November

The Gaza war thread continued to be the most active thread yesterday, but just barely. Second was a topic that is perhaps even more controversial than the Israel-Palestine conflict. Titled, "Are antivaxxers all just contrarians and conspiracy theorists?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum, the original poster asks if there are critical thinkers among those who oppose vaccinations. It is not apparent from the original post whether the original poster is referring to those who oppose all vaccinations or those who are only against the covid vaccination. Regardless, most of the thread focuses on the covid vaccine. This, of course, is not a new topic and there is very little, if anything, new in this thread. I think there are a few obvious facts related to this topic. First, the vaccine was originally oversold, with many believing that the shots would prevent contracting and transmitting covid. That's obviously not the case, though the vaccine does appear to significantly limit both catching and spreading the disease and results in less severe illness among those who are infected. Second, there were relatively widespread side effects to the vaccine that caused suspicion, hesitation, and reluctance to get vaccination. Finally, there has been widespread campaigns, often politically-motivated and frequently based on misinformation, in opposition to the vaccines. The result is that anyone who wants to convince themselves not to get the shot can easily do so. Threads like this one demonstrate different types of vaccine opponents, Of course there are the right-wingers convinced that the vaccine is an attempt to turn them into transgender Marxists who are controlled by 5G radio signals, and the traditional granola leftists convinced that vaccines cause autism, but the covid vaccines have led to another category of vaccine-hesitant individuals. This is the "I support vaccines except for covid" group. Members of this group have a host of reasons for justifying their covid vaccine reluctance. Frequently, they claim to have "done their own research" which often consists of simply reading a few Facebook posts. The new boogyman, as several posters point out, is fear of "spike proteins" that they contend have horrendous side effects. But, I was surprised by the number of posters in this thread who are avoiding covid boosters because they claim the shot knocks them out for a day or two. If they are having that type of reaction to the vaccine, I wonder what will happen to them if they catch actual covid? Conversely, a number of posters in this thread report not having had an interest in the booster until a friend or family member fell ill with the disease. Having witnessed what they went through, these posters have either gotten or or planning to get the shot.

Yesterday the Gaza war thread continued as the most active thread. Skipping, that one, the most active thread was titled, "Alexandria on the Cusp of Eliminating All SFH Zoning" and posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum. The original poster claims that Alexandria is plagued by a number of negative factors such as failing schools and an increasing number of murders and now the Council is going to completely destroy the city by eliminating zoning for single family housing. There is apparently a vote on this topic today. First, just to clarify what this proposal is all about. Currently, some parts of Alexandria are zoned exclusively for single family houses. In an effort to expand housing options, the Council proposes to remove this zoning and allow the development of multifamily housing units in those areas. Posters variously see this as either enhancing the value of their property or destroying it. Those in the first group suggest that what is now a single family home could be sold for a higher profit if it were purchased in order to develop multifamily housing. Others, on the other hand, believe that higher-density will destroy their current community and cause their current homes to lose value. This illustrates the dilemma of housing costs. Those in search of housing are eager to see more affordable housing which, proponents of development argue, can best be achieved by increasing the supply of housing. As such, encouraging the replacement of single family homes with multifamily units should increase affordability. But those who currently own property are not interested in seeing it lose value and that is exactly what they fear will happen if their current property is suddenly surrounded by lower-cost housing. Regardless, there is no agreement about the best course of action. Some posters think it makes sense to sell to a developer and take the money and run. Others think staying put until single family homes are scarce and sell for a significant premium makes more sense. Several posters are also worried about an increased number of residents overburdening city services, especially schools. Anger with the proposal is such that many posters who apparently currently own single-family homes make all sorts of threats about how they will react, such as turning their homes into brothels or raising pigs in their back yards. Sadly for these posters, the new zoning proposals will not allow for brothels or pig farms.

