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By logicpunk in "The Wildberries Theory of Russian Defeat" on MeFi

logicpunk — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:11:49 GMT

wasn't the point of the article that wildberries made itself part of the russian military infrastructure by providing/facilitating the delivery of materiel to russian soldiers? fuck off with that war crimes nonsense

By Richard Saunders in "We are fatigued with our compassion" on MeFi

Richard Saunders — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:27:34 GMT

This fucking guy. This fucking publication.

I worked the morning shift at the clinic in the syringe exchange today. Confirmed cure of one patient's Hep C, protected two against HIV for the next 1-2 months, counseled one person on better anxiety management, injected long-acting buprenorphine to support the recovery of two folks who are alive today in part because my organization helped keep them safe with naloxone and sterile injecting equipment until they were ready to choose a different path.

NPR Guy called me up a few weeks ago asking for help with a story he was developing. If we've got such great therapies for substance use disorders, why are people still overdosing? Why are they leaving treatment? I told him
that we know what causes substance use disorders: poverty, oppression, trauma. Most of my patients come from circumstances that would make you weep if it didn't make your blood boil. Most had been homeless at one point or another. Buprenorphine cuts your chances of death in half. Naloxone brings the dead to life. Neither of them provide a convincing argument as to why a person should enter recovery if the system's just going to spit them back out under Kensington Avenue homeless and with no prospects. Neither of them stop the trauma machine.

My patients who are doing the best are the ones who found their way into housing-first programs and had access to resources that gave them the space to heal. At best, my city has allocated resources to meet about 10% of the demand for such programs. NPR guy doesn't understand that people choosing to enter into recovery are giving up the one tool they've found to make the pallid horror of the trauma machine bearable for another day. If you want to respect autonomy-- a core ethical pillar of my profession and bulwark against fascism, you must understand and respect that decision. Decriminalization is a crucial step in respecting the autonomy of my patients, but it's obviously not keys to an apartment or a material commitment to support people through the harrowing process of healing.

These media ghouls though, this down-punching administration, its boot-licking donors, they love it when decriminalization and harm reduction fail to turn off their trauma machine or end homelessness. Gives them license to blame the whole problem on our respect for autonomy. Manufactures consent for 'solutions' that start with politically-craven coercive treatment and only get more fascistically murderous from there. None of them want to front the negligible amount of money it would cost to end homelessness, or the substantial but worthwhile amount of money it would cost to turn off their machine.

They need it to be this bad, and they're going to get their wish until we rout those whose livelihoods depend on the trauma machine and the cheap labor it produces.

By seanmpuckett in "We are fatigued with our compassion" on MeFi

seanmpuckett — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:02:35 GMT

That is a bullshit article.

Without harm reduction, many of addicts would be dead in squats, which would definitely be more comfortable for middle class people who are annoyed at stepping over not-dead users in public places.

Harm reduction is part of a set of social policies that need to be implemented together, including housing assistance, health care, mental health services, nutrition support, social work, educational outreach, and just being fucking tolerant of people who capitalism has decided are irrelevant. You need all of it.

You do get some people smoking meth in public parks. And ideally you also get outreach workers making sure they've had something to eat and have somewhere to sleep.

You just can't fucking wish people would go away and die somewhere else. That is literal garbage thinking.

I can't write more on this. I have to go exercise or I'll blow a gasket.

By domeinhorn in "Mind mapping" on MeFi

domeinhorn — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:37:47 GMT

The finding is interesting and the causal claim is doing more work than the data can support.

This is an analysis of death certificates by occupation. Taxi drivers and ambulance drivers had lower rates of Alzheimer's listed as cause of death than other occupations. That is a correlation across occupational categories, and occupation correlates with a great deal besides navigation.

Two specific problems. Healthy worker selection: driving a taxi requires passing medical fitness checks and is difficult to continue once cognition starts slipping, so people with early impairment leave the occupation and are recorded under a later job or none. And competing mortality: drivers have elevated cardiovascular and accident risk, which means more of them die of something else first. Alzheimer's is largely a disease of the very old, so anything that shortens life expectancy reduces recorded Alzheimer's deaths without protecting anyone.

The Maguire hippocampus work on London cabbies is the stronger evidence for the underlying mechanism, and it is genuinely remarkable: posterior hippocampal volume increased with years on the job, and it was the training that did it, since the trainees who passed the Knowledge showed the change and those who dropped out did not.

But even that shows structural adaptation to intensive spatial practice, not protection against a neurodegenerative disease decades later. Those are different claims and the second does not follow from the first.

