Infinite Quack

America, we need to talk about how the multiple crises we're facing are interconnected. There are so many to choose from, and two that are probably foremost in the reader's thoughts recently, but I want to discuss five of them. (There are others. I’m not even including climate change.) Let's dub 2020 the Year of the Disaster-Plex, shall we? For many of us, the year the scales fell from our eyes. This lousy year hit us with the Covid-19 crisis first. Viruses happen, and the worst ones are the plagues: when viruses jump from other species into ours (1) . So long as we live in close proximity to animals and have less-than-perfect sanitary practices, this will keep happening from time to time. It's bound to be more common now that there are several billion of us, and we keep flying around the world in metal boxes. This one is unusually nasty because it's a stealth virus. When a plague can spread through multiple people who catch it and cough it along, without even knowi...

  Transcribed image contents, a tweet by @JoshuaACNewman: I don't know why this is hard to understand. Toxic toads are toads that are toxic. Most toads are not toxic. But the ones that are, are a real doozy. Toxic masculinity is masculinity that is toxic. Most masculinities are not toxic. But the ones that are, are a real doozy. I think I know why it's hard for some to understand. Masculinity is like one's religion or one's political affiliation: it's part of one's identity. Attacks on those ideas are difficult to consider in a detached, rational way. They become personal attacks; they feel like an attack on the person. They inspire a fight-or-flight response. The person feels they must win at all costs, and out come the flimsy counter-arguments, the slanted evidence. If someone believes being a "Real Man" is crucial to their perceived worth, and that this necessitates treating women like objects to be dominated, well, they're going to freak out wh...