up with Napier’s predictions, and most of the existing social psychological literature on the subject. Nothing super surprising here. Where things get a little more complicated, though, is in step two of the analyses, where Napier entered attitudes toward gay men and lesbians as a control.

After controlling for attitudes toward gay people, younger people were actually found to be more transphobic than elders in the Western countries in the sample. What this means, in essence, is that for older people in countries like the United States, attitudes toward gay people and trans people pretty much hang together: either you accept all LGBTQ individuals, or you don’t.

But among the younger generations, homophobia and transphobia are somewhat more independent. Perhaps on account of rising transphobic rhetoric, a sizeable number of young people in Western countries support gays but strongly dislike trans people. The LGB without the T movement sadly seems to have found some converts among the newer generations.

When controlling for attitudes towards gays and lesbians, the effect of education and conservatism on transphobia largely dropped away. This suggests that more educated people are more tolerant towards both gays and trans folks (which is not super surprising), and that conservatives are less tolerant toward both (also a pretty predictable result).

The effects of religion however, flipped: when controlling for anti-gay bias, highly religious people were actually less biased against trans folks than the non-religious were.

This suggests there’s a contingent of highly religious people who are more tolerant toward trans people than they are gay people. This may indicate they believe that transness, which is a matter of identity or personal feeling, is not a choice or not sinful, whereas being gay is. Since some religious doctrines preach specifically about the evils of gay sex, it’s possible some highly religious individuals view transness more neutrally. But truthfully, more study would be needed to tease this effect apart.

Finally, Napier examined the relationship between “gender identity denial” and general transphobia. She found that people who do not believe it’s possible to change one’s gender are in fact more transphobic (no surprise there), and that a person’s beliefs about the changeability of gender had an influence on transphobia that was statistically independent of homophobia.

In other words, transphobia isn’t just the result of homophobic people applying their bigotry to all members of the LGBTQ umbrella equally — rather, transphobia reflects, in some part, a person’s ideology about what gender is and whether it is changeable.

This might not sound like it’s a big deal, but it suggests that the rhetoric of TERFs, “gender critical activists,” and far-right transphobes about the immutability of gender might have had an influence on public attitudes over the years. People who hate trans folks aren’t just doing it because they hate all queers — they’ve developed specifically transphobic beliefs about how the world operates. Transphobes are therefore not merely “ignorant” about what trans people are — they know about us, and they have constructed a worldview that deliberately shuts us out and makes them more biased against us.

I wrote about an impactful new study on the public's attitudes toward trans women and trans men across the globe -- you can read my full write-up and critique of the study (or have it narrated to you by the Substack app) at drdevonprice.substack.com

[hellyeahscarleteen]

"Top surgeries are coming out on top when it comes to patient satisfaction. A new study found that when it comes to this particular procedure, people’s long term satisfaction was “overwhelmingly positive compared to other medical and nonmedical decisions.”

Opponents of access to gender-affirming care like to claim that patients will someday regret making irreversible or partially irreversible changes to their bodies, such as gender-affirming mastectomies (often referred to more colloquially as top surgery). Florida Governor and wannabe presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who has overseen passage of some of the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policies we've seen, once likened trans-affirming care to chemical castration during a debate, while Arkansas Attorney General appeared on Jon Stewart’s show The Problem to deliver the incredibly made-up statistic that 98% of gender dysphoric youth will eventually identify as cisgender.

However, actual medical evidence tells a much different story.

A study published online in the journal JAMA Surgery on August 9 surveyed 139 participants, all of whom had gender-affirming mastectomies at the University of Michigan between January 1, 1990, and February 29, 2020. Researchers found that the median satisfaction rate among respondents was five on a scale of 1 to 5 (the higher the number, the greater the satisfaction, the study explains), and that their medium regret score was 0 on a 100-point scale (again, the lower the number, the lower the regret). In other words, the overwhelming majority of respondents were highly satisfied and regret was vanishingly rare.

Additionally, a quarter of respondents reported having had an additional gender-affirming procedure since their top surgery. As the study’s authors said, “These results suggest sustained intent and consistency in decision-making.”

This is far from the first time that medical evidence has supported the long-term positive effects of gender-affirming surgeries. A 2021 review of multiple studies found that only around 1% of patients who received gender-affirming surgeries regretted their decision. And as the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund notes, almost every major medical association has recognized gender-affirming care as a medical necessity."

[musicalhell]

Checking in. I know you're planning on getting the fuck of out dodge, and I don't blame you. Unfortunately, I don't have that option. My mom keeps saying that we'll get through it. I don't quite believe it, but I get so mad at all the social media people shitting on Biden, Harris, Walz, and the Obamas for trying to reassure people that it'll be okay and not to give up. Like what do you want them to say, "You're all screwed, goodbye"? They're better people than that.

Thanks! I'm doing all right, or at least as well as can be considered under the circumstances, and hope you are as well.

I should clarify that this is not a snap decision; we have discussed the possibility of emigrating since at least 2020 and knew this election outcome would be our trigger moment. I'm well aware that I'm privileged for even being able to seriously consider this possibility, and there are a lot of people who have no option but to stay and fight it out here. And it's not that I think that fight is pointless or unwinnable--it's important, as is the hope necessary to motivate it. But for us, this begins and ends with one thing: our kids.

When my kids go to school, a voice in the back of my mind reminds me to hug them and tell them I love them, just in case someone takes a gun and opens fire on their class. My older son has already talked about studying abroad and finding a job in another country, because he doesn't want to be burdened with inescapable debt for wanting a higher education or treating an illness or accident he has no control over. My younger son would be angry if you told him that his Muslim best friend didn't have as much right to be in this country as he does. I want what every parent wants for their children--to have a good life, an even better life than mine if possible--and in the near future, that's not going to happen in the United States.

So I'm not giving up hope. I'm doing what every migrant and immigrant has done since human history began: I'm planting my hope in a new garden.

[evidence-based-activism]

I have seen claims by misogynists that outcomes for children raised by single fathers are better than for children raised by single mothers, even when controlling for the income of the parent. Is there any actual evidence to support this?

Hi Anon!

I have found some interesting information about this topic, but I want to preface this by acknowledging how difficult it is it research this topic. Why? Because the vast majority of single parents are women/mothers, and even when men are single fathers their demographics are so substantially different from single mothers. As a result most of the research on this topic runs into issues with both getting a large enough sample for single-fathers and with "comparing apples and oranges" when a sample is gathered.

For example, according to Pew Research Center in 2017, only 29% of single parents are fathers, and this was a notable increase from the 12% in 1968 [1]. This disparity makes it incredibly difficult to get "matched samples" (i.e., where other traits/aspects are held constant) for single mothers and single fathers.

In addition, this 2020 study [2] showed that almost half of single mothers are in either the at-risk or in-crisis poverty categories compared to less than a quarter of single fathers. This pattern is long-standing, as this 2001 study shows [3]

This is a pretty crucial compounding factor given past evidence of the effect of socioeconomic status on child outcome. Specifically, it's fairly well established that children from single-parent households do worse than children two-parent households [3]. However, "econometric tests using a variety of background controls ... show little evidence that a parent's presence during childhood affects economic well being in adulthood" [3]. This indicates that it's some other factor (e.g., poverty, peer relations) that is driving the negative outcomes of children from single-parent homes.

All of that being said, there is some research that provides some preliminary information:

---

A Literature Review

First up is this 2015 review of research on single fathers [4]. Reviews attempt to provide a comprehensive account of the current research, and this one looked at all research between 1970-2013.