What I would take from it: the mechanism is plausible, the specific study is weak evidence for it, and the broader finding that cognitively demanding work is associated with later cognitive decline is well supported by other research. Which means the practical advice survives even though this particular study does not carry it.

Also worth noting that the Knowledge is unusual even among navigation tasks. Three to four years of full-time study, 320 routes, 25,000 streets, and an examination process with a high failure rate. Whatever it does to a brain, casual wayfinding is not the same intervention.

By Frowner in "We are fatigued with our compassion" on MeFi

Frowner — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:55:57 GMT

I'm sorry, this is bullshit. I volunteer with addicts, I live in my own city's hotspot for drug use, I see an "open air drug market" every day as I bike to work. I carry narcan.

1. It is criminal, actually criminal, to position homeless people who are addicted to drugs as the main problem for working class people the way this article does. Working class neighborhoods are fucked up and it is from the same causes that give rise to addiction - impossible rents, lack of access to healthcare, increasing commutes and car costs, the prison system that shuts people out of work and housing, the credit system that does the same, the speculative housing market that keeps people precarious and puts them in dangerous, dirty, moldy dwellings.

2. Housing first. It just so happens that I know a guy, and that guy used to be addicted to heroin. From a relatively affluent background, with a loving and supportive family and a larger purpose in life, he required two inpatient stays, one at Hazeldon, before he could get off the junk. No one is quitting fucking fentanyl on the street.

3. People become homeless and then start taking drugs. Living on the street is terrifying and miserable. Drugs help you forget, they help you sleep when that's difficult and help you stay awake when it's dangerous. They give you a feeling of fullness when you have no food and an illusory warmth when you have no place to stay.

Every smug upper middle class fucker who thinks that the problem with our cities is the addicted poor could be marched to the guillotine and I would not care.

~~
If you can pass by our own "open air drug market", a hundred or so immiserated souls forced onto a narrow strip of concrete under a highway bridge, and your response is "oh these people are the enemies of the working class, we need more sweeps", you are stupid trash and I hope you enjoy your afterlife in the lake of fire.

By DirtyOldTown in ""the Spanish border is open and you can cross without papers"" on MeFi

DirtyOldTown — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:35:37 GMT

The right wants to manufacture a migrant crisis in Spain because the actual truth--that Spain focuses on legalizing undocumented residents and streamlining legal work pathways, a policy which has fueled economic growth by expanding the labor force and boosting tax revenue to offset population aging--is inconvenient to racists and xenophobes.

By Theophrastus Johnson in "Free thread: Share your favorite current memes" on MeFi

Theophrastus Johnson — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:16:15 GMT

Asking a favor: please give your dog or cat a big hug, a scratch behind the ears, tummy rub, etc. in honor of my little kitty that I had to say goodbye to this morning.

17 years ago, she gave me my first roots here in Chicago. Mine have grown significantly deeper since then; but if it weren't for her and her "thunderbolt spirit" during that first long, lean year, I might have blown right out of the windy city.

Miss Charles, love you <3

By egypturnash in "EstrangementTok" on MeFi

egypturnash — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:38:05 GMT

This is so alien to me. My mom was great. She did her best to raise the weird little creature she got instead of anything like what she was expecting, even when she had to go it alone after my dad died young. When I came home after moving across the country to chase being an animator and came out as trans, her reaction was "I always figured you were gay but this is new"; she asked questions, listened, joined a local trans parents group, and made a point of doing her best to refer to me as her daughter for the rest of her life.

It's been about 15 years since she died. I still miss her. Thanks for doing the opposite of everyone this post is about, MJ.

By DirtyOldTown in "Kalshi and Polymarket bets on clinical trials criticized as 'ghastly'" on MeFi

DirtyOldTown — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:35:19 GMT

I didn't favorite it, so I can't find it again to credit it properly, but I saw a post that said something to the effect of:

Look, I'm not here to cape for the mafia, but if you went to a guy named Joey Knuckles and tried to place a bet on when a sick little kid would die, he would lay your ass out right there on the fucking street.

By Bryant in "We are fatigued with our compassion" on MeFi

Bryant — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:34:36 GMT

As a Seattle resident, I cannot express how angry this article makes me, but I'm gonna try! Very very angry.

First off: not a single mention of the way in which the SPD has been engaged in an active attempt to discredit left-wing elected politicians in this city since the Black Lives Matter movement. Up until this year, the Seattle police union was led by Mike Solan, a tremendously right-wing podcaster who has now retired to his life of grift. Given our revolving door of police chiefs, Solan effectively ran the department. You may remember him from such local scandals as "it's not bad that there were 6 SPD officers at the 1/6 DC protests," "no, you shouldn't investigate the officers at the 1/6 DC protests," and "look, the union VP wasn't serious when he said it'd be cheap to buy off the family of the woman an SPD member killed while speeding." Solan is also the core reason why our civilian crisis care unit has been hamstrung for several years.

