I talked to Paul Morantz about this very thing. According to him, being “intelligent” isn’t necessarily a protection against joining a dangerous group, and intelligent people often become the most passionate and devoted to it once they’re inside.  

As opposed to a benign cult? Pretty sure all cults are dangerous, in one way or another.

Thank you for saying this. It’s not possible to “depoliticize” our own lives. Being able to ignore politics is a privilege that not everybody has.

Realize that the world is nowhere near as dreadful, crazy, or dangerous as it was in say 1980, 1940, 1915 or any time prior to 1900 when nearly half (or more) of people born didn’t make it past age 5, and the overwhelming majority of those who did survive past age 5 endured a short and very hard life in extreme…

Apparently you missed the part where the Washington Post explained how the intelligence Trump shared could be enough for Russia/Syria/Iran to identify Israel’s source(s) inside Syria.

Also, given that fact that Russia considers anyone fighting against Assad to be part of ISIS, they are not our allies in the region.

Here’s the issue. Trump revealed information to Russia about an informant in ISIS controlled territory. ISIS isn’t going to be controlling that territory much longer and there’s a really, really good chance that Assad is. If they can pinpoint that informant, the chances of him or her being alive in a year’s time are…

Sometimes it’s that what was shared, it’s that it was shared in the first place. The source, and/or manner of the intel itself being shared is something that can be damaging. This is why the Brits in WWII went to such great lengths to make it appear to the Germans that they weren’t reading off their code the moment it…

“It’s not like Trump spilled the beans on a new Israeli weapon defense system.”

A star for you for an expensive meat on a Dixie plate.

Claire, this is my absolute favorite column on Lifehacker. I look forward to your posts every week because I have what my wife calls an unhealthy obsession with my Anova.

That’s actually pretty awesome. They need to hire this dude.

I like the way you think.

Seriously, just be a goddamn grownup and eat your veggies.

<grumpy old man>unless you are using it as a mixer, juice is stupid. you want juice? eat a fucking apple. as a bonus you get fiber too.</grumpy old man>

Maybe the cheerleaders did something completely disgusting and amoral, like going to a restaurant with a married man.

Rumor has it the cheerleaders were also part of a pyramid scheme.

I think she (assuming exile is a she) is correct though - pyramid schemes are more often targeted at women via social media, both because they’re a more likely target market for the products (which are often clothing and beauty products) and more likely to be stay at home parents who can be recruited via promises of…

Yes, yes he is. Because admitting the truth would mean that they were wrong, and given the choice between feeling good and being wrong they choose feeling good.

I can’t stress this enough: every time I heard someone (including Bernie, and I like Bernie) talk about ‘the Establishment’ during the election, my head nearly exploded. Republicans have controlled Congress for most of my life. They ARE the establishment.

It’s so sheer that it’s hard to imagine wearing it over except anything except another white shirt...