Their demographic findings:

"friends and family regularly complimented fathers and offered them more help and social invitations ... Mothers, in contrast, did not receive the same level of kudos and aid"

"in terms of income, education, and poverty, single fathers are generally less well-off than married fathers, but they are better off than single mothers"

"single fathers are ... more likely to have other adults in the household" (i.e., cohabitating with a partner, but still considered single as they are not married)

single fathers also "tend to have custody of a smaller number of children" and have custody of "older children" on average

Parental involvement:

"unpartnered single mothers rated higher on involvement than single dads on all 10 measures [of involvement]"

"single fathers spend slightly less time caring for children than single mothers, but more time than married fathers"

"single fathers are less close to and less involved with their children's friends and school, and monitor and supervise their children less than single mothers do"

"Compared to single mothers and two-parent families, single fathers had the lowest [parental] supervision score"

Child outcomes:

"no differences in the likelihood of teen marriage, teen birth, premarital birth, or marital disruption between youths in single-mother households and youths in single-father households"

"for internalizing behaviors ... and academic performance ... outcomes for children from single-father and single-mother households are similar" (internalizing behaviors include things like depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem)

but children of single fathers show higher levels of "externalizing behavior (e.g.,antisocial and violent behavior) and substance use"

"alcohol and drug behaviors, as well as delinquency rates, were highest in single-father homes"

"teachers judged youths raised in a single-father household as less successful at getting along with others and putting forth effort" and there "were no significant differences on self-concept or relationships with peers"

"controlling for socioeconomic resources, children from single-father families had slightly lower standardized test scores"

In summary, the review indicates that (1) single fathers have economic and social advantages over single mothers, (2) single mothers are equally or more involved with their children, depending on the measurement, and (3) children in single mother homes have either equal or superior outcomes to children in single father homes.

---

Other Research

I did find another more recent (2019) study [5, emphasis mine] that found "children living with divorced single mothers performed as well as children from intact families, whereas children living with divorced single fathers and stepparents were disadvantaged in academic performance and subjective wellbeing" in China. I include this study because (1) all the other research I presented is very western-centric and (2) the data source is a nationwide, representative, longitudinal study of mainland China, which are all factors that make the data high quality. That being said, I'd want to see replication of these findings before drawing too many conclusions from them.

There's also this interesting study [6] examined the effects of single-mother and single-father families on youth crime in aggregate. In other words, they looked at the community concentration of single-mother families and single-father families on crime statistics in that community. I include this study mostly because they have excellent literature review at the beginning, but I'll also address their own findings.

They found that the concentration of single-mother families was associated with more youth crime on an aggregate level. This finding is has several important caveats, however, which I'll list below. (And the researcher actually did an excellent job explaining these! It's just still a likely source of confusion.)

"In most cases a correlation at the aggregate level cannot be used to prove the corresponding correlation at the individual or household level." -> This means that their findings are an interesting examination of community trends (e.g., "lower level of social control in the community increases youth crime") but not evidence of outcomes for the single-mother/single-father/dual-parent children themselves.

The average single-father family concentration was ~3% compared to the average single-mother family concentration of 12%. -> This greatly limits the conclusions that can be drawn here (and links back to the two issues I prefaced this post with). For example, it's possible that single-father family concentration was not linked to aggregate crime statistics purely because no community concentration reached the threshold necessary to exert an effect.

There are other confounding factors that cannot be eliminated using an aggregate approach.

The important aspect of this study is that it suggests that it may not be single-parenthood itself that results in disadvantaged outcomes for the children (as is also suggested by [3]); instead it may be a community-level effect where higher density of single-parents is correlated with other socioeconomic factors that is then correlated with disadvantaged outcomes. (They even note this in the study, indicating that single-mother households "has been used as an indicator of community poverty, economic deprivation or economic disadvantage in numerous studies, and it has been shown that the variable correlates well with other indicators such as low income, poverty, low education, unemployment, public assistance and rental housing".)

---

Same-sex Parents

To preempt any unfortunate interpretations of this post (re: the need for two parents/biological parents/a mother and a father) I also want to explicitly indicate that children raised by same-sex parents do just as well as children raised by different-sex parents.

This international review [7] found that "after adjusting for socioeconomic factors such as income and education, no significant differences are discernible in health and development between children of same-sex couples versus children of different-sex couples." They also found that "children of same-sex couples outperform their peers on matters of education and civic engagement."

This meta-analysis [8] of 19 studies found the "results confirm previous studies in this current body of literature, suggesting that children raised by same-sex parents fare equally well to children raised by heterosexual parents."

This study [9] used a longitudinal dataset to find that any academic differences between children of same-sex and different-sex parents was "nonsignificant net of family transitions" (e.g., divorce).

This large, longitudinal, representative study from the Netherlands [10] found "children raised by same-sex parents from birth perform better than children raised by different-sex parents in both primary and secondary education."

This large, population-based US survey [11] found "children of lesbian and gay parents did not differ from children of heterosexual parents in emotional and mental health difficulties" and higher levels reported by bisexual parents was eliminated after "adjusting for parental psychological distress".

Another large, representative sample [12] from the Netherlands found "no significant disadvantages for children with same-sex parents compared to different-sex parents" in "children’s behavioral outcomes"

This article [13] addresses one of the major challenges to the no differences hypothesis, describing the "major deficiencies" in the paper arguing against the no differences hypothesis.

A number of other reviews/commentaries (e.g., [14-15]) point out that there are methodological limitations (e.g., limited sample size, cross-sectional study design) for most of the research on this topic, but still acknowledge that almost all the current, peer-reviewed, research supports the "no differences" hypothesis. (Also, some of these concerns have since been partially addressed.)

All of this indicates that having same-sex parents is not harmful to children. Whatever factor drives the poorer outcomes associated with single-parent families (e.g., lower economic status), it is not the mere-absence of the other-sex parent.

---

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, children in single-mother families are as-well-off or better-off than children in single father families. Both groups of children tend to have poorer outcomes than children in two-parent (different or same-sex) families. However, controlling for related socioeconomic factors (e.g., income, death in the family, etc.) ameliorates this difference.

I hope this helps you, Anon!

References under the cut:

Livingston, Gretchen. “The Changing Profile of Unmarried Parents.” Pew Research Center, 25 Apr. 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/04/25/the-changing-profile-of-unmarried-parents/.

Lu, Y. C., Walker, R., Richard, P., & Younis, M. (2020). Inequalities in poverty and income between single mothers and fathers. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 135.

Lang, K., & Zagorsky, J. L. (2001). Does growing up with a parent absent really hurt?. Journal of human Resources, 253-273.

Coles, R. L. (2015). Single‐father families: A review of the literature. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 7(2), 144-166.

Zhang, C. (2020). Are children from divorced single-parent families disadvantaged? New evidence from the China family panel studies. Chinese Sociological Review, 52(1), 84-114.

Wong, S. K. (2017). The effects of single-mother and single-father families on youth crime: Examining five gender-related hypotheses. International journal of law, crime and justice, 50, 46-60.

McNamara, K. (2019, March). The advantages of gay parents: Examining the outcomes of children of same and different-sex parents. In Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings (Vol. 13, No. 1).

Crowl, A., Ahn, S., & Baker, J. (2008). A meta-analysis of developmental outcomes for children of same-sex and heterosexual parents. Journal of GLBT family studies, 4(3), 385-407.

Potter, D. (2012). Same‐sex parent families and children's academic achievement. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(3), 556-571.

Mazrekaj, D., De Witte, K., & Cabus, S. (2020). School outcomes of children raised by same-sex parents: Evidence from administrative panel data. American Sociological Review, 85(5), 830-856.

Calzo, J. P., Mays, V. M., Björkenstam, C., Björkenstam, E., Kosidou, K., & Cochran, S. D. (2019). Parental sexual orientation and children's psychological well‐being: 2013–2015 National Health Interview Survey. Child development, 90(4), 1097-1108.

