Factual Dispatch

No one really knows how to address the unfucked elephant in the room, but it seems to be either exploding or killing itself in greater and greater numbers. Radicalization has resulted in a dueling set of circumstances, in which Muslim & Christian youth are being driven into the hands of those who would exploit them to do violence. For the definitive primer on Radicalization, the US Army has the definitive text from 2010, but also see a parallel volume produced to discuss how marginalized people or refugees can fall victim to radicalization.As Christians & alt right groups have widely varying beliefs, so do disparate groups of Muslims. But in the USA, the problem is a lot bigger than just your idiot 4chan friend with the confederate flag sticker on his truck. Yes, hate crimes rose 17% last year, thanks to a jump in anti-Semitic & anti-Muslim attacks. Yes, those criminals have named Trump directly in connection to over a dozen threats or straight up violence. Yes, they're connected with the leadership of alt right & neo-nazi movements. Yes they're organizing and training as paramilitary units to "prepare for the coming conflict," but that doesn't mean that they've won. Even though "radical" mindsets are perceived to be growing in America, most still think radicals are kind of gross. As they should, especially when both sides are useful idiots for the other.

This commentary on the somewhat illusory feeling of disintegration of Swedish identity is a good start to understanding what is needed to keep the problem from getting worse, but it's in no way a solution. Interestingly, a Dartmouth study showed that strong relationships matter & have more value than overwhelming evidence, which can help explain how some of these groups form. Also, GQ interviewed 12 mass killers to understand if anything could've prevented them from doing what they did. While France's deradicalization program may not have been successful, prevention of radicalization, deradicalization is possible, even for white supremacists. When even Sri Lanka & Pakistan are dealing with this, it's crucial to understand that we're witnessing two different groups of vulnerable youth, being exploited in almost identical ways, to fight each other. And we can stop it.

Also this week, a clod disingenuously explained Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's reference to algorithms "being racist," which gives me a wonderful opportunity to talk about a concept known as data violence or the violence of algorithms. It's easy to brush aside the problems with algorithms as "garbage in, garbage out," but this is sadly an oversimplified view of the problems that come with computational bureaucracy. Racism & Discrimination was once the purview of humans, but that soon passed to algorithms once they were put into wide use. This is still a very new field so there are many applications to get a handle on, but good research is being done, with some pushing back on algorithmic policing seen as invasive and too prone to error. For a quicker read, here are five times algos amplified sexist & racist biases for your review. New York City has developed a task force to bring transparency to algorithmic decision-making, but given what we've seen, we'll need all the help we can get.

Eye-Watering Data Visualization of the Week: Jeff Bezos is richer than every country he's laughing on.

Vaguely Dystopian News of the Week: China's army has been cut in half, with massive increases in their navy, air & rocket force. Annoying-But-Correct Take of the Week: While everyone studies when and how to buy/invest, no one actually knows how to sell. Seriously, researchers showed that you could sell at random and do better than fund managers."Huh, Interesting" Read of the Week: In 1983, The Star asked Isaac Asimov to talk about the world of 2019. As always with these kinds of things, what he got wrong is almost as interesting as what he got right. Also, the IRS spending $20 Billion on enforcement would result in $55 billion in increased tax revenues. You gotta spend money to make money right?Dunk of the Week: Warren, Beto, Bernie, Biden, Gillibrand, Gabbard, and Harris. Though I'd probably accept Booker for Banky as well.

They must've furloughed that Winter of Discontent they keep talking about.T