Again the Gaza war thread was the most active thread of the day yesterday. The most active thread after that one was somewhat related. Titled, "Capitol currently in lockdown" and posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum, the thread is about a lockdown of the US Capitol building that resulted from a demonstration at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Both this thread and much of the media reporting of the story show how a distorted understanding of events can become widespread. Semafor reporter David Weigel was at the DNC when events occurred. He posted a considerable amount of video of what took place on X (formerly Twitter). In addition, other witnesses also made video available. Based on first-hand reports which are supported by video, what occurred was that a group of peaceful demonstrators consisting of members of mostly Jewish peace groups who support a ceasefire in Gaza blocked all or almost all doors of the DNC headquarters. This building is located about 3 blocks from the Capitol grounds and is not part of the Capitol complex. The protesters stood with their backs to the doors and locked arms in a human chain. They made no attempt to enter the building. Police tried to pull the protesters away, but this was made difficult due to their interlocked arms. Police appeared to get frustrated and angry and became more violent as time went on. In addition, at least one of the doors was at the top of a set of stairs. As police pulled protesters away from the door and shoved them down the steps, some protesters fell. The scene grew very chaotic as police struggling with protesters who were resisting being removed intermixed with one another with police doing a lot of pushing and shoving. Video and photographic evidence shows one police officer unleashing pepper spray at the protesters. None of the protesters were shown to be using pepper spray and none of the witnesses reported such a thing. Other than Weigel, I don't think any reporters from major media outlets were on the scene. They, therefore, had to rely on second-hand information and many led with an account by Congressman Brad Sherman that was extremely misleading. Sherman accused the protesters of being "pro-terrorist" and "pepper spraying police officers and attempting to break into the building." None of this is supported by either first-hand accounts or photographic evidence. In fact, as I have said, the opposite appears to be true. This sort of misleading report was circulated widely and became the basis of many people's understanding of the event. Right-leaning posters in this thread seized on the misleading account to compare the protest to the January 6 insurrection led by former President Donald Trump. Pro-Israel posters challenged the authenticity of the Jewish organizations behind the protest. But, soon enough the thread went completely off-topic in several different directions. At that point, I locked the thread.

Once again the Gaza war thread was the most active thread of the day yesterday. The continued interest in the war was further demonstrated by the fact that the next most active thread was directly related to the war. Titled, "Pro Israel demonstration in DC?" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the thread was originally started back on November 5th by a poster asking if a pro-Israel demonstration was being planned. Discussion meandered along as the demonstration was planned, discussing logistics and specific focuses of the event. Yesterday was the day that the demonstration was finally held and, as such, the thread added 24 pages of discussion, resulting in a thread that is currently 42 pages long. I won't have time to read the entire thread, or even all of the new pages, but since several posts in the thread were reported to me yesterday, I did get some exposure to the discusion. As the day started, most of those posting were concerned about possible violence provoked by pro-Palestinian counter-demonstrators. This emphasis reflects the mindset of the pro-Israel posters. They tend to see Palestinians and their supporters as inherently violent. Similarly, any support for Palestinians is portrayed as support for Hamas. As a result, much of the early discusion involved debate over whether there is significant support for Hamas, with many posters contending that there is not, and that those demonstrating against Israel's attacks on Gaza don't present a violent threat. Many of the pro-Israel posters argued that the demonstration would be aimed at opposing antisemitism, supporting Israel's right to exist and to self-defence, and to call for releasing the hostages. But, as the event proceeded, these messages were somewhat undermined. As noted in the thread, the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, suggested that Gaza could not survive as an independent entity and that it would be a welcome development if the Palestinians were displaced to another country. One of the more prominent speakers at the event was Pastor John Hagee, a notorious antisemite. But, as the Forward magazine says, "support for Israel has long overridden or excused antisemitism within many Jewish circles" and, hence, Hagee was welcomed at the event. Those attending the demonstration routinely broke out into chants of "No Ceasefire" which distinguished them from pro-Palestinian protesters who generally call for a "Ceasefire Now", but did little to alleviate the claims by critics in the thread that the demonstration was in support of genocide. The anti-ceasefire chants may prove awkward as rumors circulated all day yesterday that a ceasefire will soon be announced as part of a hostage exchange. Less controversially, the event was attended by many leading politicians including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. However, the attendance of the top Congressional Democrats did little to quell claims in the thread that Democrats are anti-Israel.