Mazrekaj, D., Fischer, M. M., & Bos, H. M. (2022). Behavioral outcomes of children with same-sex parents in the Netherlands. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(10), 5922.

Perrin, A. J., Cohen, P. N., & Caren, N. (2013). Are children of parents who had same-sex relationships disadvantaged? A scientific evaluation of the no-differences hypothesis. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 17(3), 327-336.

Schumm, W. R. (2016). A review and critique of research on same-sex parenting and adoption. Psychological Reports, 119(3), 641-760.

Mazrekaj, D., & Jin, Y. (2023). Mental health of children with gender and sexual minority parents: a review and future directions. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1-6.

[contemplatingoutlander]

America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education

This is an excellent article in The Washington Post about how our school systems have begun to reflect the political divisions in our nation, with many red states legally banning discussions on racism, sexism, and gender issues, and many blue states legally requiring those kinds of discussions. This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if the don't subscribe to the Post. Below are some excerpts:

Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19. [...] The divide is sharply partisan. The vast majority of restrictive laws and policies, close to 9o percent, were enacted in states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, The Post found. Meanwhile, almost 80 percent of expansive laws and policies were enacted in states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

The explosion of laws regulating school curriculums is unprecedented in U.S. history for its volume and scope, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies education history and policy...states have never before stepped in so aggressively to set rules for local schools. [...] [A] nationally representative study from the Rand Corp. released this year found that 65 percent of K-12 teachers report they are limiting instruction on “political and social issues.” “What the laws show is that we have extremely significant differences over how we imagine America,” Zimmerman said. [...] In practice, these divisions mean that what a child learns about, say, the role slavery played in the nation’s founding — or the possibility of a person identifying as nonbinary — may come to depend on whether they live in a red or blue state. [...] Almost 40 percent of these laws work by granting parents greater control of the curriculum — stipulating that they must be able to review, object to or remove lesson material, as well as opt out of instruction. [...] Another almost 40 percent of the laws forbid schools from teaching a long list of often-vague concepts related to race, sex or gender.

[...] At the college level, among the measures passed in recent years is a 2021 Oklahoma law that prohibits institutions of higher education from holding “mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling,” as well as any “orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping.” By contrast, a 2023 California measure says state community college faculty must employ “teaching, learning and professional practices” that reflect “anti-racist principles.”

Some experts predicted the politically divergent instruction will lead to a more divided society. “When children are being taught very different stories of what America is, that will lead to adults who have a harder time talking to each other,” said Rachel Rosenberg, a Hartwick College assistant professor of education.

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Get to Know Me Tag :)

I was tagged by @telomeke and @hughungrybear. Thanks for tagging me!

do you make your bed?

It depends... I live in the part of the world where it's usual to have a duvet in a duvet cover and a sheet covering the mattress, and I have a duvet twice the width of my bed so it usually doesn't get rucked up during the night, so when I get up I fold over the top third of the duvet to air out the mattress/sheet. If it's a work day, it will stay like this until I get home, then I will usually pull the duvet back over the bed. If it's a weekend, I might make the bed again midday. I like it when my bed looks made.

what's your favourite number?

I'm not sure why but I like the number 7, and then also the numbers 4 and 3 because they make up 7. I've never really considered numbers beyond single digits to be 'favourites'. But if I did it would be my birthday day. Oh and I don't really use favourite numbers as important passwords or pins or the such...jsyk.

what is your job?

The work I do is quite niche, so I never really want to say too much because I'm pretty discoverable online with a few key words...but then sometimes I really want y'all to know what I do because it's unusual (and, I think, quite cool!)...but without revealing too much I work in the arts sector - specifically dance.

if you could go back to school, would you?

School, as in aged 11-16? Absolutely the hell no. But school as in higher education, degrees, masters, or smaller qualifications for my general interests? Well, I sort of did a few years ago (*she looks at the calendar and realises it's more than 'a few'*). I did a Creative Writing Masters over 2019-2020, which was GREAT to do but sort of killed my spirit and drive to be a writer...but whatever, I can always pick it back up again in the future if it returns. I also went to classes to learn Swedish when I lived in Sweden and I'm going to a different language class now one evening a week. I enjoy studying...but I get too focused on getting good grades.

can you parallel park?

Yes but I only do it when the space is big enough for me to confidently do it (especially with all these sensors beeping nowadays) and usually only on the side of the road opposite to the steering wheel (I can drive on both sides of the road).

a job you had that would surprise people?

I think my whole career is probably surprising to people but in the sense that I think people are mostly confused because they don't really understand what I really do on a day to day basis.

do you think aliens are real?

I think it would be incredible if in this whole universe we are the only planet who has developed 'life'. Aliens don't necessarily have to be intelligent life like us (and that's debatable sometimes!), so yes, I think somewhere in this universe there is another planet which has the conditions for some form of life, whether we could survive there or not.

can you drive a manual car?

Yes, I learnt on one and have managed to adapt to both right-hand and left-hand gear sticks, although I'm still a little 'fumbly' with the right-hand gear stick. I prefer automatics when in a traffic jam but otherwise I'm happy to drive whichever. Sometimes it's good to have something to focus on when driving, so a manual is good. The problem happens if I've used different hire cars in a short period of time (which I need to do sometimes with work) and when I forget I'm in a manual and brake coming up to to a junction and just...stall because I forget to change down gears 😂

what's your guilty pleasure?

If a guilty pleasure is something I'd feel shy or embarrassed admitting or talking to others about...then it would probably be watching ql or reading fanfic 😂 Other than that I'm not sure I have anything...I enjoy what I enjoy and don't feel guilt over it.

tattoos?

No but I've always thought about getting one but I think the thought of the work I'd have to do to find someone I would really trust to permanently mark my skin means I've just never done it. But I would like some kind of minimalist abstract colour art that starts on my shoulder and trails down my arm. Maybe. I've never been able to find exactly what I'm imagining, which is also why I've never pursued it.

favorite color?

I think I'm in my blue stage in my life, looking at the majority of colours surrounding me, but I also like pops of red.

favorite type of music?

The music playlists I listen to most are 1) OSTs and similar style songs from all the qls I've watched over the past 3 years 2) the instrumental background music from all the qls I've watched and 3) Swedish pop (to keep the language fresh in my brain). I do like all kinds of music - just NOT drum and bass - anything can work for me in the right mood.

do you like puzzles?

Yes, although I don't often do them. I enjoy the 'escape room' type Exit games as well as sudoku, and for a few months several years ago I really got into hanjie puzzles.

any phobias?

I'm not sure if this is a phobia or not but I absolutely CANNOT deal with cotton wool. Just thinking about pulling it apart makes me want to crawl out of my skin and lay down in a bath of acid just to get away from it let alone actually TOUCHING it and pulling it apart 🤢🤮 The cotton wool pads are ok because they have smooth sides and I don't...pull 🤮 them 🤮 apart 🤮. Ok, I gotta stop talking about this now, I'm squirming in my seat.

favorite childhood sport?

I did gymnastics as a child, from about aged 8 to 13, but I don't know if that counts as a 'sport', although I did compete. I didn't really enjoy most ball sports as a kid.

do you talk to yourself?

ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. I talk to myself in my head. I talk to myself out loud. Sometimes, if I'm talking to myself aloud about something important and then do something that means I can't continue (cleaning my teeth, drinking/eating etc) then for some reason I can't continue in my head. I have to wait until I'm finished to then talk out loud again. But I also talk to myself aloud when I'm out 😬 but I do it quietly and without moving my mouth too much so people don't notice. I was in a shop recently and a gentleman was talking to himself out loud (commenting on the offering of tea towels ikea had and wondering whether to buy any) - loud enough that I thought that he was actually talking to someone else but he wasn't - and I felt like I had a glimpse of my future if I wasn't careful 😂

what movies do you adore?