Second: here is the Seattle business community doing their best to prevent the city from actually implementing the harm reduction programs that make a difference. Blocking a crisis care center is only one example. You don't get to say we've tried harm reduction when we haven't.

Third: Republican Ann Davidson was the Seattle City Attorney from 2022 to 2026 thanks to some unfortunate vote splitting. (Formerly a Democrat, switched parties after finding out that local Democratic chapters weren't going to endorse her against incumbent politicians just because she was upset about issues she barely understood.) She did not support harm reduction, at all, and she was working with a Mayor and City Council who felt the same way. Mayor Harrell and Sara Nelson's City Council were quite centrist. They passed laws against public drug use in 2023! Davison unilaterally ended community court, also in 2023! The current state of Seattle's drug problem can be blamed in large part on centrists who opposed harm reduction.

And the author even admits that Davison and Nelson were opposed to harm reduction, without ever bothering to ask why their policies didn't make a difference. This is just incredibly embarrassing.

Or in short: very very very very angry. The Atlantic is full of shit.

By philip-random in "Mind mapping" on MeFi

philip-random — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 19:41:30 GMT

the constant work of locating yourself in space, tracking a destination and updating a mental map as conditions change."

good thing I've never figured how to get my GPS working, I guess.

But seriously, another thing I'd throw in here (having driven cab in the past) is how you're constantly having to ground yourself into a new social situation. Every fare changes things. Some want to talk. Some just want to sit and sulk. Some want you to talk. Some are in the midst of some messed up interpersonal drama. Some are merely drunk or high.

It's very much a read-the-room sort of job on a social level. Fuse this with the spatial, the aforementioned "constant work of locating yourself in space" and it sounds like you're getting a lot of complex situational exercise.

By Western Infidels in "All three Broadcast networks had nearly 200 stories on the heat waves." on MeFi

Western Infidels — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 17:29:32 GMT

Well, calling out climate change in every severe-weather news story would be like saying "war is bad" in every news story about attacks, battles, atrocities, etc.

It might be useful to point out "As with yesterday's bombing, the president denies that today's bombing is an act of war."

It might be useful to point out "Although every month in the last X months has set a new temperature record, the president continues to insist global warming is a Chinese hoax."

By DirtyOldTown in "How do you successfully navigate the divorce of two good friends?" on Ask MeFi

DirtyOldTown — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:36:38 GMT

When someone has a bad divorce, they tend to sort of informally designate My Person Who Will Listen to All of This Mess So I Don't Have to Do It Alone. It sounds like maybe both halves are trying to appoint you in this role? But it also sounds like you don't want to do this for either of them. It is okay to say that you love a person and want to support them during their divorce, but you cannot be their mediator, sounding board for complaints, or referee.

It is completely valid to tell them: "I love you both, and I care deeply about your family. I want to be here to support you through this painful time. I will take you out for a coffee, help with your daughter, or just give you a break from the stress. But I cannot get into the in-the-mud details, read screenshots, or pass messages between you. For my own mental health, and to remain a safe space for your child, I need to stay entirely out of the crossfire."

By clavdivs in "Let thy supplements healeth! Amen!" on MeFi

clavdivs — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 06:46:24 GMT

I have no idea how these people got their brains wedged into scanners, or why.

By DirtyOldTown in "EstrangementTok" on MeFi

DirtyOldTown — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:31:58 GMT

We're getting to the point where our kid is nearly an adult (turns 18 in Feb), as are most of his friends. Because we have a very noticeably relaxed, open, close relationship with our kid, some of the other parents we know will occasionally ask us: what is our secret? And I know they want us to say it's some bullshit like, "Dinner at the table five nights a week, no exceptions" or "We do [some activity] together once a month" but it's really just that we talk with him a lot, trying to be straight with him and treat him as an equal and being careful to listen when he talks. There's no "one weird trick."

People have strong feelings about raising kids and it's not my business to tell them what they're doing wrong. But it's hard for me not to say stuff like, okay you went to the punk rock show with your kid, and that's cool, but you didn't use the pronouns everyone knows your kid prefers and you spoke to them like they were five years old in front of their friends, most of whom you somehow hadn't met or heard about? And then you proceeded to talk shit about your kid to us other parents for like half an hour?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming we're super parents or anything. And we know other families with the same basic approach as us who get more or less the same results, varying somewhat based on whatever complicating hereditary traits their kid did or didn't get. But this is not an advanced set of skills. It's just basic stuff.