The Gaza war thread was back leading the most active thread list over the weekend. It has less traffic than in the past, but is obviously still quite active. The most active thread after that one over the weekend was titled, "Woman charged with felony for having a stillbirth" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster linked to a story about a woman in Ohio who had a stillbirth at 22 weeks of pregnancy. She attempted to flush the remains down the toilet but the toilet clogged. She was arrested and charged with felony abuse of a corpse. According to court testimony, the woman had gone to the doctor twice about her pregnancy. But, beyond that, there are very few details that are known about this case. As a result, many posters made assumptions or educated guesses about what occurred. This, in turn, spurred a lot of complaints about the thread and even a separate thread in the "Website Feedback" forum. Some posters were upset about the thread's title because, strictly speaking, the woman's charges concern the treatment of the remains rather than the stillbirth itself. Very few posters in this thread believe the case is really about how the woman treated the remains of her stillbirth. One of the most common theories is that this is part of an effort to grant fetuses personhood and, therefore, make abortion tantamount to murder. As such, much of this discussion is wrapped up in posters' views about abortion. Abortion opponents tend to see this as the woman having delivered a baby — albeit not one that was alive — and mishandling its corpse in a callous manner. They object to this treatment of a baby's corpse and think the woman should be held accountable. However, such posters are very much in the minority. There is considerable suspicion that Ohio's restrictive abortion laws contributed to this situation, with posters speculating that the woman had been denied dilation and curettage surgery and was forced to undergo a miscarriage. The thread is dominated by posters who are outraged by the charges against the woman. Several posters provided first-hand accounts of their own miscarriages and argued that the woman's behavior was perfectly normal and understandable. For many posters, this case represents a further erosion of women's rights. They argue that women are being held accountable for natural processes and that the opinions of mostly male, mostly fundamentalist Christian lawmakers are being imposed on them. One thing that comes across in this thread is the visceral reaction of many posters, especially those who have dealt personally with miscarriages. For many, this is not a theoretical dispassionate discussion, but a deeply personal topic that causes real anger.

The Gaza war thread returned as the most active thread yesterday. But, with fewer than 350 posts, the thread is a shadow of what it once was. The most active thread after that was titled, "FBI HQ in PG!" and posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum. The original poster appears to be very happy that the General Services Administration, the government's landlord, announced that a site in Greenbelt, Maryland had been selected to be the location of a new Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters. A new headquarters is necessary because the Hoover Building in downtown Washington, DC is literally crumbling and falling apart. The search for a new location has been long and arduous. The quest had already lasted a decade when the search was cancelled in 2017. At that time Congress showed little interest in funding a new headquarters and then president Donald Trump was opposed to moving the headquarters due to fear that its current site might be taken over by a luxury hotel that could compete with his own near by hotel. The search was revived after Trump left office. The selection of Greenbelt met with immediate controversy, as reflected in posts in the thread. Greenbelt is located in Maryland's Prince George's County, an area with a large Black population that has a reputation for high crime rates. Some of the opposition to Greenbelt was explicitly racist. One poster wrote, "Feel bad for the largely white FBI that won't be living in PG County". But fans of Prince George's fought back, arguing that the county didn't deserve it poor reputation and that it is actually a nice place to live. Many Maryland residents immediately began speculating about the impact on property values. Further controversy erupted when news arrived that FBI Director Christopher Wray had notified FBI staff about his own concerns with the location choice. According to Wray, a three-person panel charged with selecting a location had picked a site in Sterling, Virginia. This decision had been over-ruled by a single GSA official who had been given that authority. The Greenbelt property is currently owned by WMATA and that official had previously worked for WMATA. Therefore, Wray suggested, there was an inappropriate conflict of interest. This caused posters to immediately begin trumpeting the specter of Congressional investigations and maybe even the official's arrest. In response, Greenbelt proponents noted that the Sterling location, which is currently full of GSA warehouses that would have to be relocated and then demolished, would increase the price of the project by a billion dollars. With controversy aplenty, it looks like this saga if far from over.

