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Everyone looks forward to an occasional slow day at the office. But if you work for Snopes ("a hugely popular fact-checking site which debunks urban legends, old wives' tales, fake news, shoddy journalism and political spin") there are no slow days anymore. The Internet is too big, the lies and fake stories are too plentiful, and the pace at which falsehoods spread is too rapid. As Snopes founder David Mikkelson explains: "There are more and more people piling on to the internet and the number of entities pumping out material keeps growing. I'm not sure I'd call it a post-truth age but ... there's been an opening of the sluice-gate and everything is pouring through. The bilge keeps coming faster than you can pump." At this point, Snopes would probably be better off just identifying the few Internet stories that are true.
"Secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells." That's Clint Eastwood calling us all a bunch of pussies during an interview with Esquire. I'm leading with this for two reasons. First, I think Eastwood's take on modern America is one shared by massive number of voters, so it's worth your attention. And second because...
+ ... I thought I'd take the opportunity to respond to Clint. Here's our conversation: Talking Dirt with Dirty Harry: "While political correctness can be bad, if you stand up to overt racism, prejudice, misogyny, or flagrant nationalism, you're not a pussy. You're an American."
+ WaPo: Video, politics, and why some whites are waking up to racism.
According to the latest research, millennials aren't having nearly as much sex as we jealous, old people think they are. In fact, "they're more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s as the previous generation was." WaPo examines what's behind the trend: "Some experts are concerned that the drop-off reflects the difficulty some young people are having in forming deep romantic connections. They cite possible negative reasons for putting off sex, including pressure to succeed, social lives increasingly conducted on-screen, unrealistic expectations of physical perfection encouraged by dating apps and wariness over date rape." I had no success in the pre-Internet era. There's no way I'd have the game to compete with Pokémon Go.
+ The Awl's Alex Balk suggests it's all about maintaining a state of extended adolescence: "Why wouldn't you try to remain a child for as long as you can? If you have to give up sex, so what? You can always watch it on your phone, and this way you don't need to get gross stuff on the towel that you never learned how to properly wash because your mom did your laundry for you until you were well into your twenties." (On the other hand, this is the generation that invented the idea of getting trophies just for participating...)
Looking forward to your retirement years? Well, you better be able to look a really long way. For a growing number of aging workers, retirement is nowhere in sight. According to the NYT, there has been a massive surge in the number of older workers who remain un-retired. "Over 16 years, employment rose not only among 65- to 69-year olds (close to a third now work), but also among those 70 to 74 (about a fifth). In the 75-plus population, the proportion still working increased to 8.4 percent from 5.4 percent." This is Not Your Father's Old.
"The fellow-feeling between the two is complex, but it is not hard to see who gets the better of whom. Trump sees strength and cynicism in Putin and hopes to emulate him. Putin sees in Trump a grand opportunity. He sees in Trump weakness and ignorance, a confused mind. He has every hope of exploiting him." David Remnick (New Yorker editor and Pulitzer prize winning expert on Russia) shares his take on Trump And Putin: A Love Story. A must read.
+ A new poll from Pew indicates "that 47% of Clinton supporters and 31% of Trump supporters say they have zero close friends who support the opposing candidate." I guess we'll just have to settle for yelling at each other on the Internet.
+ According to most news reports and many GOP insiders, it's been a rough week for Trump. But his fans remain steadfast. And his campaign saw a big jump in donations from small donors.
+ There is a working theory that all the publicity must be good for Trump's businesses. Like every theory in this election season, that one turns out to be wrong.
The medical community has come up with a weapon to fight cancer, and in some cases, it's working extremely well. The weapon: You. "Immunotherapy's aim is to prompt the immune system, which is often stymied by cancer, to attack tumors with the zeal and sophistication that it attacks other diseases. The concept, at least in a primitive form, stretches back more than a century, but only in recent years have therapies been developed that show its true promise -- and, for now, its limitations." The NYT's excellent Matt Richtel examines the remarkable possibilities and the remaining challenges of immunotherapy by telling the story of his friend's battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
+ Also from the NYT: Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer.
"At the age of 56, the reason I'm actually interested in learning to dive is that I'm trying to find my wife in the sea." From Jennifer Percy in the NYT Magazine: Five years after the tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Japan, a husband still searches the sea for his wife.
"It's the question that many people sitting in a dentist chair dread. Have you been flossing?" Well, dread no more. It turns out there aren't really any long-term studies that show flossing does you much good. (There will probably be follow-up articles extolling the virtues of flossing. But rest assured, I won't share them here.)
"Your poor dumb brain is only trying to help, in the best way it knows how." From NYT Mag: Reading makes you carsick because your brain thinks it's being poisoned. Some stories make me carsick even when I'm sitting on my couch.
+ During election season, everyone accuses everyone of being biased. I'd like to address that: I am. So is every other word and link here. Here are a few thoughts on what an unbiased media really should be: I Think, Therefore I Am (Biased).
+ Join nearly 9,000 other people and take a look at the surreal life aboard the world's biggest cruise ship.
+ Quartz on the many ways profanity is good for you.
+ Looking to motivate your entitled kid to get a summer job? Tell them Sasha Obama is bussing tables.
+ A psychologist analyzes the fights couples have in Ikea. (There's no need to analyze the fights they have trying to put the crap together.)
This is a weekly best-of version of the NextDraft newsletter. For daily updates and to get the NextDraft app, go here. (Original story reprinted with permission from NextDraft.)
