I wish I had that man’s confidence.

Whoa. That takes me back. Do you think MUDs are still around?

Edit: Holy fuck Aardwolf is still around.

“Write 3 to 5 sentences explaining Gatsby staring across the bay at the green light of the far pier.”

This is a common type of prompt that most school systems use and in theory it fosters and develops critical thinking. Why would Gatsby stare at the light? What must he be thinking about? Why did the author choose a light? But (american) school systems never actually explain what critical thinking is. Only a set of minimum requirements that students struggle through.

I hated those prompts. They seemed like the teacher was just fishing for a specific answer. Sometimes the color doesn’t mean anything and the author thought it just looked nice. It wasn’t until I had a sociology teacher explain it with a poignant example that it really clicked.

He asked us “Is suspending a student good punishment?” He went on to elaborate that a student that skips class gets detention. Well if he skipped class why would he go to detention? So he skips that and gets suspension instead. This student didn’t want to be in school so the school ultimately punishes him by not having him in school.

Reductive and simplistic, sure. But the idea that you approach a problem or thought from many different angles to see all facets of it didn’t really gel with me until that moment. We need more of that. We need the “why” of critical thinking.

Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza you prick.

cries.

The apples are turning the frigging hourses gay.

Edit: horses. I had a stroke.

Right. It’s all about media literacy. Once you start picking up on loaded language like “Radical Islamic terror organisation Hamas” it starts becoming pretty evident what the biases are. That’s not to say the news they are reporting is false, just that it is going to take some extra work on your part to filter out all of the bullshit. Like you mentioned, the Common name of the government of Gaza is “Hamas” calling it anything else is an attempt to appeal to emotion to prime you to think about it a certain way. Like calling the Israeli government “zionists” it’s ment to sway to to something, not give you news.

Stick with reputable news sites. Reuters is my gold standard. Along with AP News. They tend to be some of the least bias sources out there and do their due diligence when it comes to reporting.

It’s worth noting that a lot of the news coverage may come across as pro-isreal and anti-palestinian but that’s because a lot of the news is “Isreal claims this” and “An IDF statement that” the sources themselves are biased.

Also keep in mind that this is an active war. There will be a lot of wrong information as media reports the best information available, it’s not the media having a bias, it’s just the fog of war as things rapidly develop.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/28/west-bank-spike-israeli-killings-palestinian-children

I think he was referring to the IDFs penchant for shooting Palestinian kids in the back for funsies for the last few years.

They would also use it as an excuse to try and teach the Bible in schools. Ya know, to correct the misinformation in those pamphlets.

Tl;dr:

"I don’t want to hear feedback. Just do your job.”

“We value you. But a promotion isn’t in the cards right now.”“

"This is on a need-to-know basis. Information will be shared when the time is right.”

“We can talk about compensation at the next review.”

"We need to fill this role. Let’s not share those details with candidates.”

"I called you last night at 9:00 p.m. Why didn’t you answer?”

"We don’t have time for fun.”

Praise the derriere!