1/ Happy #SocialistSunday - and welcome to the weekly #SocialistSundayMegaList!

Please sign & widely share my petition for an emergency UBI and alleviate pandemic poverty. https://t.co/dilMlYxCCG

The following list is 100% randomised.

2/ If you're included but don't want to be, feel free to let me know - ideally by DM, because I'm much more likely to actually see that. This thread gets a lot of notifications!

(Stats as ever will follow the list of names)

Megalist commences:
3/ @HarmonyPartyUK
@EastBerksLabGND
@tallulahportsmo
@Tish1931
@jackie32859121
@NorthernLefty
@margellais
@Cumbria4Corbyn
@IceManTiti1
@MaxRobertFinch
@rickwookie
@iloireadas
@tinakalinen
@VeeBrien
@bbqshirt
@realhippohollow
@ageof_jess
@Jennyfurfuls
@BDT_Services
4/ @Greyfalcon6
@Soc_Sciences
@Hello_2022
@wepaidinupayout
@keithjames351
@Giacie
@Bliadhnaichean
@Walshicus1
@koffeelover41
@electikk
@JOHNSTA05030416
@Ed_Forest
@suzyseeitall
@LittleV33244419
@Rhubarb00
@EmbitteredThe
@hftaman
@mellors_karen
@sabuniray
@amk262
@GloryBS
5/ @AggieRyan
@steveniskra
@sev_kudu
@dominicwatts1
@teodora_hansen
@Ms_Nichola
@NeilJamesPeter1
@tiffanyjewel10
@allmodcons79
@ptomandpaul
@sturitchie2010
@kellsley
@nickystar911
@MMaureen01
@King4ADay_UK
@edwebb98843090
@DBFole13
@lorraine_teuten
6/ @aliwilkin
@vsorted
@goldfinchgirl
@CovidiusNaso
@doctort50
@100julian
@trottersltd
@MarianTilford
@Oberon_Octagon
@Kevinedwoods
@LeeroyWildman
@total2total
@GuileOTeen
@FightyWoman
@nurse_marcus
@brianplant4
@calvindenni
@Harrisoncpl
@c_eeb
@Rob81991542
@TravActivist
7/ @VikkiTh16913224
@AnneBarr2015
@patriciajw20
@hampsteadchap
@Slide_2The_Left
@Patrick43114459
@AnneLai31821380
@comradewhocares
@Phil_UltEd
@madeleinesteel
@Richard75074509
@CllrRobinAhmed
@ResilientRose
@MarkTBBFleming
@GrahamCole64
@Carolin10040488
@My_Pedagogics
8/ @ChefKissLeftist
@BekahPalmiero
@Philirving
@Christi64914989
@sexyweirdos
@lukebaln
@SimpliArt
@edwardpoole1975
@julievwillis
@KazRow1
@OpinionatedKrys
@BeckySnowden92
@AnneArchell
@CityInvestments
@tonyiathyer
@SageDylan11
@karenmartin1972
@Forthemanynott5
@WinstonFSmith84
9/ @karlymarxthedog
@incorbynsname
10/ #SocialistSundayMegaListStats:

Newcomers: 127
Total: 127
Mentions tweet tally: 6 tweets
Structural tweet tally: 4 tweets
Time taken: 45mins (mostly prep for next week's much bigger list tbh)

This thread will self-destruct in... 5 days.
11/ The req thread will go up at the same time I delete this thread. Next week more of my favourites will be included - my own personal list needs updating. Sorry if you didn't get included this time around & you usually do!

More from Government

Which metric is a better predictor of the severity of the fall surge in US states?

1) Margin of Democrat victory in Nov 2020 election
or
2) % infected through Sep 1, 2020

Can you guess which plot is which?


The left plot is based on the % infected through Sep 1, 2020. You can see that there is very little correlation with the % infected since Sep 1.

However, there is a *strong* correlation when using the margin of Biden's victory (right).

Infections % from
https://t.co/WcXlfxv3Ah.


This is the strongest single variable I've seen in being able to explain the severity of this most recent wave in each state.

Not past infections / existing immunity, population density, racial makeup, latitude / weather / humidity, etc.

But political lean.

One can argue that states that lean Democrat are more likely to implement restrictions/mandates.

This is valid, so we test this by using the Government Stringency Index made by @UniofOxford.

We also see a correlation, but it's weaker (R^2=0.36 vs 0.50).

https://t.co/BxBBKwW6ta


To avoid look-ahead bias/confounding variables, here is the same analysis but using 2016 margin of victory as the predictor. Similar results.

This basically says that 2016 election results is a better predictor of the severity of the fall wave than intervention levels in 2020!

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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.
I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x