I don't watch a lot of movies nowadays - the last I saw was Barbie. But the one that has stayed with me as a favourite since I first saw it is Some Kind of Wonderful. And I love The Holiday as a Christmas movie (although I haven't watched it for ages). Oh and it's not a movie, so maybe doesn't count, but the BBC's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has my whole heart.

coffee or tea?

I'm definitely a tea drinker (approx 3 cups of black Earl Grey plus one or two herbal teas every day) but sometimes I'll crave a coffee...but then I'll have decaf. I'll crave it because I think the milkiness of it (oat milk though) makes it feel like a comfort drink, and I like a small shot of gingerbread syrup in it too.

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

I remember things like 'lawyer', 'journalist', and 'doctor' were common aspirations when I was a kid which I also contemplated but when I decided I wanted to be a dancer at aged 13 that was it for me. My 'back-up' career plan was some kind of palaeontology or archaeology ("you get an -ology you're a scientist!" 😂) but I never needed to pursue that.

Onward tagging: I'm not sure by now who has done this or not, so I'll tag some people and if you have done it then tag me in your post so I can read it! @grapejuicegay @dimplesandfierceeyes @casualavocados @ranchthoughts @jourquet @lollygirlpops @airenyah @incandescentflower and @linosaur

Like @telomeke, I also get tagged now and then by others in various tag games but then get too busy with work to be able to do them. So if you've tagged me and I've not responded, please know that I really wanted to but I just didn't have the time and then probably forgot.

[kaijuposting]

The Newmann Timeline

So I've made an attempt at assembling a timeline for Newt and Hermann's lives. The information is sourced from: The Pacific Rim novelization by Alex Irvine Pacific Rim: Man, Machine, & Monsters by David S. Cohen The Pacific Rim two-disc special edition DVD feature Drift Space

Wherever information was contradictory, I leaned toward info that was corroborated in multiple sources, or made more sense contextually. I had to make a couple of guesses (I note them in the timeline), but I feel pretty confident that they aren't too far off what Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham imagined for these characters.

Hopefully I'll be able to find more information in the future, but here's the Newmann timeline I've assembled for now:

June 9, 1989: Hermann Gottlieb born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany.

January 19, 1990: Newt Geiszler born in Berlin, Brandenberg, Germany.

2000-2003~: Newt performs in his band, Black Velvet Rabbits. (Date's a bit of a guess, but he was in BVR before moving to America.)

2003~: Newt moves from Berlin to Boston, enters MIT. (Date is an estimation based on statement that Newt was MIT's "second-youngest student.")

2008~: Hermann enters TU Berlin to study engineering and applied sciences. (I estimate 2008~ given that there is no indication that Hermann began his higher education particularly early.)

2010: Newt begins teaching at MIT.

2013: Newt and Hermann begin writing letters to each other.

August 11, 2013: Trespasser attacks San Francisco.

2015: Newt receives his sixth PhD. Hermann joins the PPDC and writes code for the first generation of jaegers. (Note: If my earlier estimations are correct, this gives Hermann time for approximately 7~ years of university study - though there are ways to get a PhD without constant university study.)

2016: Newt joins the PPDC.

2017: Newt and Hermann meet in person, instantly dislike each other.

2020: Newt and Hermann are assigned to the Hong Kong shatterdome. (Note: This is also the year that Lady Danger went down and the jaeger program began to fail.)

January 2025: Operation Pitfall takes place; Newt and Hermann drift.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference archived on our website

Covid is an intersectional issue.

Abstract

Substantial racial/ethnic and gender disparities in COVID-19 mortality have been previously documented. However, few studies have investigated the impact of individual socioeconomic position (SEP) on these disparities.

Objectives: To determine the joint effects of SEP, race/ethnicity, and gender on the burden of COVID-19 mortality. A secondary objective was to determine whether differences in opportunities for remote work were correlated with COVID-19 death rates for sociodemographic groups.

Design: Annual mortality study which used a special government tabulation of 2020 COVID-19-related deaths stratified by decedents’ SEP (measured by educational attainment), gender, and race/ethnicity. Setting: United States in 2020. Participants: COVID-19 decedents aged 25 to 64 years old (n = 69,001). Exposures: Socioeconomic position (low, intermediate, and high), race/ethnicity (Hispanic, Black, Asian, Indigenous, multiracial, and non-Hispanic white), and gender (women and men). Detailed census data on occupations held by adults in 2020 in each of the 36 sociodemographic groups studied were used to quantify the possibility of remote work for each group.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Age-adjusted COVID-19 death rates for 36 sociodemographic groups. Disparities were quantified by relative risks and 95% confidence intervals. High-SEP adults were the (low-risk) referent group for all relative risk calculations. Results: A higher proportion of Hispanics, Blacks, and Indigenous people were in a low SEP in 2020, compared with whites. COVID-19 mortality was five times higher for low vs. high-SEP adults (72.2 vs. 14.6 deaths per 100,000, RR = 4.94, 95% CI 4.82–5.05). The joint detriments of low SEP, Hispanic ethnicity, and male gender resulted in a COVID-19 death rate which was over 27 times higher (178.0 vs. 6.5 deaths/100,000, RR = 27.4, 95% CI 25.9–28.9) for low-SEP Hispanic men vs. high-SEP white women. In regression modeling, percent of the labor force in never remote jobs explained 72% of the variance in COVID-19 death rates.

Conclusions and Relevance: SARS-CoV-2 infection control efforts should prioritize low-SEP adults (i.e., the working class), particularly the majority with “never remote” jobs characterized by inflexible and unsafe working conditions (i.e., blue collar, service, and retail sales workers).

[lilioopdf]

Do you think that there is a possibility that Pepe might be considering quitting racing altogether?

I say this because I recently saw an excerpt of an interview, where Pepe mentioned that he nearly quit racing in 2020, after a bad year, until his parents encouraged him to keep going.

He's had a terrible year this year and this last weekend with the crash left him visibly shook in a way I haven't seen him before.

Plus, he has joined university and I'm not sure what the point of that is, if he's really serious about his racing career. Other drivers like Ollie Bearman quit school early and have said that you need to give racing your 110%, which you can't do, if you are trying to do school and racing at the same time.

Finishing school is one thing but I was very surprised when I heard that Pepe was pursuing university as well. It might be a controversial opinion, but I don't think that's the right move for him, when he's already struggling in F2 this year. He needs to focus and give more time to racing next year, but instead, he is putting more on his plate and risking not maximising his chances and giving racing his best shot next year too.

