view the rest of the comments
news
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.


Water fluoridation is fucking stupid. Fluoride can cure cancer and make you immortal for all I care it's still stupid to put it in all the tap water. Of all the tap water you use how much do you actually drink vs washing things? And you know what's a way more efficient of getting it on your teeth other than drinking water? Toothpaste, which already fucking has fluoride in it.
Hmm, we have substance that's good for your teeth. Do we put it in the toothpaste or do we spend millions dumping it in all the fucking water?
Damn if only there were any research pointing out water fluoridation as one of the most cost-effective public health programs in the history of humanity.
Fluoride is cheap as shit.
If it's cheap as shit give everyone a packet of fluoride to smear on their teeth. Also I don't care about whatever "line goes up" justification there is, it's just still a roundabout and wasteful delivery method to put it in the tap water. There's no way to control dosage and it's wasteful. Also municipalities fuck up the quantity of fluoridation pretty regularly.
Besides the practical concerns water fluoridation would never pass an ethical review if it were proposed today. People should be able to consent to what medicine they're taking. It's banned in almost every country other than the US for a reason.
Also dentists aren't real doctors. They don't go through med school and most of the research they publish isn't nearly as rigorous as regular medical research. Same fuckers came up with the bright idea to put mercury in tooth implants.
[EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER]