Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "NYTimes: College educated workers are leaving DC due to high housing costs" and posted in the "Real Estate" forum. The original poster linked to an article in the New York Times which reported that several major cities have become too expensive even for those with college degrees and, as a result, those cities are seeing a net outflow of college-educated residents. Washington, DC was one of the cities discussed in the article. The article addresses a concern that is discussed almost constantly in the Real Estate forum — the high cost of housing. For years, posters in the forum have posted their predictions that real estate prices would drop any minute now. But, prices continued to rise. It is perfectly understandable that some would eventually give up on the housing market and look elsewhere. For some reason, a number of posters in the thread were under the impression that those leaving DC were choosing rural areas instead. As a result, there are a number of posts comparing and contrasting rural areas to DC. But, as several posters pointed out, the outflow was mostly to other cities. One of the points in the article was that those making the move were still able to access that same amenities they enjoyed in DC, but more affordably. While some posters were quick to attribute the migration out of DC to crime and the increasingly visible unhoused population, others pointed out that the time period that the Times analyzed was during the pandemic, a time when urban amenities were much less available and working from home was prevalent. Both of those developments decreased the attractiveness of living in DC. Many of the posts in the thread are from posters describing their own personal experiences, several of them having moved from DC to other cities. Those posters seem generally happy with their choices. Other posters, many still living in DC or the environs, use the thread to describe a number of things that they dislike about DC. When it comes to complaints about DC, I understand dissatisfaction with crime or the high cost of living. Those are things outside an individual's control. But one of the most common criticisms I see is about DC residents who the posters describe as "pretentious", "materialistic", or "social climbers". This only describes a very limited subset of DC residents and people with those traits can be found nearly everywhere. If those are the only type of people to whom you are exposed in DC, you need to broaden your horizons. But, regardless of the posters' feelings about the friendliness of those living in DC, the discussion always returned to the cost of housing. There is a sort of "nobody goes there anymore, its too crowded" phenomenon going on. I suppose that as prices continue to grow out of reach of more and more people, they will either have to stabilize or even drop. The constant predictions of exactly this notwithstanding, it doesn't seem to be happening yet.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Floida is investigating a teacher who showed a Disney movie with a gay character", the original poster links to a National Public Radio story about — as the title of the thread explains — a teacher in the state of Florida being investigated due to playing the Disney movie "Strange World" for her fifth grade class. The investigation was launched after a parent complained that one of the characters in the movie is gay. To be frank, the inmates are clearly running the asylum in Florida. Current laws allow books to be removed from schools based on a complaint from a single parent. In several cases, parents have devoted themselves to rooting out books that they believe are inappropriate, causing the wholesale removal of books from schools. In this case, a parent who believes she is working on behalf of God complained about the movie, despite having signed a permission slip allowing her child to watch PG rated movies. Florida's so-called "Don't say gay" law restricts teaching about sexual orientation to 3rd graders and below. A new law extends that restriction to older grades, but hasn't gone into effect yet. The movie didn't teach about sexual orientation in any case. But, the climate in Florida these days is such that a gay Disney character is enough to provoke an investigation regardless of the law. Most of the posters in this thread find this incident emblematic of the currently dismal state of things in Florida and an expected result of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' efforts to restrict discussions of sex and race in schools. There is a big debate over whether this constitutes "fascism" or not. Some posters are opposed to showing the movie, not because of the gay character, but because they don't think it is sufficiently educational. Other posters support the investigation for convoluted reasons running from their contentions that no movies with romantic relationships should be shown in schools to concerns that immigrants with differing religious views might be offended. I found that last concern to be particularly charming given the normal attitude of Republicans to immigrants with differing religious views. This reminded me of the aftermath of Pulse nightclub mass shooting when Republicans suddenly became strident supporters of gays and lesbians. Long gone are those days as many posters in this thread show distinct hostility toward gay rights.

Third was a thread titled, "DH received a suspicious text from a woman" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster explains that she has been married to her husband for one year and that he occasionally receives texts containing selfies from a woman that he dated prior to meeting the original poster. Her husband says that he ignores the texts and that the woman is "crazy". The original poster asks what others would do about this. Several posters find it suspicious that he doesn't just block the other woman and find his description of her as "crazy" to be a red flag. The original poster says that she doesn't have the password to her husband's phone, something that in itself many posters find concerning. Several posters recommend getting access to the phone and checking the text conversation herself. One poster who appears to be male, suggests that her husband may be "managing the crazy", explaining that he has been in a situation in which blocking someone results in their finding other, more bothersome, methods of contacting him. As a result, it is simply easier to received their texts and delete them. There is a dispute about whether it is normal or acceptable for a past romantic interest to send selfies. Some posters don't think this is a big deal while others find it completely inappropriate. As the thread develops, those responding are further convinced that the orignal poster's husband is engaged in an affair. Early in the thread a poster provides instructions about how to access location information on the original poster's husband's phone. The original poster can't do that without knowing his password, increasing insistance among those responding that she get access to his phone. Later, a poster suggests checking their phone bill to see if he is texting back to the other woman and, if so, how often. Advice about how to access deleted texts is also provided. Basically, the original poster is provided with a full education into "how to catch a cheating husband", with many of the lessons provided by women who have been there, done that.

The final thread at which I'll look today is another thread posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, titled, "Ukrainian victory over Russia is inevitable". Started back in February, the original poster draws on examples of the French military during World War I and the Israeli military to argue that Ukraine will ultimately prevail in its war with Russia. The thread has now reached 66 pages and I'm not quite sure what caused the renewed interest that put it on the most active thread list. One event that seems to have spurred discussion was the Ukrainian shooting down of a Russian hypersonic missile. The missile was supposed to be an unstoppable weapon but was apparently destroyed by a US-supplied Patriot missile system. The thread is replete with pro-Russian posters who invariably post versions of events that are the exact opposite of what is published in the Western press. As such, a pro-Russian poster in the thread claims that the missle was not shot down and, in fact, the Patriot system was damaged. Based on my understanding, the Russian missile was shot down and a Patriot system was damaged, but probably not in the same event. A long-standing issue of dispute in the DCUM political forum has been over whether the forum has been infiltrated by Russian trolls. Russian troll farms have been active undertaking various efforts on social media platforms. Some DCUM posters are convinced that DCUM, by dint of being in Washington, DC, attracts posters who Russia would have a particular interest in influencing. I have never found evidence that DCUM is a target of Russian trolls. Rather, based on log data, posting patterns, and other data to which I have access, my belief is that we have American posters who are influenced by Russia. DC also has a large international community which includes citizens of countries supportive of Russia and Russians themselves. It is clear to me that a few such individuals also post on DCUM and can be strongly pro-Russian. But, I don't think that they are trolls. They are folks with a different opinion. Regardless, this thread — in my opinion — shows that Russian-influenced Americans are getting more aggressive and are posting increasingly articulate and substantive responses. Not that their arguments are well-founded — they generally don't hold up well to scrutiny — but it takes considerably more effort to dispute them. On the one hand, this leads to more substantive discussion in the forum. But, on the other hand, the posters are probably having some success in convincing others of the Russian point of view.