Quick links 43

I've been preoccupied with personal matters for most of this week, and next week will be off to Barcelona so there will be no Quick links next Sunday. 

Glenn Reynolds has Thoughts on our ruling class monoculture. Also at Instapundit: Whose Stuff is it anyway? Back when we had CD players and VCRs, we could use them until they broke down, but our relationship with the company effectively ended on the day of the sale. Now that devices require an internet connection and software services, you are shackled to their makers, whether or not you pay for a monthly subscription. This is why I still buy physical copies of media

Asking the important questions: Why Can't Grocery Store Checkout Be Normal Anymore?

 Another cause of declining birthrates: Most young men are single. Most young women are not. 'Women don’t need to be in long-term relationships. They don’t need to be married. They’d rather go to brunch with friends than have a horrible date'. Related, The Loss of Faith. If you don't believe in anything why put a significant amount of time and effort into raiding the next generation? Also related, An Instinct That's Basic and Deeper

Even if you do have kids, they probably won't be alright: Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here’s the Evidence. 'In brief, it’s the transition from a play-based childhood involving a lot of risky unsupervised play, which is essential for overcoming fear and fragility, to a phone-based childhood which blocks normal human development by taking time away from sleep, play, and in-person socializing, as well as causing addiction and drowning kids in social comparisons they can’t win'

History: Providing ‘Aid to the Civil Power’ in Colonial India

Plenty: What, Precisely, is the Issue with “Elites”?

Energy: Nuclear is not happening until we straighten this %#$@ out Regulation and poor management kill most big projects

Steps to civil war: To My Sorrow, There Can Be No Common Ground With the Left

Waiting for the counter swing: The establishment's erasure of JK Rowling and other pulp fiction rebels is just the start See also the Rould Dahl controversies.

Indeed: Comparing Wokeness to Christianity Is an Insult to the Church Worth quoting at length: 

'here is a fundamental need in all humanity to go beyond the merely earthly and touch the transcendent. As Kay describes it, there is a religion-shaped hole in every person. In modern days, we have found an answer to this, turning not merely to one new god, but a whole pantheon. For those who value nature, we provide the climate god, who will demand endlessly costly sacrifices and condemn all climate-change deniers to a painful demise. For those looking for a bit of fun, we have the pleasure gods, encouraging a continuous pursuit of self under the cover of “you deserve it” (or, in its more understated and medicalized variant, “self-care”). Standing above all the others, the Zeus of this pantheon, is the god of Woke. This great deity is unknowable and undefinable, continually changing (or even reversing) its form, expecting of its acolytes not merely slavish devotion but also acts of great mental and doctrinal contortion. The faithful must tear down their traditions, social networks, citizenship, ancestry, and then, having thrown all else upon the fire, calmly stride into the sacrificial flame, proclaiming their eternal unworthiness.'

Amongst many other groups: The Tories have betrayed the caravan dream. Some interesting points about manufacturing and climate change;

This was Since 1990, British manufacturing’s share of GDP has collapsed from 16.5% to 8.8%, as carbon-intensive industries departed for countries such as China, with lower labour costs and less stringent environmental laws.

But Phase One decarbonisation wasn’t really decarbonisation in an absolute sense. Instead of making carbon-intensive consumer goods in Britain, now we just import them from China, where carbon emissions per capita have climbed even as they’ve fallen in the developed West. Worldwide, we’re generating more greenhouse gas than ever.

From the Critic: Why so unserious? and Taking the piss

Humor: The Numbers of the Beast

Current affairs humor: Ohio-Area Turtles Develop Sudden Interest In Pizza, Martial Arts

Finally, memes:












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