RT @martinmbauer: AI can't figure out the inverse square law looking at 10M solar systems, Newton figured it out looking at 1.

It really worries me that it feels like we are creating a world that is hostile to kids. From brain-melting tech exposure at an early age, to concerns about the climate future, to our imploding educational system - I'm not sure I'd want to be born today.

The unstated conflict here is whether you believe that producing online "Free Palestine" content (consumed by other white westerners) improves the material realities of Palestinians. If you do, then Contra's refusal makes her a monster. If you don't, then she makes sense.

Normalcy bias kills people every year - even as the fire is burning down their street or the flood waters are rising over the lawn, they won't flee because "it won't get *that* bad.".People will cling to normalcy in the face of fire and flood. Of course they'll discount LC.

People are BAD at thinking about risk and second-order effects. Both for themselves and others. If you want to change culture, you need to deal with people as they are. Not who you think they should be.

Take the common complaint that people don't even mask to protect themselves. Of course they don't - normalcy bias is a fundamental bug in humans. We systematically discount risks (like getting disabled by COVID). No amount of "education" will change that.

Continuing to weigh in on mask discourse: a lot of activists are running into the unfortunate reality that humans have genuine cognitive limits on things like empathy, or risk management, but insist on framing these as moral failings (that they, of course, don't have).

RT @CDoombeard:

RT @ThosVarley: @MaskedHottiee I want the exciting dystopias I was promised. I grew up with Agent Smith fighting Neo in The Matrix or Arnol….

And for what it's worth - I still mask! And use xylitol nose sprays and grape seed extract, all to avoid getting Long COVID again.

This is the lesson everyone should have learned after the implosion on Tumblr-style social-justice leftism. Relying on social shaming as a strategy is incredibly short-sighted because if you fail, everyone will hate you and your cause forever. People HATE being shamed.

Current masking discourse is doomed to fail b/c it's almost exclusively based on trying to shame people into compliance, and people HATE being shamed. It doesn't matter how right you are, or how dangerous COVID still is - no one is joining a shame-based movement.

RT @davidcoverdale: 😜😜😜😜😜

RT @RemediesPodcast: @ThosVarley As someone living with both HIV and ME in Canada,. I experience both extremes of health care:. With HIV th….

RT @AlbaDocherty: "In the 1970s and early 1980s, two terrible diseases silently, and almost entirely unnoticed, became epidemics. These tw….

RT @tessfalor: I think @ThosVarley is my favorite writer. Brilliant once again! . "ME/CFS transcends the simple, Newtonian world of linear….

So, where do we go from here? As American science continues to buckle under sustained assault, I think the most exciting developments are going to come from outsider-scientists and patient-led projects like @RenegadeRes, @patientled, and other less centralized projects.

Not only that, but modern medicine and science, fixated on disciplinary silos and replete with perverse incentives is not only ill-equipped to embrace complexity, but actively punishes researchers who want to pursue the kind of interdisciplinary paths chronic illness requires.

I think the issue is ultimately one of complexity - HIV/AIDS shares one "root cause" common to all patients, while ME/CFS is truly a complex chronic illness - with feedback loops, synergistic interactions, and profound individual differences.

New blog post!.HIV/AIDS and ME/CFS are post-acute infectious syndromes that became public health crises in the 80s - but today HIV is a manageable illness with billions in funding, while ME/CFS remains neglected. Why did the paths of these two illness diverge so much?.Link below