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#longread

4 posts4 participants0 posts today
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I am driven by my emotions.

"Our opinions generally have emotional rather than intellectual roots, and indeed rationality largely functions as a post hoc justification. Our political opinions, ultimately, are what we feel about the world, not what we think about it. And in turn, our opinions about particular events have a lot to do with how we feel about the world in general. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most people’s views about the kind of things that happen today are extensions of concerns of their own ego. And consequently, invitations to change their minds because new facts emerge, or because old ideas are discredited by new evidence, are in fact a threat to the strength and even survival of that ego."

"But few people, especially those who have received a decent education, want to acknowledge that their views are based on emotion and not reason. They therefore try to argue".

aurelien2022.substack.com/p/an

@histodons @psychology @socialpsych @ukraine @israel

Do you appreciate #empathy? Could you imagine a #cult that is glorifying the lack of empathy and #compassion? Could you imagine a cult casting empathy as a 'parasitic plague'? This cult exists - in an incredible unholy alliance.
Julie Carrie Wong investigated it and wrote a scary, important, and reveiling #longread about the preachers behind: theguardian.com/us-news/ng-int
via @joolia.bsky.social

The Guardian · Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathyBy Julia Carrie Wong

"Libertarianism is making inroads into New Zealand through multiple avenues. One of the most powerful tools we have to resist this corrosive ideology is the ability to recognise its language and thinking. Only then can we challenge it directly, rather than being drawn into debates on its terms—where its assumptions, objectives, and consequences remain unexamined."

open.substack.com/pub/melanien

Disinterpreted | Melanie Nelson · Decoding Seymour’s presentation on the Libertarian [Treaty] Principles BillBy Melanie Nelson

Brilliant #longread detailing an orthodox governments self-defeating response to decreasing agricultural yields and increasing land degradation - build more canals to bring arid deserts into cultivation using american-style intensive corporate farming techniques.

Case Study : #Pakistan
dawn.com/news/1897446/why-sind

Climate science needs to become a requirement for holding any kind of public office STAT!

DAWN.COM · Why Sindh’s farmers are up in arms over the Cholistan canal project"On the one hand, fertile farmland is being swallowed up by luxury housing schemes. On the other, farmers are being driven further from their livelihoods. How can we justify this?" questions WWF-P's Hammad Naqi Khan.

Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people.

Each year, hundreds of potentially world-changing treatments are discarded because scientists run out of cash. But where big pharma or altruists fear to tread, my friend and I have a solution.

It’s repugnant, but it will work.

mediafaro.org/article/20250311

The Guardian · Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people.By Alexander Masters

Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people.

Each year, hundreds of potentially world-changing treatments are discarded because scientists run out of cash. But where big pharma or altruists fear to tread, my friend and I have a solution.

It’s repugnant, but it will work.

mediafaro.org/article/20250311

The Guardian · Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people.By Alexander Masters

"Baker noted that "there's long been this very human-centric idea of intelligence that only humans are intelligent." That's fallen away within the scientific community as we've studied more about animal behavior. But there's still a bias to privilege human-like behaviors."
arstechnica.com/science/2025/0

A #longread by @arstechnica about the #anthropocentric #bias of #AGI and #AI companies - money versus nature.

Ars Technica · AI versus the brain and the race for general intelligenceBy John Timmer
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Long read: How a peripheral state can leverage its wealth, strategic geography and alliances to exert outsized influence on regional and global affairs

"How the UAE can simultaneously be both a subject of imperialism and an agent of imperialist practices within its spheres of influence while challenging traditional imperialist actors": tni.org/en/article/the-emergin

@israel @geography 🧵