Yeah, this shit is on purpose. These people have no respect for national security (and no respect for our allies), so it makes sense to me that at least one of them is playing dumb games. Pete should have never risen to this position in government.

As it stands, people who like the trump admin will see nothing wrong with these messages (if they even read them). Maybe they’ll even think those goobers are doing a good job.

The people who hate the trump admin will not change their opinions of them after this (it can’t possibly be lower for most people who hate these fascists). Critiques of the signal meeting will be met with comments like “so the journalist should be in jail for leaking!” or “Does it matter? Look at trumps men going after the terrorists! Do you love terrorists or something?”

Facilitating the of leaking this stuff is win/win if you don’t value the lives of military personnel, records acts, security clearances, international opinion, etc.

Sorry, I thought this was in another thread that was actually talking about IQ. I’ve clicked through too many articles.

This article doesn’t mention IQ at all, even though your response does. IQ isn’t an absolute quantitative measure for intelligence even though many people conflate them - this is probably why the article doesn’t mention it.

I’d dig into the Financial Times article that this Neoscope article is about but it’s pay-walled. The neoscope article makes some case for intelligence declining (I don’t have time to read those citations right now), but I’d point out this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with less intelligent parents having children. It could be evidence that the material conditions for us ordinary citizens is declining as a whole (I think we would both agree on that point). Cost of living is up, people are working longer. Long COVID probably has something to do with it, and stress.

Im not going to write some big long podt, just two things:

1. people, on average, are not getting dumber. Anything you noticed observationally about dumb people having more children does not seem to have any effect on the world. Human nutrition has improved vastly over the past 100 years, as has education, etc.

2. IQ increases every year. I don’t think this is evidence people are getting smarter because I think IQ is a poor measure of intelligence. I’m pointing this out to you because your statement about “IQ drifting toward the bottom’” is factually untrue.

the kneejerk reaction that the statement always gets is annoying.

I agree with everything you said, but I’m going to point out something. If there is a common kneejerk reaction to some particular topic, there’s probably a reason for that. You yourself said its annoying? I suppose its predictable then. If you can predict that people are going to react in some way, you can write with more explanation to clarify that you aren’t actually supporting something like eugenics. The poster I’m responding to did not do this.

I took this lack of explanation as support (which, on reflection, might be leaping to conclusions). The overall tone of the comment is rather judgemental.

The commenter is also wrong; IQ hasn’t been “drifting towards the bottom”, the average IQ increases every year. Its why they have to constantly adjust the tests, because 100 is meant to be an average score by design. This is primarily why I chose to respond to him. He’s not saying " which is why we should invest in family planning" or “we should invest in children’s education”, he’s making an untrue statement, and then pretending that this will cause some sort of feedback loop. Dumb people making more dumb people.

IQ is not some absolute quantitative metric of intelligence. The people who treat it like it is… I find that a lot of them are pushing some sort of angle or simply don’t understand it.

This is the plot to a fictional movie. Intelligence is a factor of many things, and most of those factors are not genetic.

Your observation seems close to the opinions of old school eugenicists. “The wrong people are having children”.

I agree, we shouldn’t be coddling folk triggered by messages like “Everyone is Welcome”. They need to toughen up and learn to accept messages of inclusivity.

They SHOULD feel uncomfortable if they don’t like this sign. It’ll put hair on their chest.

Are you talking about plan B type pills? They are not an abortifacient. Common misconception (important to correct though).

Per FDA link:

Q. Is Plan B One-Step an abortifacient (causing abortion)?

A. No. Plan B One-Step will not work if a person is already pregnant, meaning it will not affect an existing pregnancy. Plan B One-Step prevents pregnancy by acting on ovulation, which occurs well before implantation. Evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, therefore it does not terminate a pregnancy.

I nabbed this from some meme chat earlier:

But he also said he wanted cuts, and that Musk would remain a power center: “If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

Its not time for celebration. This is just to take heat off Elon. Now the media will be able to spread the blame around or excuse it. “People inside the department know how best to make cuts. Everything is normal”.

I think that you should keep posting with your signature if it makes you happy. I have some sincere doubts it will force a corporation to exclude your content from any aggregated data, though, nor do I think anyone is giving up their rights by not properly licensing their comments here. Copyright is automatic in the USA. The problem isn’t the licensing, its the fact that no court is properly enforcing these rights. And, too few governments have data privacy laws on the books.

I’m not interested in relitigating those points though, I’m sure you’ve heard them. I guess I’m just typing that up so you know where I’m coming from.

I do think your signature is valuable when it makes people consider who owns their data, and why the CC license is important.

Personally I think you should put an explanation in your bio. I think your message will be served better if you can point to a pre-written explanation (or even an old style FAQ). But, I don’t think you’re obligated to do so. Its all gravy. People are going to fight you regardless.

Did you see that post from that guy mad about a period character on slashdot? Lmao

Hm, interesting. So this guy was posting all weird on slashdot, and you remember decades later? And you carried that with you, and it inspired you to type this comment. That’s a lot of commitment on your part for a stray period.

That’s pretty funny. Thank you for sharing.

I miss the old web, where if someone wanted to RP as a alien or a cat or something in all their forum posts, we just kind of rolled with it. The internet was strange and diverse.

So many people are dog piling this guy because, in essence, he isn’t conforming. He’s including a little forum signature on his lemmy posts in 2025.

Just ignore it and keep scrolling.

I agree, but not in a “this guy is an idiot” kind of way, but in a “do whatever you want and keep the internet diverse and strange” kind of way. Let the guy have his small protest. Folks need to stop dog piling him. It shows up in many of the threads he’s in, and judgments about his little signature dominate over anything he actually had to say.

Not just that, I like how they went with “radical change” instead of “wanton destruction” or “unlawful government restructuring”.

deleted by creator

Thank you for the thorough reply!

I’m not a website administrator so I’m out of the loop. Other ways to manage bots? Like what?

Everyone knows those rules don’t apply when youre dunking on the instances with opinions outside of the US state department’s approved overton window.

This is the message of the enemy. I am not sure what there is to be done, but to say this:

There’s nothing that can be done.

is to give up. The only thing that we ordinary people can know is that the democratic party is unable/unwilling to form an effective resistance right now.

Hmm gee why would anyone post articles that are vaguely negative about the Democratic establishment. Right now they’re fighting the blatent corruption going on in our country by doing:

Don’t forget all the things they did to protect federal workers like:

But of course you can’t forget the ways they got popular policy enacted when their man was in office. Policy like:

There’s an avian flu epidemic forcing the culling of birds. Should we save the CDC/USDA/FDA? Nah, silence from the democratic party.

There have been terrible airplane accidents. Should we get more staff for ATC and make sure the FAA has a director in a time of crisis? Nah, silence

Should we allow anti-intellectuals and political agents police the language of science? Should we stop them from purging completed projects and scholarly papers? Nah, silence

Should we do something about a madman firing 12 inspector generals without following process? Nah, silence

Anything to protect career civil servants, keeping our government running and providing services to the people? Nah, silence.

But the CIA front is where we draw the line.