The political science and economic experts in the US have been suffering from chronic hubris ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This hubris has infected the Democratic party. The political science and economic experts aren’t learning from their mistakes, and thus neither are the Democrats. Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

The thing about these experts is that these fields have major physics envy where they use complex math to solve these problems which hides massive incorrect assumptions that break everything. They want to be like physics where math can be used to predict what is happening but politics and economics are not controlled by nature but things made up by humans. They are fundamentally more interconnected and random. With these fields its better to be incorrect like all of your peers than being the lone voice that is correct.

"A November attack on two trans women at a light rail station in downtown Minneapolis, with cheers from onlookers, deterred a few people Charley spoke with who had been considering a move to Minnesota. He said it was hard on many members of the Twin Cities Transplant group.

As someone who lives in the Twin Cities I found this incident disturbing and I felt disappointed in the Twin Cities. I hope its out of character from what most people find in the Twin Cities. I have found that since 2016 most progressives / liberals have been working really hard to be more accepting and listening to minority communities since we obviously failed before then. However, outside the cities its been moving towards the violent MAGA republicans like the rest of nation. So obviously a lot of interactions depend on the audience.

If there is anything allies can do to support let us know. I think most people are focusing their efforts locally since the federal government is not going to be doing anything helpful for years.

I have loved by Loops for concerts. They keep all of the music but remove all of the screaming. I used them when I watched Taylor Swift which was all screams and loved it

This is exactly what it’s happening. You notice that consent is always attacked.

With her current amount of money I think that would be a No. However, it is interesting since she directly makes what is she is getting paid for which is her music. There are obviously teams of people she employs to help with this process as well as the spin off products (merchandise, CDs, movies, etc.) but she directly makes what she sells like all musicians. If she was barely scraping by with just her music I think most people would say that she would be working class. So it gets blurry.

I think its similar to athletes who do the core work that they get paid to do (i.e. play the sport). But make additional funds by selling their name and likeness. So they could be considered working class but then you get to the amount of money they make as well.

I have been doing the “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love” book club at menby@hexbear.net recently which has been my only real interaction with hexbear. The book club has been great so far and if anyone wants to talk about feminism and masculinity should join.

There are a lot of in-group signaling across their own users which mostly shows up with acronyms, specific phrases and calling everyone comrade. This hasn’t been that difficult in the book club which is long form text and discussion and everyone is respectful and nice. That being said I have blocked a few communities at hexbear because I have found them annoying and taking over my feed. So like everything here at Lemmy I had curate my own experience

My joke suggestion is Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande. Mostly because it gives Santa very interesting Christmas themed powers of mind reading and divination.

But I really enjoyed Sia’s Everyday is Christmas album which is now on regular rotation this season. They are all new Christmas songs and got some bangers.

Its amazing how fast nature can recover with a little help and stopping destroying it. Especially when you are looking at smaller pioneer species. I’ve been growing natives, clover and other bee friendly plants for a few years and its amazing to see how many more bees and butterflies I have seen in just two years. Removing herbicides and a more lax definition of what a weed is has given me a lot of valuable volunteer species who just show up.