He's so young, he can always pursue university later if he needs to, instead of doing it now, when it's going to potentially affect his chances of succeeding in motorsports, where there is such a narrow window of opportunity, which he only has now and which won't be available in the future.

oh my god the way i completely forgot about that interview until you brought it up

ABOUT THE UNI THING THOUGH OMG i asked my friend the EXACT same thing and she told me she doesn’t think he plans on quitting racing just from “vibes” so i was like yeah okay whatever but honestly i get what you mean too because in my mind, uni is such a time consuming and overwhelming commitment the way racing is and he will (ultimately) have to choose what he wishes to prioritise more in his life

i know lorenzo fluxa once mentioned that he was starting uni soon in a prema vid (but i think that vid was posted like a year ago), and now he’s currently racing in elms (i think?? ill have to check) and idk if he’s still pursuing his education but he is basically doing what pepe is doing yk? and if he is still in uni rn, i feel like that just shows that studying while racing is still very possible (although i do think its very tiring and honestly, not very smart because you won’t be able to fully commit to either)

but i also believe that pepe’s family really does prioritise having a good educational background, because there was also an article talking about how his mum was very proud of the fact that her son was one of the few drivers in f3 who actually completed his compulsory education. plus pepe has mentioned multiple times that his mum/parents wanted him and his sisters to speak really good english and therefore put them in educational institutions/with educators that could teach them to be perfect english speakers so it would maybe make sense that a uni degree was always a part of what was planned for him in his life

and idk if this is weird but his family basically founded (i think??) movento, and its a really big company in spain LOL (ofc i mean racing is expensive and they have to fund him somehow) and i think there are quite a few family members who are a part of the company and in the more higher ranking positions in the company, so then i looked at their linked in (not stalked!! because it’s public info anyway) and they all come from pretty good edcational backgrounds so having a good education was probably (again) what was always expected of pepe

i think itll be unfortunate if he ends up quitting though because if we sit down and properly think for a sec, there’s already been millions lost to funding his career so far, and i know racing already caused him to not do as well in high school, and that he himself thought it was so amazing that he ended up passing his IBs so BASICALLY what im trying to say is that chances are, he might not be in a very good uni because of entry requirements and etc. (unless he paid for a spot somewhere? maybe?) and his degree will still be a degree, but it’s not the same as a degree from a better educational institution and that if he does quit racing, it’s probably just a degree that will help him either work in his family company in the future, or go back into racing in a different position like an engineer or something idk (i mean he’s mentioned the engineer part before so it wouldn’t be completely shocking yk)

atill idk aaaa there’s sm more i wanted to say but i’m typing this as i rush to get ready for a formal dinner so i’m def missing out on stuff and making mistakes in my speech but omg thank u for bringing this up i hope youre having a lovely day/night rn

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

I thought Fauci was hospitalized with the WEST NILE virsus? "Fauci wants to bring back MASKS after contracting COVID (despite being vaccinated SIX times)"

12 Aug 2024

By Alexa Lardieri U.S. Deputy Health Editor Dailymail.Com

The number of infections is increasing as part of another summer surge - even though hospitalizations and deaths from the virus remain at historic lows.

On Monday, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease said: 'The message is that if you are in a risk category you have got to take this seriously.'

The 83-year-old told people with comorbidities and seniors 'you should be wearing a mask' in crowded places.

He also revealed he had contracted Covid about two weeks ago. It was his third Covid infection and he has been vaccinated and boosted a total of six times.

The above shows weekly Covid deaths (blue bars) and percent positivity of Covid tests (orange line)

The above shows the percent positivity of Covid tests in the past week by region in the US

According to the CDC, the weekly Covid test positivity for the week ending August 3 was nearly 18 percent, compared to 16 percent the prior week and 10 percent one month before that. 

Test positivity is the share of Covid swabs taken that come back positive. 

World Health Organization officials warn that if the virus continues to spread, it could lead to new mutations and severe infections that evade vaccine protection and therapeutics. 

Deaths have been generally on the rise since May, but began declining the week ending July 20. They currently hover at around 500 per week, compared to more than 25,000 in the fall of 2020.

The elderly, people with compromised immune systems and those with comorbidities are more at risk of developing severe Covid, being hospitalized and have a higher risk of death from the virus. 

New documents 'credibly show' Covid DID leak from Wuhan lab, say House Republicans

Dr Fauci told MedPage Today Editor-in-Chief Dr Jeremy Faust: 'You don't have to immobilize what you do and cut yourself off from society, but regardless of what the current recommendations are, when you're in a crowded closed space and you're an 85-year-old person with chronic lung disease or a 55-year-old person who is morbidly obese with diabetes and hypertension, then you should be wearing a mask.

'And you should be careful to avoid crowded places where you don't know the status of other people and you should get vaccinated and boosted on a regular basis.'

Dr Fauci's face mask guidelines have long been criticized as people claimed they did not work to prevent the spread of Covid. 

The educational and social effects of face masks on children have been well documented, with one NIH study calling the impact of mask use on students' literacy and learning 'very negative.' 

Another NIH study also found that social distancing caused 'depression, generalized anxiety, acute stress and intrusive thoughts.'  

And in testimony to Republicans in June, Dr Fauci admitted he didn't remember reading anything to support that masking kids would prevent COVID.

When asked if masking kids was an effective way of preventing Covid transmission, he said: 'I still think that's up in the air.' 

Despite the mixed guidance, experts are still concerned about the rapid spread.

Dr Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health and former White House Covid response coordinator, told NBC: 'If you just talk about infections, this is probably going to end up becoming the largest summer wave we’ve had. It’s still not as big as the winter waves, but it is starting to get close.'

Dr Anthony Fauci recommended that the elderly and people with comorbidities wear face masks to protect against Covid

Dr Jha said she expects this surge to peak in the next few weeks and subside in September, just as updated vaccines to target the KP.2 strain of Covid become available.  

Additionally, in a briefing last week, World Health Organization officials said 84 countries are experiencing a rise in the percentage of positive Covid tests over the last several weeks. 

WHO officials said: 'Covid-19 infections are surging globally... and are unlikely to decline anytime soon. The UN health agency is also warning that more severe variants of the coronavirus may soon be on the horizon.'

And wastewater surveillance suggests the spread of the virus is two to 20 times higher than what is currently being reported. 

WHO officials added that new waves of infection could spur mutations and more dangerous strains of the virus 'that could potentially evade detection systems and be unresponsive to medical intervention.

The health agency is urging countries to ramp up their vaccination efforts and promote yearly Covid vaccines for high-risk individuals. 

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist and lead of the COVID-19 response at WHO, said: 'As individuals it is important to take measures to reduce risk of infection and severe disease, including ensuring that you have had a COVID-19 vaccination dose in the last 12 months, especially, if you are in an at-risk group.

'I am concerned with such low coverage and with such large circulation, if we were to have a variant that would be more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop severe disease is huge.'"

[dahlia-shifts]

Introduction (NCT DR)

I promised I'll be making intros to my DRs, so let's start off with my Main DR ! I have not shifted to this DR yet, but it's the one I try to shift to almost every night and it's one of the two DRs that stay consistent in my scripts !

Time ratio : 1 Hour CR = 5 Months DR (I know it may seem like a lot, but I really want to experience as much as I can on each shift.

First shift : November, 2015. I will be shifting to the day I get picked to debut in NCT. The next couple of months will be filled with practicing and getting to know the members. I want to live through these moments, and not just remember them as memories. The morning of my first shift will be filled with my own training, going to vocal lessons, study sessions, since I don't attend school, and by the end of the day, I get called to a meeting, where I find out I'm set to debut with NCT.

Personal Info

Name : (CR name) ; Jung Soobin (Korean Name)

D.O.B : December 08, 2000

Age As Of First Shift : 14

Zodiac Sign : Sagittarius

Height : 150 cm (As Of First Shift)

Nationality : Korean-Bulgarian

Ethnicity : Slavic/Bulgarian

Idol Info

Stage Name : Dahlia

Training Period : Since early 2010

Positions : Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, Lead Rapper, Face Of The Group, Maknae (127)

Debut : The 7th Sense (NCT U - April 09, 2016) ; Fire Truck (NCT 127 - July 10, 2016) ; Chewing Gum (NCT Dream - August 27, 2016)

Timeline

DEC.08.00

Born in Bulgaria.

2000-2005

Going to kindergarten in Bulgaria. My parents get promoted at their workplace, which requires us to move to Seoul, SK.

2005-2009

Going to public school, but not being able to make many friends. Getting bullied often, so taking up a hobby, which is dancing. I begin dancing every night to popular K-Pop songs in my room, and deciding that becoming an idol is my dream.

