Danny Wardle

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

The Australians getting hit with up to 122 per cent tax Some Australians who are eager to take on more work are being held back by the prospect of giving up most of their additional income – and in some cases, even paying to work.

For decades Aus has cut marginal tax rates, largely on high earners, based on exaggerated claims about work disincentives.

Meanwhile, over the same period, we've set up *genuinely* punitive (at times > 100%) effective marginal tax rates on low-middle income earners.

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

very sad. we should eliminate the tariffs and then replace them targeted luxury goods taxes.

My contribution to the welfare state debate: Pre-transfers, the Child Poverty Rate is 100%
[Link below]

everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase

also see the australian labor party from hawke-keating onwards

also i refuse to defend the honour of any australian university, especially not one i studied at or worked for

back in the day i used to point out that it's actually the sa government's ad and the adelaide uni ad is just unfortunately next to it but then everyone told me this was meta-mansplaining

Reality is now so internet poisoned you cannot say true things without appearing insane. “The New York Times ran a hit piece on Zohran purely so a minor race science blogger could place insider trades on Polymarket” sounds like you are a schizophrenic but it is straightforwardly factual!

What are we supposed to do about the fact that a huge number of supposedly “serious” intellectuals are clearly socially networked with race science bigots, and at best only one degree of separation from out-and-proud neo-Nazis calling for genocide and extermination of Jews?

thanks springer, excellent advice

i'm sure these journals will be very interested in my metaphysics manuscripts

thanks springer, excellent advice

i'm sure these journals will be very interested in my metaphysics manuscripts

plenty of concerned discourse around students using chatgpt for assignments, what about academics using it for marking? that seems just as easy or easier, harder to detect, and with financial motivation

Greens to push for super tax indexation On Friday, Waters said the Greens partyroom would discuss the policy and likely advocate a similar position to the one before the election.

Unless you think the current (or any proposed) tax take is the "correct" one (and is "enough" and will remain so), supporting the automatic indexation of tax thresholds is very dumb political economy. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

if your desideratum for an electoral system is "my team wins every time" then voting is already off the table

Antisemitism and Sinophobia drawing out some interesting parallels

Some thoughts on how antisemitism and Sinophobia share parallels re: their relationship with criticism of Israel and China and people's willingness to recognise this issue in one case while minimizing it in the other.

www.pluralityofwords.com/p/antisemiti...

ANU vice-chancellor denies misleading the Senate, may have breached rules again Pocock warns ANU could be in contempt of the Senate again.

ANU denies misleading the senate, publishes its response to the committee chair on its website before it is tabled which is also contempt of the senate. Best and brightest in charge at the national university! www.canberratimes.com.au/story/893451...

The Strange Culture War Over AI Art the perils of viewing the world through the prism of tech bros vs artists

New post on the strange and disingenuous arguments against AI art that I've encountered on the left.

www.pluralityofwords.com/p/the-strang...

I *really* benefited from grad school in the US, and I typically advise students to consider the US if they want to do a PhD as I think the system there is flatly better than ours in the UK. But, like, now people are getting deported for signing on to a leftwing op ed in a student paper? I hesitate.

The Genes Vs Environment Debate is a Red Herring you don't need to be a 'hereditarian' to acknowledge that you can't completely eliminate differences in academic outcomes and lifetime incomes

"The central policy question isn't whether genes or environment determine academic outcomes – it's whether we want a society that distributes resources and opportunities based primarily on academic achievement."

www.pluralityofwords.com/p/the-genes-...

The effects of social media abstinence on affective well-being and life satisfaction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Abstaining from social media has become a popular digital disconnection strategy of individuals to enhance their well-being. To date, it is unclear whether social media abstinences are truly effective in improving well-being, however, as studies produce inconsistent outcomes. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis therefore aims to provide a more precise answer regarding the impact of social media abstinence on well-being. The databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Communication Source, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched for studies examining the effect of social media abstinence on three outcomes, namely positive affect, negative affect, and/or life satisfaction. In total, ten studies (N = 4674) were included, allowing an examination of 38 effect sizes across these three outcomes. The analyses revealed no significant effects

Image description Figure 1. Forest plot showing results from a meta-analysis of studies on digital interventions and their effect on positive affect. Each row lists a study with its estimated effect size (Hedges' g), 95% confidence interval (CI), and weight in the meta-analysis. Most individual study estimates are close to zero, with some negative and some positive. The overall effect size is 0.03 [95% CI: -0.11, 0.16], suggesting a small, non-significant positive effect. The prediction interval spans from -0.42 to 0.47. The plot indicates moderate heterogeneity (I² = 61%, p < .01). A diamond represents the overall effect at the bottom of the plot.

Image description Figure 2. Funnel plot displaying the relationship between standard error (y-axis) and effect size (Hedges' g, x-axis) for individual studies in a meta-analysis. Each dot represents a study. The plot includes a vertical dashed line at zero, a solid triangle indicating the estimated overall effect, and shaded areas representing regions of increasing statistical significance. The distribution of studies appears slightly asymmetrical, with more studies showing positive effect sizes. A dashed diagonal line and funnel-shaped contours illustrate expected dispersion under no publication bias.

Abstaining from social media does not significantly affect positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction, finds
@lauralemahieu.bsky.social et al., in a meta analysis doi.org/10.1038/s415...

from following his stuff a bit, he occasionally self-identified as a 'pragmatic marxist' and had this half-baked idea that the world's centre-left parties are the political heirs of kautsky and bernstein

Polarising Yourself Against Intergenerational Justice you know who else said future generations matter? hitler

In which I defend the radical view that future generations matter and humanity going extinct would be bad.

www.pluralityofwords.com/p/polarising...

Bit embarrassed for anyone who went all in the on the Teals

Not sure why "30, 40 and 50-year-olds are paying the majority of income tax" is a problem? Would we not expect the cohorts who a) together make up a majority of the workforce and b) include workers in their peak earning years, would pay the bulk of income tax?

wow we’ve finally hit the australian welfare state singularity: a PPP to provide means tested concessional loans

ministers.dss.gov.au/media-releas...

You know things are going well for Labor when the rusted ons are reciting stock standard conservative talking points about 'living within your means' .

Don't expect things to be as affordable as they used to be, just spend less money. An inspiring message that will surely appeal to voters.

Welcome back Joe Hockey

>visit website to buy something
>'special offer!!'
>'is this the right country? click here to be redirected to our homepage instead of what you were looking at!!'
>'hey! want a 5% discount that you can't use on anything? give us your email!!'
>'do u agree to cookies?'

fuck off

What Does 'Evidence-Based' Actually Mean? a quick primer on the evidence-based paradigm

A short, accessible explainer on the evidence-based paradigm that aims to be more helpful than saying "It's when you base things on the evidence"

www.pluralityofwords.com/p/what-does-...