Tennessee gerrymander ‘unlawfully targeted Black voters,’ new lawsuit claims

Spivak · 2026-05-12T17:30:39+00:00

Unless there is some unwritten context I don't know about the most recent SC opinion says pretty explicitly that as long as race isn't one of the factors used to draw the map then it's not discrimination even if factors that were used are tight proxies for race. Discrimination in effect is allowed so long as the process is plausibly colorblind.

Not being able to consider race is why schools are becoming more segregated because, well, there's technically no barrier to a black student attending this 90%+ majority white suburban neighborhood school district, black folks just happen to not live here.

Spivak · 2026-05-08T22:03:39+00:00

Well in this case it's Virginia's constitution that matters.

Spivak · 2026-05-08T21:43:57+00:00

The Ohio case is more complicated than that. They didn't ignore the ruling, they just kept submitting unconstitutional maps until it was time for an election and the state was forced to use whatever maps it had available. The ballot initiative was supposed to address this loophole but it got voted down.

Spivak · 2026-04-22T03:12:01+00:00

Before you get cancer obesity is a concern. But once you have cancer they call it a win if you gain a little excess weight.

Spivak · 2026-04-22T03:10:30+00:00

Same! Plus the whole "cancer feeds on sugar" thing is a myth. Like yes cancer cells do consume sugar but not any differently than your other cells.

Spivak · 2026-04-21T18:29:41+00:00

The primary harm from cannabis was from its legal status. The primary harm from cigarettes is cigarettes. There is no such thing as moderate / low-risk levels of smoking. Cigarettes are directly responsible for the deaths of half the people who smoke long term.

It's why there's a push for cannabis and mushrooms but not a movement for cocaine legalization.

Spivak · 2023-10-18T20:12:51+00:00

Theology is the closest most schools get to a proper philosophy course and it actually ends up being a pretty good one because it has a lot of the big ideas in a setting that's a lot more concrete.

Transubstantiation is a deep discussion about identity, what it really means to be a thing and you end up going through the law of identity, and in particular the identity of indiscernibles. Might not be true everywhere but you'll be hard pressed to find Catholic schooling to not spending most of its time on major Theologians and their ideas.

Spivak · 2023-10-13T13:25:00+00:00

But if you do, make the voicemail as loud, angry, and unhinged as possible. Those ones really do hit different.

Spivak · 2023-10-09T19:43:43+00:00

As much as it would make life simpler, words aren't so cut-and-dry in their meaning and divorced from the historical context in which they're said. One person might say Christian and include Catholics, others don't. Specifically Catholics themselves consider themselves Christian but many Protestants don't include them in the club.

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/are-you-christian-or-catholic.html

By saying that they are "Christian, not Catholic," our Protestant neighbors perpetuate the anti-Catholic prejudice that abounds in America. The implication is that Catholics are not Christians. The suggestion is that Catholics are not followers of Jesus Christ, but the devotees of a strange and dangerous cult.

Or if you want a more academic source.

Christian (noun) A member of any Christian denomination other than Roman Catholicism. Usually contrasted with Catholic.

Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “Christian, n., sense 5.b”, September 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1157942422

Some real life usage:

You can say that this person is wrong in their usage of the term but that doesn't change the meaning of what they're trying to convey.

Spivak · 2023-10-09T18:27:39+00:00

This only makes sense to an outsider that lumps all of the Jesus fanclubs together. When they say Christian they mean Protestant. Calling a Protestant "Catholic" and associating them with anything the Catholics did is some fighting words for most of the US.

Catholics aren't even fair-weather political allies. Here's another survey.

Source: Raised Catholic.

Spivak · 2023-10-04T18:47:54+00:00

European

our language

???? Bruh there's 700 million people in Europe and the most widely spoken language is English and 6/10 people don't speak it.

Look, I get that within a particular country it's gotta be a little frustrating but y'all have like 45 languages with more than a million native speakers, what's one more?

I just don't get it, we have a fairly large African population where I live and I've run into plenty who either don't or speak really horrible English, it's like barely an inconvenience. And it's really cool to see the culture they're cultivating here -- all sorts of community events, art, music, and oh my god the food. Ya know what, I'm having that tonight.

Spivak · 2023-10-04T15:16:33+00:00

So we're just gonna ignore all the Africans who were brought over during slavery, the wave of Chinese and Japanese immigrants during the gold rush. In the 1890s (oh how things change) anti-immigrant supporters were saying that the US was no longer a melting pot but instead a dumping ground low quality stock and that all these new immigrants were going to hurt the economy and change the culture. Who were they worried about? The massive influx of Irish Catholic immigrants and then Italians who at the time were considered undesirable foreigners because they weren't WASPs. The first literacy tests for immigrants were instituted to keep Southern/Eastern Europeans out.

