Hanlon's Laser

When I was reporting for 60 Minutes in China, I was told by people I met that they regard America as inferior, specifically because they say the U.S. does not understand how to play the long game. They said with disdain: “We think in terms of centuries - Americans can only think in terms of minutes.”

I disagree with the Department of Justice going after Yale School of Medicine over DEI admissions policies and arguing that objective metrics like GPA and MCAT scores should dominate admissions decisions. The evidence does not support the idea that standardized test scores alone identify the best physicians. The MCAT predicts performance on other multiple-choice exams reasonably well. What MCAT scores do NOT predict are clinical judgment, communication, bedside skill, or physician performance. Put another way: doctors who test well tend to do well on examinations. But test scores do not predict how well they care for patients in clinics, hospitals, surgery, or real-world medicine. Meanwhile, more diverse physician workforces are associated with better preventive care, greater trust, improved access, and lower mortality in underserved communities. There is no objective evidence that excluding minority applicants within a reasonable score range improves patient outcomes. We need minority physicians in this country, and we have the data to prove why. So when people insist that “objective measures” alone should determine admission into medicine — while ignoring the evidence about what actually improves patient care — I increasingly see that argument as less about merit and more about preserving exclusion under the comforting language of statistics. "Equality feels like oppression to those who are privileged"

What historical fact sounds fake but is true?

I blanch at the way neoliberals define progress aka “productivity” as “the ability to produce more with the same labour.” It implies that a declining labor share could be a good thing for a society—even a mark of prosperity.

Most left vs. right wing occupations in USA. (Measured by donations.)

Since I see Piketty-Saez-Zucman vs Auten-Splinter (on the rise of inequality) again on my TL, let me share two items. First, here is what I (very briefly) say about the exchange in my book. Then in the next post, I'll link to my lecture notes on this, doing a deep dive.

Hunter Biden on Elon Musk: “You’ve got some motherf-cker who’s made over $251 billion being a United States citizen, that got here and stayed here illegally before he got his citizenship, sitting here lecturing us on who we should allow into the US”

There's a major civil rights protest taking place in Selma, Alabama, right now in response to the SCOTUS decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and the ongoing attack on Black Americans’ political power (video: defiancedispatch/IG)

🚨 🇺🇸MAJOR BREAKING: They are marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge again. 61 years after Bloody Sunday. The same bridge. The same fight. Today in Selma, thousands are gathering at the spot where Alabama state troopers beat peaceful Black marchers in March 1965. That beating shocked the country into passing the Voting Rights Act five months later. This week the Supreme Court finished gutting it. (video: ib2_real)