It was (TRIGGER WARNING) in an I Fucking Love Science post. The post was about a new study done on the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews. The comments almost immediately went to "Hitler was right" and a bunch of cartoons of rabbis with big noses grabbing at money.

People seem more tetchy than usual all over FB. Although I might just be wading into discussions I usually avoid. (And MAN, people hate Common Core math, even when they don't understand what it is!)

t edit Wow, that is SO MUCH WORSE than the people who reflexively hate Common Core Math because it's new and scary and therefore must be burned.

The comments also pretty quickly went to "See, Ashkenazic Jews are really just European! That means they've got no right to Israel at all!" Which wasn't even what the study said, and is stupid anyway.

Aw, hell, that's completely vile. Were they regular commenters letting their masks slip, or invaders? I've definitely noticed, in related discussions on other boards, that most of the conversations are smart and civil but every now and then apparently some kind of Stormfront rabid bat-signal goes up and for a couple of days the whole place is swarming with horrifying trolls.

There are so many interesting conversations that can be done re: genetic distribution without getting politics messed up in it. Idiots.

I'm not sure. They've got a few thousand followers, so I can't really keep track of who's a regular. Usually, the only controversial stuff there is whenever they post something about vaccines, there will be a bunch of anti-vaxxer crap in the comments, but I can just roll my eyes at that without getting emotionally invested.

The Common Core math thing bugs me because there's almost nothing new about it. It's basically the same math that's been taught in most public elementary schools for a decade or so. And also all the same "I can't understand my kid's math homework" complaints, but now with "Common Core" labels.

It's basically the same math that's been taught in most public elementary schools for a decade or so.

I think the people who complain the loudest about it haven't had children in school for over a decade. (Wait, did that make sense? I mean the complainers are of an age where their "kids" have been out of elementary school for WAY more than a decade. So their "kids" wouldn't have been taught this.)

Besides, that stupid graphic is designed to make people rail against Common Core, when an equally confusing graphic could be made to show how weird "old math" really is. Bah.

I don't get how people like that even tie their shoelaces in the morning. (I feel like "people like that" covers most of the recent conversation.)

Ryan has been witness to some racist comments in his class. In frelling Prep. There's a girl who recently started in his class whose parents are both Chinese; one girl told her that her face was too round. Ryan himself has been informed that he "wasn't born here". (He was more bemused than upset, being as how he was totes born here. But still.)

Yesterday I encountered someone on an internet far, far from b.org who stoutly maintained that we should all avoid vaccinations because every time your immune system is activated, it causes brain damage.