OCT.2009

I begin auditioning for SM, YG, JYP, but am continuously rejected for being too young, not being able to sing and rap. I go to every audition I can, which my family soon finds out about. I get scolded a lot afterwards, but I decide to prove everyone wrong, so I begin training in my room to sing and rap.

DEC.2009

I decide to audition for SM Ent. one last time. The judges already know me by then. They give me one last chance, and after a lot of mumbling from their side, they tell me they will call me soon.

JAN.2010

I begin training under SM Ent. There aren't many trainees my age, so I befriend older trainees, which are Sehun (EXO), Johnny (NCT), Irene (Red Velvet). Soon after I begin training, my family informs me that they will be moving back to Bulgaria, where my older brother can receive better higher education there, so I am left alone in Seoul. They tell me to come with them, but becoming an Idol is my dream, so I refuse, to which they get furious, and tell me never to contact them ever again.

2011-2012

I become great friends with Yeri (Red Velvet) and we train together, aligned for the same group. We are roommates, so we become good friends the moment she becomes a trainee. I've gone no contact with my family, aside from my aunt, uncle and cousin. I also befriend Mark (NCT), but we get close due to me not being able to speak good Korean and communicating in English instead (same situation with Johnny). He helps me improve both my English, and my Korean.

The rest of the years leading up to my debut are honestly kind of boring but some key moments are :

Not debuting with Yeri

Becoming the greatest friends with Donghyuck/Haechan (NCT), which we still are to this day

Dating History

Vernon ( Seventeen ) May 19 2017 - January 11, 2018, 8 months Age Difference : 2 years Reason for break up : Falling off, companies finding out.

Juyeon (The Boyz) October 16 2018 until August 15 2019, almost 10 months Age Difference : 2 years Reason for break up : He was cheating on me

Taeyong (NCT) February 10 2020-January 10 2021; March 11 2021 - ongoing Age Difference : 5 years Reason for a break : Fans speculating our relationship, so we didn't know how they would react if they were proven right, so we decided to take a break

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ruth Ben-Ghiat at Lucid:

"Florida could start looking a lot like Hungary," noted New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg in Feb 2023., writing about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's quest to restructure higher education in line with his far-right views. Although many GOP politicians have made pilgrimages to Budapest to proclaim their alignment with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's repressive policies, DeSantis has been arguably the most aggressive adopter of Hungarian-style restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights and attacks on higher education. The sad sight of all those books discarded by far-right New College employees in a dumpster for being politically “unacceptable” will stay with me a long time, not least because it is similar to what happened to books from public and private libraries during the right-wing Chilean military dictatorship, the Chinese Communist “Cultural Revolution,” and many other regimes.

As the Tampa Bay Times reported, 13,000 books were thrown into a dumpster as though they were trash or toxic waste. After images of the dumpster circulated, causing a public outcry, New College went into damage control mode. They made a preliminary decision to fire the dean of the college library for not following proper procedures, including justifications for each book selected for elimination. But the New College was just fine with having hundreds of other books discarded as part of a purge of the Gender and Diversity Center! As the GOP transforms into an autocratic entity allied with foreign far-right parties and governments, it's worth understanding how Orbán and other illiberal leaders target universities. They don't only shut down intellectual freedom and change the content of learning to reinforce their ideological agendas, but also seek to remake higher education institutions into places that reward intolerance, conformism, and other values and behaviors authoritarians require.

Authoritarian Visions of Education: Italy and Chile

The regime of Benito Mussolini (1925-1943) provided the template for right-wing authoritarian actions. Leftists, liberals, and anyone who spoke out against the Fascists were sent to prison or forced into exile. Since most universities were public, professors and researchers were civil servants and could be pressured through bureaucratic means. First came a 1931 loyalty oath to the King and Fascism, then a 1932 requirement to join the Fascist Party to apply for jobs or promotions. Student informers monitored their peers and their teachers, recording any critical remarks or anti-regime jokes, and new university student organizations inculcated Fascist values through extra-curricular activities. In the Cold War era, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who seized power through a 1973 U.S.-backed coup, claimed that universities were hotbeds of Marxism and targeted them for "cleansing." By 1975 24,000 students, faculty, and staff had been dismissed (and thousands sent to prison), and philosophy and social science departments had been disbanded. [...]

Hungary, Model for the GOP and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025

Today’s right-wing autocrats mostly come to power through elections and extinguish freedom slowly. Yet universities continue to be the targets of leaders who seek to eradicate free thinking and turn campuses into sites of informing, mistrust, and fear. Orbán had already started to drive the liberal Central European University out of Hungary when his 2018 re-election accelerated his crackdown on education. Much of this repression has centered on LGBTQ populations. A 2018 ban on gender studies preceded the 2020 end of legal recognition of transgender and intersex people. In 2021, a law outlawed any depiction or discussion of LGBTQ identities and sexual orientation, and some universities came under the authority of "public trusts" run by Orbán cronies. Like his fellow far-right strongmen, Orbán aims to discredit and dismantle all liberal and democratic models of education to produce a new authoritarian-friendly population. As someone who grew up under Communism, Orbán knows the power of political socialization. He also knows that universities have always been sites of resistance to authoritarianism (a theme of the resistance chapter of Strongmen).

[...] If some of this sounds familiar to readers in America, that's not surprising. DeSantis's maneuvers to remake New College as a model of far-right pedagogy take a page from Orbán's crusades. Increasingly, it's not just "make America Florida," as the DeSantis camp advocates, but "make America Hungary" —a goal fellow Orbán fan and former Fox host Tucker Carlson also supported. [...]

Watch for higher education professionals to be increasingly attacked as agents of the destruction of family, faith, and decency as GOP politicians compete to seem more extremist and authoritarian —which will bring them even further into line with autocrats such as Orbán. On that note, “anti-Judeo-Christian values” is now a category of offense for the authoritarian targeting site Professor Watchlist. Checking my page there to see what new outrage I have committed is one of my back-to-school rituals. Far from being “ivory towers” closed off from society, higher education institutions are often front-line targets of those who seek to destroy democracy. What happens on campus reflects, and often anticipates, transformations of societies as authoritarianism takes hold.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat takes a look at how authoritarians target universities in the war on dissent and free expression.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

So I’m 27 next month and I don’t know what to do. I had been studying at college/university in 2019 but dropped out due to my health, tried to get a job but failed, and then a family member died and the pandemic hit all in 2020, and then obviously there was all the lockdowns and I was forced into signing up for benefits here in the UK and it’s 2024, and I’m still unable to get back into work and I’m still seeing a psychologist and I just don’t know what to do anymore as I feel like my life is slipping past me and I’m not able to do anything about it, I know I’m not stupid and I know I’m capable and have career aspirations but also family aspirations. I’ve never had a boyfriend and while I want to have a good career I also want to get married and have children more so, I love kids and I feel like I’m never going to get either. I mean it’s three years until I’m thirty years old, and if I sign up to go back to university then it’s three or four years before I graduate and then years trying to build a career for myself.

Oh anon, I feel for you. I really do. I've several relatives who are (and were) similarly stuck - some of them were impacted by the pandemic years, and others were impacted by the 2008 global meltdown - so I know how hard you're feeling everything.

A few things to keep in mind first:

Everyone does life at their own pace. You are exactly where you're supposed to be because that's exactly where you're meant to be. You are doing just fine being right where you are. As long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you'll get to wherever you want to go, even if you take a few detours along the way.

When we judge ourselves by other people, we have a tendencey to compare our worst days to other people's best days because we're our own worst critic. (I blame social media for that - people only share the best things on social media which makes it look like everyone is happy little clams living picture-perfect lives while you're stuck down here in the muck trying to shovel out from two years' of rain.)

