RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/January 2016

January 2016
Bernie Sanders's campaign staff are becoming exasperated dealing with "BernieBros," pro-Sanders brogressives with a tendency to mob Clinton supporters on social media. The Sanders campaign is worried that their obnoxiousness will erode support for him in the long-term. The Enlightenment was not an age of freedom: some history of freethought. Rethinking juvenile justice "The maths of the paper disproving conspiracy theories don't add up" "Identity Politics Is Neoliberalism" Kyle Kulinski reports on an 'adorable' attack ad against Bernie Sanders. A skeptic on the Conspira-Sea-Cruise, day 2., featuring pseudolaw. "Hate speech laws" are always eventually used against progressives. Now, France deploys them to shut down BDS and pro-Palestinian activism. A skeptic on the Conspira-Sea-Cruise, day 1. "People don’t seem to remember just how much the Clintons’ national ascendancy was premised upon the repudiation of black voters and black interests" 5 Huge Scandals Happening Right Now (We've Been Ignoring) Why the demands of the militia embroiled in the Oregon standoff are unrealistic, unconstitutional, and in some cases economically damaging to the area. But, y'know, the gubmint be evil 'n stuff. The UK's Psychoactive substances bill is "one of the worst laws ever passed." A whole mess of conservatives have taken to the pages of the National Review to denounce Donald Trump. Vox has created a searchable database of dietary supplements and the pharmaceutical drugs illegally hidden within them.

David Frum: With the introduction of Sarah Palin, the Trump-Cruz split represents a fundamental difference between conservatism as an ideology vs. conservatism as an identity. Astronaut and climatologist Piers Sellers announces that he has terminal cancer. Upon hearing this, the ethical folks at Breitbart proceed to piss on his grave before he’s in it The resolution of the Bitcoin experiment, according to one of its developers: Complete and total failure as human nature overcomes libertarian ideals. "Gamers Have Become the New Religious Right": a gamer who doesn't want to be called "gamer" any more. (The people he's talking about show up in the comments, of course, to demonstrate his point.) 4 Facts Anti-Government Militias Don't Want You To Know Obama's science "moonshot" to put an end to cancer may not be a good idea... The Church of England Just Hit a Milestone in Terms of Low Attendance At least we're back to the prehistoric-style weather gods: Christian Preacher: I Moved Clouds and Stopped a Typhoon Because “I Have Authority Over the Weather” 5 Insane Facts That Will Change How You View Christianity. (It's as if Cracked was begging for this to be posted at RW. And for the record, no, it won't change how we view Christianity.) So it turns out Bitcoin mining isn't decentralised at all; the big miners don't get their blocks through the slow and inefficient Bitcoin P2P network you plebeians use, they get them from a centralised content delivery network. And now that CDN is unmaintained and nobody knows what's going to happen, including the core Bitcoin developers. "Hey, room full of libertarians, who's going to pay for this essential infrastructure?" The $58 Million Frivolous Lawsuit Against Richard Dawkins is Finally Over The shady history of Harney County We Hunted the Mammoth: a MRA version of the Force Awakens. Thomas Friedman pens an endorsement of Trump for being the "non-partisan extremist candidate" America needs. In what seems like a personality cult worship he lists out a bizarre a combination of positions Trump should have instead of what Trump has stated in his platform. From Sara Robinson's new blog: Why the Oregon standoff is an inevitable result of the Bundy standoff, and a look into far-right escalation tactics. Televangelists Say They Need Private Jets Because ‘Demons Fly Commercial’ (Video) Dog with Slice of Ham on Face Gets 1.3 Million Facebook Prayers (and Counting)