For the first time since the Hamas attack on Israel, the thread about the Gaza war was not the most active. The thread was not even the second most active, but fell to third. I am not really surprised as the thread has become unreadable, bogged down in unending petty arguments about esoteric topics. The most active thread was titled, "School board results?" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. This thread was started late Tuesday evening by a poster in search of the Fairfax County Public School Board of Education election results. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party won every seat. The FCPS school forum has been filled with threads describing alleged failures of the school system and criticizing current Board members. There was clearly a hope by some that this election would reduce the Democratic dominance of the school board. The outcome left posters with such hopes in despair. "So depressing. I don't understand how FCPS will continue their reputation with thus (sic) trajectory", wrote one. In response, a number of posters lamented that centrist and independent candidates simply were not popular. As one poster said, "I tried voting for non progressives but they are getting crushed." Another wrote, "I voted for the independents. No one else did though." A common theme of the thread is that while the candidates endorsed by Democrats might not be perfect, the Republican-endorsed candidates had failed to focus on the issues that really mattered to voters. As a poster wrote, Republicans "should have stayed away from book banning and crucifying trans kids. As well as slamming equity like it is a slur." Similarly, another poster wrote, "Run on reasonable changes and I’ll listen. Run on MAGA talking points and I am not voting for you." As the results sunk in, posters turned to discussing what they believed would be the future of the school system. The primary criticism was what some posters believe to be an inordinate focus on "equity". By this they mean too much attention to making sure that all students achieve a minimum standard. Such posters want to see more opportunties provided for high-achieving students whose needs they believe are not being addressed as teaching is concentrated on the lowest common denominator. I am not an expert on FCPS, but from what I read in the forum there is a plethora of Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) and other programs for high-achievers. We even created a separate forum for such programs. So, I am a bit confused about the complaints concerning equity. One poster strongly dislikes "Skills Based Grading" and dominated the last several pages with her criticism. If this thread is any indication, the future of the FCPS forum will be much like its past. Full of threads complaining about the school system and blaming the board for the system's demise.

As is usual now, the Gaza war thread continued to be the most active yesterday. But, with fewer tha 500 posts, activity was lower than it has been since the initial attack. The most active thread after that was titled, "Millennial women are saying no thanks to parenthood" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The original poster linked to a Washington Post article that analyzed data showing that while the number of families with one child has stayed stable since the 1980s, the number of childless women has increased markedly. Moreover, the increase has coincided almost completely with the progress of millennial women through childbearing years. Let me start with my obligatory disclaimer that I dislike generational labels. Even the Post article describes such categorizations as "squishy, man-made distinctions". Others, of course, embrace such labels. The original poster says that the Post's conclusions follow what she is seeing in her personal life and, with millennials hitting 40, she says the trend is unlikely to turn around. While I didn't read much of this 16 page thread, what I did read did not reveal many, if any, posters disagreeing that being child-free is a trend. Many of those responding cited personal examples of either themselves, relatives, or friends choosing not to have children. The reasons for millennials choosing not to have children varied. Several posters blamed the cost of childcare and the need to upscale housing. Others claimed that choosing not to have children was a rational reaction to the examples of older women who were expected to work full time and still be perfect moms. As one poster said, "Until men step up women are smart not to fall into the trap." Another reason that came up and which was also mentioned by the Post is that millennial women seem less likely to marry. Many threads in DCUM's relationship forum have revealed that as women have become better educated, received more challenging and fulfilling job opportunities, and earned higher incomes, they have become less dependent on a spouse and, therefore, more picky about marriage. Both in the experience of many of those responding and as described by the Post, unmarried women are less likely to have children. We have operated DCUM through most of the millennials' childbearing years. As such, I've probably read thousands of posts that touch on this topic. In my view, the explanation was captured best by a sentence attributed to "just about every source we consulted" that said, "Hammered by the Great Recession, soaring student debt, precarious gig employment, skyrocketing home prices and the covid-19 crisis, millennials probably faced more economic headwinds in their childbearing years than any other generation". Prior generations had a sort of pattern: graduate from college, get a job, get married, buy a house, adopt a pet (okay, some leave this out), have children. Lots of millennials have been stymied after the first step.

