Thursday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday's thread with the most replies and the most views was one of which I was not aware until just now. Frankly, I sort of wish I still didn't know about it. It's not offensive or anything, but just not the sort of thing we ever envisioned being popular on DCUM. The thread, which is in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum, is titled, "Movie lines you repeat among your family". Basically, the original poster lists lines from movies that are used within her household and asks others to do the same. Part of my problem with this thread is that I simply can't imagine families going about their days quoting movie lines in any significant numbers. Once in a while? Sure, but enough to be worthy of posting on DCUM? Not really. Maybe I'm just grumpy today, but given that yesterday the future of US politics was still being decided, inflation was showing signs of improving, the stock market was having one of its largest rallies in memory, and in the midst of that, billions of dollars of the crypto market were being wiped out and a hurricane was coming ashore in Florida, movie quotes are not what I would expect everyone to be discussing. Yet, here we are. Looking at a few pages of the thread reinforces my opinion that families are not really quoting these lines very often. Rather, I think the thread simply turned into posters posting their favorite lines from movies. You can't handled the truth. But there you have it.

A thread titled, "NEJM Study on the effect of masking/not-masking in public schools." and posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum was second in number of replies yesterday and fourth in number of views. In a post a few days ago I stated my opinion that threads about masking are the stupidest threads related to Covid. This thread had the potential to change that characteristic, but sadly, failed to do so. The focus on the thread is a recently-released study published in the New England Journal of Medicine finding that when mask requirements were lifted in Boston-area schools, cases of Covid increased. The original poster argues that this demonstrates that masks work. I am afraid that opinions about masking or other Covid precautions have become so hardened and intertwined with political or other strongly-held views that nothing will change anyone's opinion on the topic. This is reflected in the first pages of replies, not one of which gave serious credence to the study. DCUM has traditionally been known for its well-educated users, but those education levels are generally not reflected in this thread in which responses tend to be reflexive without much attention to the study itself. If I understand the conclusions of the study correctly, the end of masking resulted in less than a 5% increase in cases. If this is the case, the obvious conclusion to me is that we need to focus on better preventative measures than masks, though masks might still be part of an overall strategy.

I'm going to do something I am pretty sure I haven't done since writing these posts and discuss a thread that I am about to remove. As such, if you haven't already read it, you will have missed your opportunity. The thread was posted in the "Schools and Education General Discussion" forum and titled, "Why do teachers make being a teacher their entire personality?" I was made aware of this thread yesterday when someone reported it. I was in the middle of something and meant to take a closer look when I had more time, but then promptly forgot all about it until just now. The original poster describes encountering moms who are teachers who devote a lot of time to talking about their profession. The original poster believes this is new since the pandemic and considers it a strange victim mentality. Since the pandemic, teachers have been the target of near constant criticism on DCUM. I've tried to combat this trend as much as possible, but it been like trying to stop a tidal wave with an umbrella. I've never understood the mentality of describing someone as lazy, stupid, privileged, overpaid, and now, self-obsessed, but then turn around and demand that very same person spend several hours a day teaching your child. To its credit, this thread had many defenders of teachers and those trying to put this alleged behavior in context. But, the general tone was one of teacher-bashing that is beyond my level of tolerance (which is, admittedly, low on this topic). So, the thread no longer exists.

The final post I'll look at today was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum and titled, "10 Year Old Arrested for Hugging Counselor". The thread was second in number of views and ninth in number of replies. The original poster describes an incident involving a 10 year old student and a school counselor in a Florida school. According to news reports, the student approached the counselor for a hug and in the process groped her breast. The student, who denies any groping, has been charged with committing misdemeanor battery. Several of the replies disputed the subject line of the thread. The child was not charged due to the hug, but rather the alleged grope. Moreover, it is not clear that the child has actually been arrested (some posters consider "being charged" to be the same as "being arrested" which is not the case). Since the details of what occurred are in dispute with no known witnesses, many of those responding based their opinions on their own speculation. As such, previously-held prejudices are very much in evidence, something that is exacerbated by the races of the counselor and the student. Beyond that, both the student and the counselor have their defenders and, for the most part, there is considerable skepticism that involving law enforcement is the proper course of action.