Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Who are these families with household incomes of $45k or $60k? $70k?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster cites the salary levels mentioned in the thread's title as being necessary to received college financial aid. He is surprised that anyone with a child of college age would have such incomes and wonders who they are. Before this thread even had three replies it was reported to me by someone suggesting that it be removed. I believe that person's concern was that thread would result in bashing poor people. If so, such fears were misplaced. Instead, the thread is mostly posters criticizing the original poster for lacking intelligence and providing examples of those who earn salaries at such levels. The most frequent example was probably single parents. Many posters provided stats showing average incomes which demonstrated that the original poster was very out of touch with salary levels. Quite a few posters described their own personal experiences of either growing up in such a household or living in one now. This is an interesting corrective to the prevailing perception that DCUM posters are all well off. One poster, who said he owned a business, described using loopholes to keep his reported income low and qualify for aid. Needless to say, this did not go over well with many posters.

The next thread, which was posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum and titled, "Increase in peanut allergies??", was a spin-off from the thread I summarized yesterday about avoiding allergens while using public playground equipment. The original poster notes an increase in the number of children suffering from peanut allergies and speculates about possible causes. She then asks what others think might be causing the increase. Because one possible cause cited by the original poster was an avoidance of peanuts by pregnant women, many of those first responding argued that it was not fair to blame parents. Others noted the changing medical advice which has run the gamet from advising that peanuts be avoided to suggesting that exposure might be healthy. Generally, the thread settled into posters providing anecdotal examples that, by their own admission, were mostly contradictory and didn't provide much in the way of an explanation. The prevalence of such allergies in the US was contrasted to the situation in other countries where posters denied such allergies existed in any quantity. Lots of blame was cast on various aspects of the American lifestyle. In the end, posters are baffled and frustrated, as apparently are the scientists researching peanut allergies.

Next was a thread titled, "Biden in Kiev" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. As I am sure everyone is aware, on Monday President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Kiev. This war-time trip was spectacular on many levels, requiring two 10-hour trips by train and providing remarkable imagery as Biden visited the embattled capital. The original poster of the thread, who might be Ukrainian, was overjoyed by the visit and expressed deep gratitude to the US. Other responders also praised the trip. However, before the first page of responses was complete, one poster weighed in to criticize former President Barack Obama and his the Vice President Biden for not providing weapons to Ukraine in 2014. This led to discussion of former President Donald Trump's attempt to pressure the Ukrainians for political favors in exchange for approving suppling weapons. As usual, the political forum is very partisan and the discussion soon split between those supporting Biden and those who are unwilling to grant Biden even the smallest victory. In addition, the responses went beyond the visit to include the entire US response to the Russian invasion. Many of the conservative posters strongly oppose the war for various reasons and are critical of every aspect of Biden's policy. In addition, many of the conservatives criticized Biden for visiting Kiev but not East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a recent train derailment. Going completely off-topic, some posters even started discussing the role of China.

The final thread at which I'll look today was titled, "How much do you drink - be honest" and posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum. The original poster says that she has recently reexamined her relationship with alchohol and has been drinking very little lately. However previously it was normal for her to have three or four drinks on weekdays and five or six on weekends. She believes that was too much, but wants to know how much others drink and how they feel about it. Looking through the thread, it appears that most responses are just posters listing the amount that they drink with a bit of discusion of what is a reasonable amount. As you could guess, answers are all over the place from those barely touching alchohol to those consuming fairly heavily. It's nice to see that there is very little judgement offered in the thread, but, frankly, it is a little boring.