A roundup of news and commentary from around the interwebs.
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The Dutch culture of death continues to metastasize—this time, a doctor’s group has approved euthanasia for mentally incompetent people. Thus, elderly people with dementia can be euthanized despite not being able to give consent. This is a tragedy with a thousand faces.
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An unsurprising new poll indicates that polarization drives Democrats far more than Republicans:
By the numbers: 5% of Republicans said they wouldn’t be friends with someone from the opposite party, compared to 37% of Democrats.
Five percent. 5%. Let that sink in.
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Chile’s Congress has voted to legalize same-sex marriage after a years-long political and legal battle.
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A new series on Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is coming out, and—aimed at a family audience—it will apparently “explore the racial and sexual politics of Victorian England.” It is grimly amusing that our elites look at this era, with its child mutilation, gender confusion, and state-funded hedonism, and actually think that that era was more sexually screwed up than this one.
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In Switzerland, a self-operated suicide capsule may soon be available:
A 3D-printed “suicide capsule” has passed a legal review in Switzerland, potentially clearing the way for the technology to be put into use in the country’s legal assisted suicide clinics. The Sarco capsule’s creator, Dr. Philip Nitschke, told Euronews Next that his aim was to allow anyone to download the design and print it themselves. In the future, an AI screening process will allow Nitschke’s assisted dying advocacy organisation, Exit International, to “demedicalise” the dying process by removing the need for medical professionals to be involved, he said…
The Sarco capsule can only be operated from the inside. Users will be able to press a button, blink or gesture to release nitrogen gas that induces a state of hypoxia and eventually, death.
Read the whole thing. The only rational response to this is incredible sadness. We have sold out those who live in despair.
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This excellent essay by Kurt Hofer at The American Conservative advocates for a “counter-revolt” of the elites, in which conservatives build their own institutions and, eventually, their own intelligentsia. As institutions collapse, it is a time to build.
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More soon.