A worrying look at CPAC. What is happening to the Republican Party?

McCarthy isn’t saying the same thing as these Telegram channels, but he’s making it easier for them to say what they’re saying.

Disappointing but unsurprising.

I’ve long lacked confidence in my own opinions (as a general rule—I can also be an opinionated jerk), so even the simplest disagreement with a position I’ve taken can take some wind out of my sails. When I read the official Latter-day Saint response to the recent AP story, I didn’t agree with it, but it still slowed me down some. “Maybe I should consider things from another point of view,” I thought. I do think it’s important to consider things from all angles, and I don’t think I have the full story, but Michael Austin’s response is the right one gere. When we’re talking about an instance where church inaction allowed for horrific child abuse to continue unchecked for SEVEN YEARS, complaining about unfair treatment in the press is not the right way to respond. Furthermore, if the church is upset by implications that it cares more about its public reputation than about victims of child abuse, responding the way it did only adds fuel to that fire. Again, Austin’s response here is spot on.

Why do we let inkjet printers get away with this nonsense?

This reporting is from a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time, and recent events make me regret that.

Musk continues his trolling. This is a dumb proposal, and Twitter shouldn’t accept it.

Some good points about how Amazon owning Roomba is scarier than just Roomba existing on its own—even if I didn’t realize that Roomba was creepily mapping houses.

Masnick’s critiques of Pearson here are better than anything I could have written.

Some really worrying privacy implications in this kind of edtech—and edtech as a discipline doesn’t care nearly enough about this kind of thing. Makes me worried as a scholar and a parent.

Amazon keeps getting bigger, and I don’t think that’s for the better.

This is a horrifying, sickening story. When it’s marriage equality, the Church is eager to say that being legal doesn’t make something right (a bad take, for the record), so to hear “it was fine because it was legal” as a defense for bishops’ failure to report child sexual abuse (at Salt Lake’s encouragement) is sickening.

Unsurprising, but still a valuable read.

Ugh, Pearson. Why do we keep thinking about ways to make digital textbooks worse than physical ones?

I don’t believe nuclear disarmament will be easy, but I’m increasingly convinced that it must be done. Just a single mistake or miscommunication could doom our entire planet.

There’s a similar amendment on the ballot in Kentucky in November; here’s hoping for similar results.

We’ve had a rough year of natural disasters.

Compelling podcast episode from Mozilla highlighting morally dubious uses of AI. It’s really important that we be more reflective about this instead of trying things and seeing where they lead.

So much of modern right-wing politics boils down to concerns about masculinity.

I knew that Gab was supporting Mastriano, but I didn’t realize ties ran this deep. Gab is a toxic hellhole, and if Mastriano is sending them money, that should rule him out as a candidate.

Look, I’m a critic of Apple’s closed system, but it’s laughable for Meta to set itself up as an oprn alternative.

I was worried this was going to be a gritty take on Astro City, but now I’m just mad they took the name of my favorite superhero for a different story.

Wild article. We once knew how to do trains, so why can’t we figure it out better now?

This case seems so clear cut to me, and the American right’s willingness to harass this doctor suggests that things are going very wrong.

I didn’t know Fuentes was also using “Christ is King,” but it’s a favorite of Gab’s Andrew Torba, too.