DCUM Weblog

Sadly, I am required to once again write about the Sussexes. The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Has Harry Completely Lost his mind?" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Today Prince Harry's book will finally be released so I suspect this will not be the last of these threads. The title alone in this case is enough to know which direction this thread will take and I simply can't motivate myself to read it. Within two hours of its creation, the thread had already reached 11 pages, at which point I locked it. This wasn't even the only Sussex-related thread created yesterday. I remain completely astonished about the popularity of discussing this couple. Most exasperating is the huge number of posts coming from those like the original poster of this thread who prefaces the first post in the thread by saying, "I don't care about Royals...". Clearly the poster cares enough to start a thread about them. The obsession, especially among the haters, is simply amazing. During the two hours that the thread was available, multiple posters posted over 10 times with one managing 25 posts. That's basically one post every 5 minutes. On top of the multiple threads per day being created about Harry and Meghan, posters are inserting the couple in to completely unrelated threads. Some posters appear to be viewing their entire lives through a Sussex prism.

Today I'll review the most active threads over the weekend. The three most active threads were threads that I've already discussed and will, therefore, skip. That left a thread titled, "How many here had students that missed being NMSF and were Commended instead" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum as the first to be described. Probably some background is in order for this thread. The "National Merit Scholarship Program" or NMSF is an academic competition for scholarships based on students' Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores. Students whose scores are above a certain level but below the cut-off point required to continue in the competition are recognized as "Commended Students". There has been a recent controversy — one that was even the topic of a most active thread about which I've written — involving the recognition of Commended Students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). I don't know that this thread is related to the TJ situation, but the original post which asks whether Commended Students included that recognition on their college applications, addresses one of the main points of the TJ debate. A major argument of those upset with TJ was that Commended Students were harmed by not being able to included this recognition on their college applications. Others argued that since Commended status was more like a participation trophy and signaled that students were not at the level needed to continue the NMSF competition, it was not worth being mentioned and might even have negative ramifications. I haven't read all of this thread, but it looks like it consists mostly of a repetition of these two arguments. Many of those responding said they did include the recognition and considered it an important indication of academic success. Others argued that the recognition was meaningless with one poster saying it was considered a source of shame.

On Sundays I generally discuss the most active threads of the past week. However, all but three of the top 15 were previously included in daily posts. So, today's threads will be limited to the three remaining topics. The first of those was titled, "Covid permanently harms immune system, repeat infections increase damage" and posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum. The original poster links to an article in Canada's National Post newspaper about findings by Ontario public health officials concerning changes in immune cells in some of those infected by COVID-19. The original poster overstates the findings and ignores the caveats included in the article. Based on a very superficial look at the responses in the thread, I think the attitudes towards COVID among those replying have hardened to the point where few posters are open to new information. Essentially, everyone simply promotes their previously held viewpoint. Some posters doubt the findings, some don't care, and some question the source. But, those with preexisting strong concerns about COVID, see this as justifying their worries. A few posters argue for moderate, nuanced approaches, but they are largely drowned out. I fear that we are rapidly reaching a point where COVID is another topic that is not really worth discussing on DCUM. Posters, like the original poster in this instance, are so eager to spread awareness of COVID dangers that they misrepresent or overstate scientific findings. This reinforces allegations that they are simply fearmongering and causes others to tune out. Those who have basically given up on doing anything about COVID interpret everything to support their point of view regardless. If a finding is that COVID is not serious, they don't want to take preventative measures because the COVID is not serious. If the finding is that COVID is very harmful, they don't want to take precautions because it will kill you anyway and there is nothing you can do about it. We basically have two groups that don't want to hear each other.

The two most active threads yesterday were the Speaker of the House thread and the thread about Prince Harry's book. But, since I've already discussed those threads, I'll move on to a thread titled, "Anyone else here struggle with your feelings about ppl who don’t work?" and posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum. This thread, which managed to rack up 13 pages in a single day, discusses the original poster's feelings towards what I believe are stay at home moms, though she doesn't identify them that way. The original poster says that she works very hard at a well-paying job and disliked the period in which she stayed home to care for her children. She is upset by social media posts from friends who don't have jobs and whose kids are in school. She wants to know what is triggering her. Regardless of the original poster's intentions, the thread is really little more than a dressed up stay-at-home-moms vs work-out-of-the-home moms debate of which DCUM has had countless. I wouldn't say that the arguments are any different from any previous discussions, though the discourse does seem to be a bit more highbrow than usual. However, that impression might just reflect selective reading on my part. The thread also has its low points such as when one poster unwisely describes those who don't have jobs as "parasites".

I knew that it was going to happen, I could see it coming, but that makes it no less disappointing that yesterday's most active thread was about Prince Harry's book. Titled, "Spare" (just like the book) and posted in "The DCUM Book Club" forum, the thread is nearly 40 pages long already. Obviously I am not going to read 40 pages. For that matter, I'm not going to read even 4 pages of this thread. What I can say is that very few posts have been reported so either fans of the Sussex dual have grown surprisingly tolerant of the haters or the couple's detractors have failed to find their way over from the Entertainment forum. Mind you, the book is not even available to read yet so all of these posts are either based on excerpts or just posters' general feelings about Harry and Meghan. Once people are actually able to get their hands on a copy, there will likely be a lot more posts so this thread or others like it will probably continue for some time.

