Technology advances forced the Census Bureau to use sweeping measures to ensure privacy for respondents. The ensuing debate goes to the heart of what a census is.

This is a great article on a big-name application of differential privacy: it even features an interview with Dworkin! This, to me, seems like a pretty necessary change to preserve the privacy of folks.

via: https://mit.edu/6.1800/www/tutorials/01-intro.shtml

Beyond the fact that plenty of OCD manifestations are just too taboo for public consumption, I think one thing that really irks people is when someone has a high degree of insight into their OCD, but still frequently falls victim to it and is unable to be cured. In their minds, mental illness always has an endpoint. It becomes a weird prior chapter of your life, you can turn the page, and look back on it to say, “Ahh, those terrible times, before I discovered therapy.” They are extremely uncomfortable with the idea that you will be like this forever.

This is also the conclusion I’ve come to in dealing with my own intrusive thoughts. I shall save it for 1:1s w/ my therapist and share with no one else. Otherwise, it’s ultimately too exhausting for everyone involved.

A mathematician volunteers to teach a class at a women’s prison and learns an unexpected lesson. Told live at our Man Behind the Curtain Show on June 16, 2018 at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.

via: https://geometrynyc.wixsite.com/home/combinatorics-reu

But wanting to be a good person might be your most dangerous motivation.

If our movement is successful, it will be because of tens of thousands of people who all tried different things.”

I am not part of animal advocacy, but these are good rules to live by, nonetheless.

People take what they need and change what they don’t; they read, interrogate, contextualize; in this way, history moves forward. The question is not what the books say. The question is always you, the reader; what you take, what you leave, and how you change the world.

This is a good introduction to hate speech as a legal phenomenon, with emphasis on social media and college campuses. Exposed me to a lot of useful viewpoints.

No court case in recent history has propelled Asian Americans into the political sphere like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and no issue has galvanized them like affirmative action. Asian Americans have taken center stage in the latest battle over affirmative action, yet their voices have been muted in favor of narratives that paint them as victims of affirmative action who ardently oppose the policy.

Very provocative essay which I’m struggling to fully believe.

A tempered wokeness. Pairs well with the Paul Bloom post so read the other day.

But many people who ask questions about trans people are just curious and have no intention of being offensive. And most cis people are as ignorant, and as reasonably ignorant, about trans people as I am about little people, hijabis, seasonal migrant laborers, or Eritrean American immigrants. All things equal, it is good if your response to someone sincerely asking “what does it mean to be nonbinary?” or “so you’re a man, but you got pregnant? How does that work?” or “do you think trans women should play in women’s sports?” is taking a deep breath and trying to explain as best you can.

I think the philosophy of “educate yourself” came from black folks; wondering if the author would believe that there are enough black people around in the US that one cannot be reasonably ignorant.

over the years, meat-based dishes like jerk chicken and curry goat have become synonymous with Jamaica and a beloved part of its national menu. In more recent years, with global fast food chains serving fried chicken and burgers populating Jamaica’s cities, ital eating has been pushed further to the fringes. In spite of this, many Jamaicans still choose to shun animal products, deeming meat to have been introduced by imperial powers and with no place in a traditional Jamaican diet. For others, the negative health impacts of meat have prompted them them to turn back to Rastafari food preachings.

This is a very practical kind of veganism. Go black diaspora!

You gotta work hard to meet people where they are and get them on your side.

In this sharp manifesto, veteran author and activist, Jude Doyle, reunites feminist and trans politics through a common belief: that all people deserve to have the final say about who they are…

An excellent book on transfeminism from the transmasc POV. A terrifyingly easy read: I zoomed through its 200 pages in about a day.

Fascism is Tuesday.

The Right’s pronatalism movement is darker than you think.

Conover of Adam Ruins Everything fame has a monologue series on his YT channel; excellent stuff.

The writer Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Ezra Klein on the show to discuss how the left should think about the work of politics and persuasion in this moment.

In which Ezra Klein partly redeems himself.

I hate Sundays.

Asexual discourse - a tedious internet spam war, or a snapshot of queer history? Guess we’ll find out that and more together…

Took me a minute to realize this was parody.

If you want to meet likeminded neighbors to be in solidarity with, and you think there are some of those in your neighborhood, you could drag a little folding table and folding/camp chair out to that spot this weekend, or tonight, with a paper sign. Mine was just on 1 sheet of printer paper.