From this week’s news on: society generally, and broader issues

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

From this week’s news on society generally, and broader issues (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published):

• “Social cohesion lowest on record as Australia reels from cost of living, inequality concerns and voice debate”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/15/social-cohesion-lowest-on-record-as-australia-reels-from-cost-of-living-inequality-concerns-and-voice-debate   

• “The Problem of [Capitalist] Value”   https://www.okdoomer.io/email/9479f49a-9f89-4865-a803-f58ddeb58ffb/   

• “Britain: Its Empire and Corporations, and Their Current Traces”   https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/corporations-british-empire.html    this does tend to suggest the size of companies should be limited even today - which is reinforced by the 2007-08 GFC  
  

• in an acknowledgement of the endemic problem of unconscious bias,   “Queensland University of Technology defends removing 'merit' from hiring policy”   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/qut-defends-removing-merit-from-hiring-policy/103114562  
  

• “Office work is over [Yay!]. Wishes won’t bring it back [Yay!]”   https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/office-work-is-over-wishes-wont-bring-it-back-fc8031490246   

• “TV can be educational but social media likely harms mental health: what 70 years of research tells us about children and screens”   https://theconversation.com/tv-can-be-educational-but-social-media-likely-harms-mental-health-what-70-years-of-research-tells-us-about-children-and-screens-216638   (based on an examination of multiple meta-analyses)  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.