Just a reminder that I skip threads that have already been included in earlier blog posts. Yesterday, for example, the top two most active threads were the thread about the Speaker of the House vote that I described yesterday and the weight loss drugs thread from earlier this week. I won't discuss them again. The thread that followed those two sort of fell into a loophole. It was on a topic about which I recently wrote, but is a new thread. So, technically, It can be included today. Titled, "Governor Glenn Youngkin Calls for Attorney General Jason Miyares to Investigate the Leadership of Th" and posted in the "Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)" forum. The title has a typo — the school concerned is the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology or TJ — and, as I wrote last week, there is a controversy surrounding the school's notification of awards given to some TJ students. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has now asked Virginia's Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate the allegations. This seems like a blatant misuse of power to me and part of a worrisome trend that Youngkin and Miyares have shown toward investigating schools. Not everyone shares my opinion, of course, and a range of views are presented in the thread. But, like almost all TJ threads, this one eventually became little more than a rehashing of the oft-repeated arguments about the school's admission policy. Since that debate has been well-covered in other threads, I locked this one.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Speaker of the House Vote Thread" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. For those who avoid news about politics in the way that I avoid news of the British Royal Family, yesterday Republicans were supposed to elect a new Speaker of the House. California Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy had not only measured the drapes, he had already moved into the Speaker's office. But, to paraphrase ESPN host Chris Berman, that's why they have a vote. Not only did McCarthy fail to get elected speaker, on three consecutive votes Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries actually came out ahead in the vote count. But, since no candidate received a majority of those voting, no one was elected. The failure to elect a speaker stalled all other work by the House — Members could not even be sworn in — so the US does not currently have a functional House of Representatives. The DCUM thread documented the play-by-play on the Hill as it happened, intermixed with commentary and opinion. While the intrigue surrounding the voting may have had something in common with "The Game of Thrones", it lacked the drama of a George R. R. Martin novel. A dragon or two would have gone a long way to spice things up.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Husband refuses to help with night feedings" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster and her husband have a newborn baby that wakes several times a night for feeding. The couple initially split feeding duties so that both were allowed decent stretches of sleep at night. But, the husband has now returned to work and decided that he should no longer wake up for night feedings, leaving it all to the original poster. The original poster is struggling with the lack of sleep, thinks her husband is being unreasonable, and believes he should still be responsible for one night feeding. Their disagrement on this issue led to a big fight and the original poster seeks advice and support. Those responding largely fall into two camps: 1) those who agree that the original poster's husband is being unreasonable and that he should either split duties or hire someone to provide assistance, either as a night nurse or for household help to allow the original poster more time to nap; and 2) those who support the husband who they think deserves to sleep through the night because he has to work and doesn't have time to take naps during the day. Of course, the standard advice for all relationships in this forum is to get a divorce and such advice is also offered. However, the original poster, sleep-deprived though she may be, is still lucid enough to soundly reject that suggestion.

Today I'll look at the most active threads over the weekend. Coming in at number 1 was a thread titled, "Feel terrible about my finances after reading this site" and posted in the "Money and Finances" forum. The original poster explains that he and his wife immigrated to the US, landing in northern Virginia, after he completed a PhD program. He now works as an engineer while his wife is a stay at home mom. After reading posts in the DCUM finance forum, he feels that his finances, especially retirement savings, are in terrible shape. As things stand, he plans to rely on his daughter, whose education he took out loans to finance, to support him and his wife in their retirement. But, wait, there's a plot twist. On page 12 of the thread the original poster reveals that she is actually the daughter in this scenario. She works in investment banking and hates the job, but feels tied down due to her parent's expectation that she support them. In a later post she explains that her purpose in starting the thread was to get feedback on whether to remain in investment banking or not. This could have been done in a simple straight-forward manner without the subterfuge. Moreover, I found a few posts in which the original poster sock puppeted. Several of her posts criticized "white" families and in one case she had the audacity to accuse another poster of trolling. Basically, there are a ton of things wrong with this thread and the original poster's conduct. As a result, I've just locked the thread.

Happy New Year to the half dozen or so readers of this blog. I didn't think anyone would bother to read it so I'm thrilled to have even a small number of readers. I'm going to change things up a bit today. I would ordinarily write about the four most active threads of the past week. However, I've already written about all but three of the top ten. With today marking the first day of a new year, I thought I would look at the most active threads of 2022. I'll look at the top 10, but write less about them than I normally do in order to keep this post to a reasonable length.

As is fitting for this sort of countdown list, I'll start in reverse order. In position number 10 of last years most active threads was, drumroll please, a thread titled, "2022 HS Boys Game Results" and posted in the "Lacrosse" forum. This thread was started on March 3 of last year and hasn't been updated since June 17th. But, if you are interested in reading 158 pages about lacrosse game results, we've got you covered.