The Gaza war thread continued as the most active thread again yesterday with just over 500 new posts. That's fewer than we've been seeing so maybe interest is starting to slow. The next most active thread after that one was titled, "In your circle how old are the oldest parents" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The original poster, who became a parent at 40, says that she feels like an outlier among her circle of friends, Most of them started families 7 years or so earlier than her. The first poster to respond assured the original poster that she would not be an outlier in DC-proper and that she knew several parents in the original poster's age-group. This highlights a phenomenon that I've witnessed on DCUM over the years. Within DCUM's original demographic which was heavily biased toward relatively affluent White women, becoming parents at what many might consider an older age was not uncommon. But, outside that demographic, and especially outside the DC area, new parents tended to be younger. For years it was common for young moms on DCUM to complain that they were outliers. But, as the demographics of DCUM users have changed over the years, the opposite situation, as in this thread, has become more common. It is unfortunate that these threads often turn acrimonious. In the case of this thread, responses were mostly straight-forward and simply answering the original poster's question. But, fairly quickly, one poster warned about "ageism" and "jealousy" that might be demonstrated on DCUM. This was soon followed by a poster alleging that this thread was "designed to pump up over-the-hill moms", more or less fullfiling the earlier poster's prediction. But, despite this early contention, the thread more or less went back to posters simply providing the ages of parents in their social groups or their own ages. I didn't run a tally of the ages being reported, but based on my perception, DCUM still slants in the favor of older moms. Though some posters are fairly quick to point out that DCUM is not necessarily representative even of all of DC, let alone areas beyond.

The two most active threads yesterday were ones that I've already discussed. The Gaza war thread and the thread about frustration with President Biden. The third most active thread was titled, "Safe schools for a Jewish kid." and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster simply asked which schools in Virginia are safe for a Jewish girl. DCUM has seen a host of topics related to anti-Semitism and hostility towards Jews. Such threads have been included in my blog posts (one just yesterday). Still, it remains a difficult topic to discuss. The analytical side of me wants to evaluate threats against Jews and conduct a sort of risk analysis. But, the more emphatic side of me understands that there is an emotional component to questions such as the original poster's to which a non-Jew such as myself is unlikely to be able to relate. Therefore, I am simply not capable of judging threats in the same way a Jewish poster might. Many of those responding appear to lack such awareness. One of the first posters to respond argued that Jews are overrepresented on college campuses, as if numbers alone were enough to address threats. Another poster suggested that Jewish students face no more risk than a number of other minority students. That may well be true in normal times, but these are not normal times. As one poster points out, anti-Semitic as well as anti-Muslim (or anti-Arab) events are both increasing, but campuses remain relatively safe for both groups. A difference, however, is frequent large protests in support of Palestinians. Many of the Jewish students likely are concerned about the safety of Palestinian civilians and they may even oppose the large scale bombing of Gaza. But a noisy and angry demonstration by their classmates can be disconcerting, even if they sympathize with many of the goals of the protest. This can create a feeling of being unsafe regardless of the actual threat they may face (a threat that, frankly, is hard to judge). At any rate, I am fairly certain that few, if any, posters bothered to address the original poster's actual question about Virginia schools. Rather, the thread took off in a million different directions. There was considerable discussion about Cornell, both a professor who made a controversial statement and the wave of vile threats that culminated yesterday in the arrest of a student. Cornell, of course, is not located in Virginia. But that didn't slow down the discussion. Some parents said they would still consider Cornell to be safe for Jewish students because of the large percentage of Jews at the school and the attention to safety being paid by authorities. Despite the threats, this was preferable to being one of a handful of Jews at a school where their might not be much sympathy for their safety. Others argued that there really wasn't safety in numbers. One poster that I want to acknowledge described himself as a Pakistani Muslim. He agrees that it is currently not safe for either Muslims or Jews. But, he recognized that Muslims do not have a "millennia long history of pograms and fear" and don't have the same "historical trauma". At a time when many are eager to compete in the "oppression Olympics", it was refreshing to see the poster make this distinction. Update: After publishing this I returned to the thread and saw that a poster had followed up the post that I praised with an Islamophobic comment (which I removed). Even those who manage to look across the divide are far too often met with hostility.