Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Conspiratorialism and neoliberalism; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/19/systemic/
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Simple people prefer simple explanations for complex problems and seek simple answers to solve them. The problem with that?
There are no simple answers to complex problems. And the set of complex problems includes *every problem involving human beings*.
@jackwilliambell and sometimes the simplest answers are the hardest to implement. for example, clean up after oneself. like really, clean all the way up, no little radioactive bits leftover here and open pit toxins leaking into ground water over there.
just, clean up after oneself. so so hard.
@melioristicmarie There's a lot of truth in what you say, Marie.
It reminded me of a funny, but also insightful book I once read, called "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarden"
@jackwilliambell @pluralistic
It reminded me of a funny, but also insightful book I once read, called "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarden"
@jackwilliambell @pluralistic
Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:
https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388
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Conspiratorialism and neoliberalism: If "there is no such thing as society" then all evil must be the fault of evil individuals.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114881161800462146
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Hey look at this
* Here Comes the Sun https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/shameless-self-promotion
* Elon Musk’s Neuralink filed as ‘disadvantaged business’ before being valued at $9 billion https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/17/elon-musks-neuralink-says-owned-by-disadvantaged-persons-in-filing.html (h/t JWZ)
* The Met Collection https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection (h/t Henry Farrell)
* The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-number-go-up-rule-why-america
* Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/amazon-ring-cashes-techno-authoritarianism-and-mass-surveillance
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#15yrsago Woo-fighting scientist takes the funny high-road when libeled by millionaire “nutritionist” https://www.badscience.net/2010/07/and-then-i-was-incompetently-libelled-by-a-litigious-millionaire/
#15yrsago Indian bureaucracy to VS Naipaul: Can you prove that you’re really Indian? https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dual-citizenship-a-hit-amongst-PIOs/articleshow/6185207.cms
#10yrsago Congress’s groovy, formerly secret fallout shelter https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/congressional-fallout-shelter-at-the-greenbrier-resort
#10yrsago MRI scans of food https://insideinsides.blogspot.com/
#1yrago Richard R John's "Network Nation" https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/18/the-bell-system/#were-the-phone-company-we-dont-have-to-care
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