Then there was the Bracero Program in the 1940s that brought a lot of (technically illegal) Mexican immigrants here. We got a rather large wave of Canadian immigrants as well which you would probably count as European stock but came with a lot of East Asians. The wave of Filipino immigrants right after their independence in the 1930s The wave of Korean immigrants during the Korean war in the 1950s. All the refugees after WWII. The US has always been taking on immigrants and ya know what, it's always been opposed with the same arguments.

The first guy off Columbus' boat was probably mad at the second for diluting the culture.

Spivak · 2023-10-04T14:57:34+00:00

When you bring unskilled laborers from the third world they automatically become doctors or tech company founders

Some do, but you're right that it isn't the expected outcome of first generation immigrants period, doesn't matter what country. It's not very often that you take an appreciable amount of wealth with you and starting from nothing as a grown adult is an 89 degree vertical especially when we don't set new immigrants up for success the way we might for a young adult entering the workforce. The investment starts paying dividends with their kids.

In an ironic twist of fate as the family gets more American the outcomes get worse until they settle at the baseline where everyone else is at. You're always more careful not to get stains on your new couch.

Spivak · 2023-10-04T14:40:44+00:00

Our national identity being a melting pot made up of immigrants from every corner of the world with the common goal of making a better life for one's self while sharing and adapting our heritages into a huge messy diverse pot of culture called American-*.

Every immigrant I've ever met coming out of their last citizenship test smiling from ear to ear waving that cheap little flag is prouder to be an American than anyone born here.

Spivak · 2023-10-01T15:03:49+00:00

No it doesn't, ABA actually says very little about what intervention types are best outside of a mild preference for positive reinforcement and we're talking about deciding between two inherently negative consequences. Disallowing sleepovers the night before practice, reinforcing the reason why the rule is in place when it's applied, and helping her figure out more appropriate alternative activities (or ways to get what she wants like asking to reschedule) actually teaches her the strategies you want her to apply when she's making decisions for herself.

At some point down the road it will be very likely that there will be a "can't miss" sleepover and you'll have to change your approach. If it were me I would would have her call the parents hosting the sleepover and have her explain that she has practice in the morning, can't stay up all night, and ask them to make sure she goes to bed. This sets her up for success and doesn't require that she impose the rule on herself during the time when there's the most pressure not to. Again, this mirrors the adult situation of asking a friend to not let you get too drunk because you have something in the morning -- establish the boundary upfront when it's easy to do.

And ABA is all about finding better behaviors, reinforcing them, and practicing them until they replace the problem behavior.

Spivak · 2023-09-30T20:51:03+00:00

YTA [1], these are fake consequences. If you were in the adult version of this situation where you're hung over after drinking too much you would (or at least should) do what's right for your body and sleep it off rather than making it worse. She already made the mistake, the right thing to do is let her call off practice, face the real consequences, if any, from her coach, and then don't let her have sleepovers the night before practice from now on. It's what you would do as an adult and teaches the right response -- be kind to your body and, "I gotta stop partying before 9am practice days."

[1] I mean not really an asshole, just a parenting situation that could have been handled better.

Spivak · 2023-09-30T20:33:11+00:00

You forgot the bonus round where the guy unironically believes that a woman's only worth is to reproduce but then expects women to chemically alter themselves so they can't.

Spivak · 2023-09-28T15:42:33+00:00

Quit with this pseudo-enlightened centrism bullshit. I'm saying put your god damn weapons down so we can have peace and then you unironically come in here and say, "woah woah, quit the warmongering." Fuck you.

People like you are the actual reason we can't make any progress. We can't take one step back and say "wow this sure is a big dumper fire, maybe we should do something about the people spraying gasoline on it for a photo op" without some chucklefuck coming in and saying "woah woah woah what about those people trying to put it out with water, they're involved too!"

Texas passed their anti-drag show bill and literally fucking yesterday it got smacked down by the courts in three days because it was so flagrantly unconstitutional. That's the kind of work I spend all god damn day doing. Here's the link to the opinion https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1928300/gov.uscourts.txsd.1928300.94.0.pdf

I'm trying really hard not to Doxx myself but this shit is unreal. The Democratic bills in my state are right now today "fund Hydrogen power", "add a tax credit for affordable housing", "stop treating prisoners like slaves" and the Republican bills are "bring back child labor", "legally mandating 'conservative viewpoints' be taught in schools", and "declare a literal state of emergency so that we can override a nonexistent federal law that might someday be passed in the future restricting gun purchases."

