David Benfell, Ph.D. / is on Nostr

Ph.D. Human Science (Saybrook University, 2016). Post-disciplinary, Vegetarian Ecofeminist Scholar, Researcher, and Non-Magical Thinker.

I preemptively block trolls and am selective about who I follow back.

Last Notes

2023-10-27 10:08:45

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@npub1ddp…2tax @npub1r9k…st4e It appears you are relying on survey methodology in your assessment. To put it mildly, this is unreliable.
https://disunitedstates.com/human-science/human-science-inquiry/human-science-inquiry-quantitative/report-phone-polls-arent-dead-yet/
Even before we get to response rate issues (which doom the methodology), it's much too early. in the cycle.
I discount survey results because of the response rates. But long before these became an issue, the standard advice was that while you don't ignore these results, you don't take them too seriously either. There's just too much that can happen between now and election day and too much time for it to happen in.
And the simple fact has been that abortion has mattered a great deal. The burden of proof lies on you to show it won't.
https://disunitedstates.com/illiberalism/gilead/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-threatens-roe-v-wade/

2023-10-26 00:29:21

Israel violates international law in Gaza. What else is new? https://disunitedstates.com/2023/10/25/israel-violates-international-law-in-gaza-what-else-is-new/

2023-10-24 16:10:08

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@npub17a9…mv9a Is there a sufficiently precise definition of "undermining democracy" that this can be codified?

2023-10-15 00:50:00

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@npub1grx…uxfe I'll believe we'll get in a war with China when it actually happens.
I disagree with Xi Jinping on many, many things. But at least he seems rational. Of course, if someone unhinged wins the U.S. presidency next year, all bets are off.
Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, . . .

2023-10-14 00:59:41

My mother asked me about this article:
https://www.thefp.com/p/how-elites-ate-the-social-justice
My response:
To answer your question, yes, he absolutely has a point. The Left lately appears as ideologically rigid as those who have paralyzed the House of Representatives. You must agree with every one of their bullet points or you are not a good progressive.
I routinely see leftists being ageist. They hardly ever even mention class. That I am white, male, cis, and heterosexual outweighs to the point of exclusion the fact that I am poor and can't find a job. They make jokes about cis heterosexuals like once upon a time people made ethnic jokes--these jokes take precisely the same rhetorical form.

2023-10-12 00:46:06

I can't say this is wrong. At the very least, it's something to think long and hard about and I'm simply not seeing how humanity survives.
We rather clearly failed the evolutionary fitness test with #COVID19. We're failing it with the #ClimateCrisis.
And what we see with white Christian nationalism is a certain malevolent idiocy that has demonstrated a determination to prevent us from saving ourselves.
From: @npub1hjm…c2hk
https://tech.lgbt/@BridgetClinch/111218736051890373

2023-09-30 14:00:46

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@npub15zu…s7lx I wish i could be optimistic that the West will indeed respond. But realism theory asks what interests are at stake. Armenians have painful experience with the answer to this question.

2023-09-19 01:58:12

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@npub1gmx…atcq
Sickness is immediate. Union organizing takes months.
There is a disconnect in your advice that 1) reflects the privilege that other people's financial woes are not your problem, and 2) demonstrates why scientists in the physical and natural sciences should be circumspect in weighing in on social science issues.

2023-08-19 23:33:37

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@npub17a9…mv9a Not yet, anyway.
I think Donald Trump will fail. But this leaves open the question of whether a future demagogue might succeed and the question of whether we will have done a damned thing to prevent them.

2023-06-30 16:42:28

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@npub15qw…3p2z
The license Donald Trump gave to bigots will not so easily be revoked.

2023-05-13 22:23:05

Gilead · Right-wing militias · Police White supremacist gangs https://disunitedstates.com/gilead/the-secret-world-of-extreme-militias/theres-only-one-possible-conclusion-white-america-likes-its-killer-cops
https://spaces.hcommons.social/media_attachments/files/110/363/710/862/105/719/original/dfaae27d434ccb7d.jpeg