But the people whose kids are going to stop talking to them... I can probably tell you who they are today and why. They will inevitably claim they don't know how it happened, but it isn't really going to be a mystery.

By pracowity in "The Wildberries Theory of Russian Defeat" on MeFi

pracowity — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:28:51 GMT

d) warehouses full of guns, bombs, ammunition etc;

Wildberries is sending lots of etc. to Russian soldiers. According to TFA:

Look closer, however, and Wildberries makes an astonishingly obvious target. The retailer has developed into a vast supply channel for Russia's war. With official military logistics beset by shortages, delays, incompetence, and corruption, Russian units at the front are dependent on private deliveries and donations of supplies and equipment, often crowdfunded; countless fighters also order on their own account. Until it was hastily scrubbed from the site over the weekend, Wildberries featured a dedicated catalog category "Everything for the SVO," using the Russian acronym for "special military operation." The catalog included more than 200,000 listings, including not just war-themed coffee mugs but also thousands of battlefield items, such as body armor, tactical helmets, and custom drone components such as drop rigs and tail fins tailored to Russian projectile grenades. (The items are still listed but now under other categories.)

Many listings come with a "tested in the SVO" badge and official Russian certification stamps, meaning that this trade is actively encouraged by the platform. As of last week, top results in the SVO category included a Br2 military helmet, an armor vest with combat-fire-tested ballistic plates, and a combat medical kit; one-day delivery was available for an extra fee. Verified buyers gave these top items near-perfect star ratings, with buyers writing that they were ordering "for the guys in the SVO." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X last week that the strikes were destroying "logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and other gear."

By ashbury in "The Wildberries Theory of Russian Defeat" on MeFi

ashbury — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:20:10 GMT

Hitting Wildberries is brilliant, in my opinion. With Wildberries down there are three things being achieved: logistics and supply chain challenges, an economic hit and propaganda. I'm not a lawyer either but calling this a war crime when compared to what Russia has done is complete bullshit. That said, I'm reading the statement more as conversational and speculation rather than an accusation.

By phunniemee in "Where to place box fans so we don't sweat to death" on Ask MeFi

phunniemee — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:52:25 GMT

I would personally be camping out downstairs tonight.

By slkinsey in "I thought my partner was divorced. Surprise!" on Ask MeFi

slkinsey — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:19:21 GMT

Eh...? I know people who have been separated for many years and haven't got 'round to filing for divorce, and it sure ain't because they might get back together. If anything, it may be that your partner is finally buckling down and getting the process underway because of the relationship with you. Regardless, unless you were specifically told or overtly led to believe your partner was divorced, I wouldn't call this a lie by omission. I'd encourage you to focus on the fact that your partner is a fallible human being who is a "good, thoughtful, caring partner."

By kristi in "All three Broadcast networks had nearly 200 stories on the heat waves." on MeFi

kristi — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 17:12:58 GMT

I appreciated the specificity in the report and the callbacks to reporting in 2023, 2024, and 2025. I also really appreciated the Methodology section.

From Rebecca Solnit's latest post, Cynicism and Naïveté in the Summer of a Thousand Fires (note: NOT Substack, yay Rebecca):

Many, many surveys, national and international, have shown that the great majority of people are concerned about climate change and support action, including government spending, to address it. The United Nations Development Program and Oxford University report that in a survey of "more than 73,000 people speaking 87 different languages across 77 countries," the result was: "80 percent of people globally want their governments to take stronger action to tackle the climate crisis. Even more - 86 percent - want to see their countries set aside geopolitical differences and work together on climate change. The scale of consensus is especially striking in the current global context of increased conflict and the rise of nationalism."

...

I've been moved by how in this dire moment, so many people turn out to care deeply about truth, justice, equality, human rights, nature, and a lot of other things that have put them in active opposition to the deep selfishness of the Trump Administration and the far right and the oligarchy backing them. Over a much longer timespan, a minority of people have demonstrated their commitment to the well-being of the earth itself by becoming climate scientists, activists, donors, and educators. A lot of people care about the well-being of the whole. Not all of us, of course. Because there is no one human nature.

p.s. By the way, a few years ago I created a "What Can I Do?" guide as part of my Not Too Late climate project with Thelma Young Lutunatabua, outlining as many possibilities as I could for people in all kinds of situations with all kinds of resources. Because people often want to do more but don't know how.

Thanks very much for posting this, aleph. I haven't watched TV news willingly for years and years, and it's valuable to me to have this solid research about what they're doing (and not doing).