He likely took a diagnostic test for cognitive decline that has 30 questions. But he somehow thinks it was an IQ test. He claims he got all 30 right, which they told him is a perfect score. He probably thinks he’s a genius with “a very high IQ.”

It’s the Dunning–Kruger effect in action.

You’re right. I just wish politicians would just let us have nice things.

That’s a fair criticism. We know how poll testing has historically been used to disenfranchise minority groups.

That’s why I suggested the citizenship exam, which is a well-established test with specific parameters and existing preparation programs.

We have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity …

Okay, but isn’t that just evidence that the theory of quantum gravity doesn’t actually describe our universe?

I’m getting real Principal Skinner vibes from this. “Is our theory so out of touch? No, it’s reality that is wrong.”

I think that voter registration should work like driver licensing. And the test you have to pass should be the citizenship exam.

In this administration, every accusation is an admission.

Fun fact: The “cherry” part of the coffee cherry tastes awful, but the mucilage around the bean tastes sweet. (But it has a very “green” flavor, so not everyone enjoys it.)

Some coffee is dried still inside the cherry (natural process). Or you can take off the cherry and leave the mucilage (honey process). Or you can get rid of everything before drying (washed process). No matter which process you use, the cherry and parchment are always removed before roasting.

Before you ever even think about different ways of roasting, beans from the same variety of plant will have different flavor profiles depending on the drying process.

The time, thought, and effort that goes into good coffee at every stage is staggering. I totally understand why artisan coffee carries a hefty price tag.

Source: You really can’t live in Colombia without learning all about coffee.

Not currently teaching in a “US hole.” I’ve been teaching in South America for 5 years and I have never noticed an analog clock in a public place here.

I’m from the US, but I’m currently a teacher in South America. Kids here are even worse at reading analog clocks than my students in the US were.

Teacher here.

I’m pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school. But teaching how to read analog clocks is required in our math education standards, so I have one and I use it, even though I think there are other, more relevant places to put our academic focus.

I’m 45 years old. I’m pretty sure we only ever had one analog clock in our house when I was growing up in the '80s, and that was my grandpa’s alarm clock. The only places I’ve been where only analog clocks were available have been schools. Even our local bank in my small town changed to a digital clock on its sign outside.

Unfortunately, education systems are dictated by legislators, who are often old and out-of-touch. So I doubt we’ll see a change in the education requirements any time soon. But, just like how keyboarding has replaced cursive in classrooms, it will eventually come.

I did it for almost 10 years. Most of the work we did was fine, but some was utterly opposed to my personal values. I started making donations to my favorite charities (mostly Planned Parenthood and ACLU) every time I had a new work project that I felt was working against their goals.

When my husband and I were financially stable enough, I noped out of that job and found something that paid less but was affirming instead of soul-crushing.

My uncle was a factory worker and a daily regular at his favorite local bar for more than 30 years.

My mom wouldn’t allow me to go inside the bar (because drinking alcohol is a sin, you know). But in the '80s and '90s, before cell phones, I knew exactly where to find him after school if I needed anything.

Unfortunately, 30+ years of excessive drinking caused a lot of really serious health problems that caught up to him when he was in his 50s. The owners and staff sent a huge flower arrangement and all came to his funeral.

Agree. This is part of the shared lexicon in our home.

Sometimes it’s “being edgy just for the sake of it isn’t cool. Don’t be an idiot; people fought wars over this.” Students generally respect him, so once they realize he doesn’t play that game, they stop doing it in his classes.

If it’s a specific kind of bigotry, he points out that someone important to him is black/gay/trans/an immigrant/etc, and asks the kid if they’ve even met someone in that group. Most of the time the kid hasn’t and they’re just parroting things they’ve heard at home or online.

I also always access .world through my VPN.

I’m still here at .world because every time I think I’ve identified a better instance to go to where people seem to like it, I see someone else who recommends blocking it.

I definitely see the appeal of (and need for) blocking individuals, but I think that instances are too big and varied to neatly paint everyone with the same brush.

My husband is a high school teacher. He’s had more than a decade of students saying Nazi shit in an attempt to be “edgy.” They seem surprised when he calls them out on their bullshit. His response has made a few (probably too few) of them think twice about how people perceive them because of their words.

Last year was the first time he had a student who spouted that crap because he actually believed it. I think he has a couple of students now who actively identify as fascists. Times, they are a-changin’.

Rigging elections is terrible.

But one party has quietly been working for decades to ensure that they can retain control of Congress with or without a majority of the votes in the country or even in a state.

And now it looks like that won’t be enough, so they’re actively trying to change election maps by any means possible before the midterms.

Democrats can’t sit on their hands and wait for this to happen. If they don’t fight back now, they might not get another opportunity.

Gerrymandering has been a problem for decades, and it’s only getting worse.

It’s possible that the only way to get fair election maps is to min/max the system to the extreme. And once everyone sees how horrible it is, maybe they’ll be willing to actually work together to fix the system.

If we wait for a perfect solution that causes no friction, we’ll be waiting forever. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.