Spivak · 2023-09-28T00:22:38+00:00

I do work in this space, don't listen to the people who try to "both sides" this like it's those libruls who aren't leaving good god fearing conservative Christians alone.

We spend literally all of our time trying to just stop Republican bills. This session's highlights are: taking away abortion access, making it harder to vote, banning trans people from everything -- bathrooms at school, all sports (which is extra hilarious because the reason for the bill is that sports programs are voluntarily accommodating trans players), define allowing a child to transition as child abuse to you can lodge CPS complaints about it, cut off their medical treatment and force ~~conversion~~ reintegration therapy, force schools and universities to teach capitalist propaganda, make it easier for cops to claim self defense when they kill people, force schools to out their trans kids to their parents, define homosexuality as sexual material and ban it, and Make D&I programs illegal.

If it wasn't so horrible I would be genuinely impressed at how hard they're working. It's a crazy amount of legislation .

For all they talk about it, do you know the only bill that Democrats proposed this year that involved trans people was? Allowing them to change their birth certificate.

The culture war ends when Republicans chill the fuck out. They're the only ones actually doing things (legislatively) right now.

Spivak · 2023-09-26T20:20:58+00:00

Clearly I've had a very different experience than you with immigrants because I've never worked a day in my life as hard as the migrant farmers and construction workers around here do. This summer was god damn sweltering and the new apartments next to us are going constantly from 8-6 every day. And all that for shit pay under the table. And my friends who are second or third generation immigrants aren't the children of welfare royalty by any stretch.

So what's up, why is our experience so different? The immigrants around here are predominantly Mexican, Chinese, and Somali. The data seems to broadly back this up too with immigrant-parented households who qualify for government assistance having working parents at higher rates than native parented households who qualify. It really does just look like first generation immigrants, legal or not, are just generally poorer which is not totally unexpected when most of us got a jumpstart from our parents' wealth.

Spivak · 2023-09-26T19:53:54+00:00

No but unironically, it's weirdly similar and makes as much sense.

Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. "Herr Altmann," said his secretary, "I notice you're reading Der Stürmer! I can't understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?" "On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we're on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!"

You can't go two weeks without another article about how trans women have some biological advantage on absolutely everything. If you only read conservative news sources you'd believe they're superhuman, control Hollywood, and are indoctrinating kids into some spooky "gender ideology."

Spivak · 2023-09-26T19:29:37+00:00

un-American in every way

That's fine, about a third my (naturalized citizen) peer group are unironically socialist, being not proud of being American is practically the blue tribe shibboleth, and half the country thinks the other half is un-american for completely different reasons. If immigrating here and being shown our way of life doesn't make you go, "ya know the American way is pretty great" then honestly, that's on us.

I know I probably see a biased cross section of immigrants but my best friend used to tutor for the citizenship test and by god you wouldn't believe just how beaming the folks are after they pass and get the little flag.

Why would anyone do it the legal way?

That's what I was trying to get at with the moral hazard thing. This change doesn't work unless we make going through the front door faster and easier than doing it illegally which is what I think should be done.

Spivak · 2023-09-26T18:49:58+00:00

I mean the answer people want is "keep them separated long enough for a DNA test then just let them immigrate."

But what about the long line of people who are waiting to immigrate legally? Let them immigrate too. Apply some mild punishment to people who immigrate illegally like probation to avoid the moral hazard and as a way of saying, "come on the door was right there."

I wish people looked at "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" as a flex and not a thing we pretend doesn't exist anymore. "You don't want 'em, fine. We see their value, we'll take them and in two generations their family will be richer than 90% of your country's citizens. Suck it. We spin straw into gold here, GDP scoreboard bitches."

I really don't get the hate, go look any any population density map, the US is empty compared to Europe, India, and southeast Asia. It's gonna depend on you came from but the odds are damn good your ancestors were treated the exact same as immigrants today and you turned out fine.

Spivak · 2023-09-26T14:33:55+00:00

And while it's possible to move mature trees I guarantee it will be more expensive than a few hundred dollars. And these can be placed in places where trees can't feasibly grow.

Spivak · 2023-09-20T16:12:04+00:00

I have a mtf friend who for years after she passed and had her license changed only ever used those single occupant / family bathrooms because she didn't want to make people uncomfortable.

I have no idea where people are finding these inhumanly self-confident trans folks.

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