I think you'll find that there are more people who feel like you than people who'll say they're living their best life and they wouldn't change a thing.

27 is pretty young, and so is 30 for that matter. If you look at the whole scope of life, what is 'another 3 years' but a drop in the bucket, especially if it will make you happy? You may not have anything to lose if you go back to school now, if that's really what you want to do. But if your heart isn't it, or you'd be doing it because it's what you think you should do, then that may not be the right thing for you. And that's okay!

I don't know a whole lot about the UK in terms of career choices, higher education,a nd job opportunities so I don't know how practical or realistic some of my advice could be. But here goes.

Does it have to be a professional/academic program? Maybe there are trade schools or vocational programs you can look into instead. I think the UK might call it Further Education colleges? (We call it community college here in the US.)

And if you love children, what's stopping you from working with them now? You could become a nursery assistant or a midwife, a nanny or an au pair. You could volunteer with an organization that focuses on children or youth services, or maybe work for one as a receptionist?

One of the things I've learned from my cousins' experiences pulling out of the economic collapse or COVID-stasis is that sometimes the unconventional path is better, luckier, and more successful. So don't think you have to go for a professional degree. There are other options out there. They may be harder to find, but they're there.

I know you can do it, anon. You're already brilliant enough to ask for help, and trust me - that takes a ton of gut.

If anyone has any advice or wants to support our Hopeful Anon, please share in the comments or send in your suggestions! I will use the anon advice tag.

[evidence-based-activism]

Does porn promote bad sex education? I know a lot of the themes show is coercive, straight up un consensual, but also shows other unsafe risky sex such as no condoms and sex with strangers.

Yep!

Condom use

This review of content analyses found condom use was depicted in only 2-3% of heterosexual pornography videos [1]

This content analysis review also found "condom use is rare" [2]

This has real world impacts:

This article found "more frequent pornography consumption was associated with using condoms less consistently ... these results are consistent with the public health position that pornography can be a risk-factor for condomless sex" [3]

Results from six nationally representative studies found "consistent with a sexual scripting perspective on media processes and effects, emerging adults who viewed pornography were more likely to have condomless sex than their peers who did not consume pornography." [4]

A study on men who have sex with men found "safe-sex intentions after viewing unprotected-sex films were lower than after viewing protected-sex films" providing "novel and ecologically valid evidence that 'bareback' pornography consumption impacts viewer’s inclinations toward sexual risk-taking by lowering their intentions to use protected sex measure" [5]

Other sexual behavior

A review of 17 studies found "for both Internet pornography and general pornography, links with greater unsafe sex practices and number of sexual partners were identified" [6]

This study narrowed in on "sexual choking" and found "consuming pornography more frequently leads to more exposure to pornographic depictions of sexual choking, which in turn predicts a higher likelihood of choking sexual partners" [7]

A review focused on adolescents found "pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs" and was related to "the occurrence of sexual intercourse, greater experience with casual sex behavior, and more sexual aggression, both in terms of perpetration and victimization" [8]

Using porn as sex education

A common argument on this topic is that "no one actually uses porn as sex education!!". Unfortunately, this is incorrect.

One of the earlier results concerning the relationship between porn use and condom use was dependent on participants endorsement that "pornography is a primary source of information about sex". Unfortunately, over 40% of participants agreed with this statement [3]

A nationally representative study of the US found that for 18-24 year-olds "pornography was the most commonly endorsed helpful source" in comparison to "other possible options such as sexual partners, friends, media, and health care professionals" [9]

This review of 30 qualitative studies found "pornography use is considered normal by young people, reinforced by its usefulness as a tool for pleasure, information, and instruction" [10]

Please also see:

This post about the relationship between pornography and misogynistic beliefs and behaviors

This post that debunks the idea that pornography reduces rape

This post on the causal connection between pornography and rape

References under the cut:

Carrotte, E. R., Davis, A. C., & Lim, M. S. (2020). Sexual behaviors and violence in pornography: Systematic review and narrative synthesis of video content analyses. Journal of medical internet research, 22(5), e16702.

Miller, D. J., & McBain, K. A. (2022). The content of contemporary, mainstream pornography: A literature review of content analytic studies. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 17(2), 219-256.

Wright, P. J., Sun, C., Bridges, A., Johnson, J. A., & Ezzell, M. B. (2019). Condom use, pornography consumption, and perceptions of pornography as sexual information in a sample of adult US males. Journal of Health Communication, 24(9), 693-699.

Wright, P. J. (2022). Pornography consumption and condomless sex among emerging US adults: Results from six nationally representative surveys. Health Communication, 37(14), 1740-1747.

Jonas, K. J., Hawk, S. T., Vastenburg, D., & de Groot, P. (2014). “Bareback” pornography consumption and safe-sex intentions of men having sex with men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43, 745-753.

Harkness, E. L., Mullan, B., & Blaszczynski, A. (2015). Association between pornography use and sexual risk behaviors in adult consumers: A systematic review. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(2), 59-71.

Wright, P. J., Herbenick, D., & Tokunaga, R. S. (2023). Pornography consumption and sexual choking: An evaluation of theoretical mechanisms. Health communication, 38(6), 1099-1110.

Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). Adolescents and pornography: A review of 20 years of research. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(4-5), 509-531.

Rothman, E. F., Beckmeyer, J. J., Herbenick, D., Fu, T. C., Dodge, B., & Fortenberry, J. D. (2021). The prevalence of using pornography for information about how to have sex: Findings from a nationally representative survey of US adolescents and young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 629-646.

Peterson, A. J., Silver, G. K., Bell, H. A., Guinosso, S. A., & Coyle, K. K. (2023). Young people’s views on pornography and their sexual development, attitudes, and behaviors: A systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 18(2), 171-209.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Ryan Burge

Published: May 15, 2023

The last forty years of politics and religion has been focused squarely on the ascendancy of the Religious Right. I must admit that I’ve probably contributed my fair share to that discourse, as well.

A motley crew of white evangelicals and traditional Catholics locked arms on some social issues, started voting in large numbers for Republican candidates, and changed American politics forever.

But I think that era of religion and politics is rapidly coming to a close. The Religious Right is no longer a primarily religious movement - it’s one about cultural conservativism and nearly blind support for the GOP with few trappings of any real religiosity behind it.

Here’s what I believe to be the emerging narrative of the next several decades: the rise of atheism and their unbelievably high level of political engagement in recent electoral politics. Let me put it plainly: atheists are the most politically active group in American politics today and the Democrats (and some Republicans) ignore them at their own peril.

The data is clear and unequivocal on this point - no one gets involved in the political process to the level of the average atheist.

The Cooperative Election Study always asks a nice little battery of questions about political engagement. It’s phrased simply as: have you done any of the following activities in the previous month? Because the CES is fielded in the height of election season, if someone was going to get politically active, they would be doing so in October or November of an election year.

The group that is most likely to contact a public official? Atheists.

The group that puts up political signs at the highest rates? Atheists.

HALF of atheists report giving to a candidate or campaign in the 2020 presidential election cycle.

And while they don’t lead the pack when it comes to attending a local political meeting, they only trail Hindus by four percentage points.

For those curious, here’s a link to the 2022 results - they are bit muddier because it’s an off-year election. But the same general consensus is there: atheists do a lot of political stuff in an average year.

To simplify this analysis, I added all six activities into a single index. In this case, a six represents the highest level of engagement, while a zero represents someone who was not involved in politics at all surrounding the 2020 election.

Same conclusion as before: atheists take part in plenty of political actions - 1.52 to be exact. The overall average in the entire sample was .91 activities. The average atheist is about 65% more politically engaged than the average American.

