A lot has happened since I last posted, but my favorite is that Dan Price was finally exposed, and stepped down from his from his CEO position. Price was probably outdone only by Robert Reich for amount of annoying leftist meme content, and I busted countless Price-inspired memes.
The NYT just published a brutal takedown of Price, here are some of the things revealed:
▪️Many women have come forward with charges against him including assault, rape and his attempts to secretly record them. The NYT found over a dozen credible women, there’s even kind of a support group of his victims.
▪️Two incidents are currently being formally investigated/charged in Seattle and Palm Springs. His record of abuse goes back at least to his ex wife, who even recorded a Ted Talk recounting it. But the video was never released, as the university backed down after Price threatened to sue (they now regret that decision).
▪️The whole paying $70K to his employees seems to be a ploy to get attention and become famous. There are repeated instances of him lying and manipulating to get favorable press. This was confirmed by several employees, including his former head of marketing.
▪️Like claiming his brother sued him because he was upset over giving profits to employees (that lawsuit predated the $70K idea). Or his viral post about his employees giving him a blue Tesla to thank him (was all his idea, they convinced a worker to take credit for it).
▪️After his first wave of fame, Price lost a $500K book contract and deal with a Hollywood talent agency when his wife’s abuse charges surfaced in 2015. To stay famous and relevant…he turned to social media! Churning out the made for meme leftist sound-bites we’ve all seen.
▪️Except he didn’t even write many of those posts. He hired a guy to do that, much to the chagrin of other employees. But it worked, in the sense that he built a huge online following, elevated by the likes of Occupy Democrats and TO98% memes. Which brought him fame and the chance to date/abuse models.
▪️Speaking of the other leftist meme giant Robert Reich, he did a video conference with Price where he called him America’s “most moral CEO” 😂 You really can’t make it up.
▪️While Price had a few month hiatus after his sexual assault legal issues surfaced this spring, he was back to tweeting by mid July, and continues to get huge traction. Which is the depressing part of it all, his followers don’t seem to care (or know) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more Price memes soon.
Here’s the NYT article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/technology/dan-price-resign-social-media.html
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
▪️This is a proposal that pertains only to graduate level nursing degrees, not undergraduate ones (which were never considered professional degrees). The proposal will have a 30-60 day public comment period next year, where groups can object, before the DoE will decide on it.
▪️This is about how much federal student loans someone can take out for a particular degree. The cap on graduate degrees is $100k ($20,500/yr), while a “professional degree” limit is $200k ($50k/yr).
▪️Under the new rule proposal, professional degrees include:
🔹Pharmacy
🔹Dentistry
🔹Veterinary medicine
🔹Chiropractic
🔹Law
🔹Medicine (including osteopathic medicine & podiatry)
🔹Optometry
🔹Theology
▪️The nursing degrees excluded are ones like master of science in nursing (MSN), doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD in nursing. These degrees would be limited to $100k in federal student loans, like all other graduate degrees.
▪️These changes came from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s...
