Favorite Rejects 2021-09-29

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Left-wing people have started describing really banal obviously true points as "contrarian" to try to create an unrealistically high evidentiary bar for ideas they happen to find uncongenial or inconvenient.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

A UK/EU space race to Mars would be a hilarious outcome of Brexit.

Michael Lambert @MichaelLamberta

BREAKING: Prime minister Johnson expected to announce UK manned mission to Mars at Tory conference next week. A No 10 spokesman said “This would not have been possible if we had stayed in the EU”

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

So it used to be that when people said "racism" they meant "prejudice" like a mortgage lender decides he hates Black people so he won't lend them money. Today people (especially younger and better-educated ones) mean something more comprehensive.

Jerusalem @JerusalemDemsas

Black person: gets mortgage denied Pinker: well, was it really racism? or was it simply because the US government, banks, real estate agents and millions of Americans engaged in a multi-decade project of segregation and disinvestment? https://t.co/nugJ8GzWAo

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I think it is a little obtuse of Pinker, an actual linguist, to pretend he is not aware of how language change works and that this is what has happened here.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I think if you read @awprokop's profile of Joe Manchin, *the* thing that he wants to believe is that the impediments to progress are roughly symmetrical and that he is a voice of reason brokering bipartisan deals impeded by extremists on both sides.

vox.comJoe Manchin wants to save Democrats from themselvesBut is his love for the filibuster dooming the country to dysfunction?

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

A post about how the Chinese government is trying to change Chinese culture. By @AngelicaOung.

taipology.substack.com🇨🇳The Great CancellationWhat’s going on in China, what does it mean for us and where in the world is Vicki Zhao?

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

First Elizabeth Warren becomes a Tight Money Bro, now Teen Vogue? Time to get progressives into Bitcoin

dylan matthews @dylanmatt

Truly wild to see Teen Vogue arguing for tighter monetary policy / against QE https://t.co/4TMCzCKUzp https://t.co/qWseZCep66

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Good, if late

Kaleigh Rogers @KaleighRogers

Whoa. YouTube is banning all anti-vaccine content: https://t.co/ldd2ZItT36

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

This is my dream, omnivaxxed

Hanna Ziady @hannaziady

.@guyplatten of the @shippingics tells me he knows of one seafarer who has received SIX vaccine doses because some countries only recognise certain vaccines. Something's gotta give! https://t.co/Q2ui6KLevE via @CNNBusiness

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Fun fact: The only known room temperature superconductor -- something scientists had been questing after for decades -- is literally COMPRESSED FART GAS (hydrogen sulfide + methane).

quantamagazine.orgRoom-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First TimePhysicists have reached a long-sought goal. The catch is that their room-temperature superconductor requires crushing pressures to keep from falling apart.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

The secret to limitless power was in our own butts the whole time

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Perfect attendance is the only academic award I ever won, so I am committed to the view that it is good. https://t.co/Gq05ZPfboL

Betsey Stevenson @BetseyStevenson

Perfect attendance awards encourage parents to send kids to school sick! They instill the idea that we should show up under any circumstances. And schools still have them! It's not anachronistic, but it should be. https://t.co/ymri4Mhk9Q

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It would be interesting to see a Republican try to draft a bill embodying the conservative movement view that we should have absolute at-will employment but then with exceptions for anti-vaxxers and allegedly racist speech.

Rep. Jim Jordan @Jim_Jordan

If you want the vaccine, get the vaccine. But if you don’t want the vaccine, you shouldn’t have to worry about being fired.