Of course, political activity does not merely derive from religious affiliation (or lack thereof). There are myriad factors that make one more or less inclined to participate in the democratic process. For instance, giving to a candidate or campaign requires having some disposable income. Attending a local school board meeting is difficult for someone who works a night shift.

Atheists typically score very high on a number of SES factors including education and income, so maybe this is just a product of having lots of disposable income and free time. To test that I put together a simple regression model with a number of control variables that could potentially impact political participation. The dependent variable was total number of political activities over the previous month.

The results here are clear and unambiguous - atheists are more likely to engage in political activities at every level of education compared to Protestants, Catholics or Jews. For instance, an atheist with a high school diploma reports .7 activities, that’s at least .2 higher than any other religious group.

Political engagement is clearly related to education, though. The more educated one is, the more likely they are to be politically active. But at every step of the education scale, atheists lead the way. Sometimes those gaps are incredibly large. A college educated atheist engages in 1.7 activities, it’s only 1.05 activities for a college educated evangelical.

That’s the point I want to drive home in this post - people seem to believe that evangelicals are incredibly politically active. Their pastors are preaching sermons about which candidates to vote for, their churches have voter registration drives in the lobby, they encourage their members to attend pro-life protests and lobby legislators to pass anti-trans bills. And, they absolutely do that, but not nearly at the level that atheists are involved in the political process.

Just look at the gap in political donations in every election year between 2012 and 2022. There is no year in which the donation level of white evangelicals comes even close to that of the typical atheist. In fact, in an average election year, an atheist is twice as likely to donate money to a candidate or campaign compared to a white evangelical.

Of course, there’s something unspoken that may explain this discussion: white evangelicals are way more prevalent in the United States. According to the 2022 Cooperative Election Study, about 18% of adults in the United States are white evangelicals, while just over 6% identify as atheists. So, atheists would have to punch way above their weight to have the same impact in electoral politics.

But - here’s the thing: they clearly are. Here’s what I mean:

In the 2020 Cooperative Election Study, 4.7% of the entire sample were white evangelicals who reported donating to a candidate or campaign in the previous month. In comparison, 3.1% of the sample were atheists who made political donations. That gap is probably a lot smaller than many people would have guessed.

Assuming that atheists continue to give at a rate that is twice that of white evangelicals, here’s a very likely scenario going forward: atheists inch up by two or three percentage points, while white evangelical drop by two or three points. If that happens, then the number of atheists who give to candidates will be the same as the number of white evangelicals.

Of course, this doesn’t even consider agnostics, who also give at high rates and are at least six percent of the population, too. But it also leaves other conservative religious folks out of the conversation like White Catholics and Orthodox Jews.

The point remains however: atheists are a growing force in electoral politics. The days of white evangelical dominance are fading as the nones continue to rise. This shift will fundamentally change American religion and politics. And very few people seem to be paying attention.

[ Via: https://archive.today/WG9cR ]

[beardedmrbean]

Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, headed by critical race theory activist Ibram X. Kendi, revealed last week that it was laying off about 40% of its staff as part of organization restructuring. About 15 to 20 of its approximately 45 employees were let go. Testimonies from former employees have exposed alleged mismanagement of Kendi’s center, which in turn has exposed the fraudulence and fragility of the diversity, equity, and inclusion complex.

Disgruntled former employees have accused Kendi of mishandling grant funding, failing to complete major projects, and fostering an exploitative company culture in which he ruled with an iron fist yet was routinely missing in action. The center has raked in $43 million since its inception, according to 2021 budget records obtained by the Daily Free Press. It received corporate support from Peloton, Deloitte, Stop & Shop, TJX Companies, and Deckers Outdoor Corporation, according to a 2020–2021 donor report. Only six weeks after its launch, then-CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey gifted $10 million without conditions.

“Your $10M donation, with no strings attached, gives us the resources and flexibility to greatly expand our antiracist work,” Kendi posted at the time. “The endowment is vital, as we build our new Center.”

Despite the investments, the center did not deliver on some key priorities, such as the much-hyped Racial Data Tracker that would document racial inequities in all sectors of society to finally root out racism.

“I don’t know where the money is,” Saida Grundy, a BU professor who worked at the center from fall 2020 to spring 2021, told the Boston Globe after the staff cuts.

Multiple other BU professors served as faculty leads on various projects at the center. Professor Sanaz Mobasseri of BU’s business school led the Antiracist Tech Initiative, professor Kaylene Stevens of BU’s education school led the “Designing Antiracist Curricula” team, and political science professor Spencer Piston led the Policy Office, for example.

In December 2021, Grundy emailed BU provost Jean Morrison that the organization had been showing a “pattern of amassing grants without any commitment to producing the research obligated” by them.

Like its umbrella idea DEI, “antiracism” actually translates to, well, nothing of note. Serial academics such as Kendi have built careers around racial fearmongering, even inventing new disciplines to study racism and its early-stage minutiae “microaggressions” and “implicit bias.” Rather than confront actual crimes of racism, these courses seek to aggressively manufacture racist intent.

Despite all this bureaucracy, academic DEI projects have unclear aims and products. Kendi’s center published just two research papers since its founding, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A January paper, "Association of Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Composition and Historical Redlining With Build Environment Indicators Derived From Street View Images,” found that predominantly black neighborhoods had more dilapidated buildings than white neighborhoods. The center released a report from its "Antibigotry Convening” from fall 2021 and winter 2022 that included many intersectionality themes such as “Ageism,” "Anti-fat Bigotry,” and “Transphobia,” further confusing its purpose.

Rachel Lapal Cavallario, spokeswoman for Kendi’s center, told the Boston Globe Wednesday that BU had “received some complaints from individuals questioning whether the center was following its funding guidelines. We are currently looking into those complaints.”

However, the center rejects the “characterization of it not having produced important work insofar as antiracism is concerned,” she said.

To raise Grundy’s question again, where did the money go? Echoing that sentiment, BU has launched an “inquiry” into the center amid the scandal, the Daily Free Press said.

The situation is reminiscent of the lawsuits against Black Lives Matter, another embattled racial justice organization. In 2023, Black Lives Matter reported a $9 million deficit for 2022 after raising $90 million in 2020. Only 33% of that massive sum went to charitable activism, federal filings showed, as a significant chunk was squandered on the leaders’ mansions, personal expenses, and favors for friends. Both Kendi’s center and BLM followed a similar model: drum up rumors of racism, prescribe DEI, create an apparatus, lure in donors, get paid.

The racial grievance business welcomes little accountability — or accounting, for that matter — which explains why it’s found a home in academia. Many colleges, such as Boston University, or my alma mater Boston College down the road, charge their students exorbitant tuition for useless degrees and boatloads of debt. Tenured professors collect big paychecks while hawking critical race theory, turning students into activists instead of real scholars.

Despite its self-destructive tendencies, the DEI racket continues to spread throughout academia. Some colleges are trying to meet demand for so-called DEI experts by creating a corresponding major, USA Today claimed. At least six colleges across the country offer DEI degree programs or will in the future, according to the publication’s analysis. Tufts University and the University of Pennsylvania even have DEI graduate programs.

Some universities have also woven DEI into their academic missions. Duke University in 2020 launched a Racial Equity Advisory Council, composed of four subcommittees including faculty members and students, which will propose “measures to assess and foster racial equity” to the university’s leadership. Every year since fall 2020, the Duke Endowment has sponsored professors with seed grants to pursue research proposals related to race as part of the school’s anti-racism mission. That’s more money down the drain.

DEI in America’s prestigious colleges contributes nothing, wastes money, and fuels a bubble of empty courses, professions, and promises. But if the shakeout at Kendi’s BU center is any clue, it might be starting to pop.