Q: I’d like to remove my fireplace brick, but it goes all the way up from the hearth to the ceiling. Is it possible to remove the brick and replace it with another material? After removal, what type of material should I use to cover things up? Is there something that I can use that will still allow me to use the fireplace?

A: Yes, you can remove the brick facade and replace it with another material. And you will still be able to use the fireplace. The only restriction is that the material around the firebox must be noncombustible. Common choices are marble, some other type of stone or tile.

Check your local building code to determine how far the hearth must extend in front of the firebox and the area on the sides and top of the opening that require noncombustible material. Expect 8 to 12 inches on the top and sides and a minimum of 18 inches for the hearth. When it comes to the hearth, the deeper, the better. There’s nothing worse than a hot ember that burns a hole in the carpet. The remainder of the wall can be any material you want, from drywall to plaster to the rustic appearance of wood.

The removal process is fairly labor intensive, but if you do the demolition yourself you’ll save a bunch of money. Furthermore, if you do the whole job yourself, all you’ll be out is the cost of materials. Go slowly, be careful and you’ll be fine. When you’re done you’ll have a spiffy new look for pennies on the dollar.

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You will need a hammer and a cold chisel. If you want to make quicker work of it, rent a small electric demolition hammer.

Make sure to remove any breakable objects from the area and cover the floor. Dropping a brick from 8 or 9 feet in the air is not a good idea. Have a helper handy to receive and stack the bricks when you remove them.

To remove the old brick, start at the top and work down. Begin by chiseling the mortar on the top line of brick. It might be a little tough to remove the first brick, but once you pry it out, the others should follow more easily. Remove one brick at a time. Work down the wall until all of the face bricks, including any mantel you might have, are removed. Then remove the bricks from the hearth.

With the wall and the firebox opening stripped, you’re ready to reface.

It’s vital to have a flat, solid surface on which to affix the new stone, tile or marble. For larger, flat pieces of tile or marble, you can either plaster a mortar bed over the existing brick to create a substrate or you can affix cement board such as Durock with thinset mortar. Use concrete nails to hold the cement board in place. When the mortar dries, you’ll have a solid, flat surface.

If you use smaller, irregular material, such as individual stones, you can forgo the cement board. Just apply a thick layer of mortar and embed the new material. In both cases you will have to pretreat the old brick with a concrete adhesive to allow the new mortar to stick to the old brick.

A word of caution: If you decide to use material that is very heavy, make sure the floor framing will support the weight. You might have to go into the crawlspace to install a couple of concrete piers with a beam across the floor joists to support the added load. Also, if you decide on stone or another type of brick, you’ll need a steel bar across the top span of the firebox to support that weight.

Two final suggestions: This is a good time to have your fireplace inspected by a licensed, bonded chimney sweep. Also, it’s likely that your project will require a building permit. Make sure you get one.

The post Changing hearth brick is not simple however price it appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

You need a salary north of $300K in NYC, San Francisco and Honolulu just to bring home $100K — here’s why plus 3 easy ways to keep more of your paycheck

Many people find tax season to be a stressful time of year, but those living in some of the most popular cities in America may find paying taxes to be an even more discouraging experience — even when they’re wealthy.

SmartAsset, a financial research firm, analyzed the impact of taxes and living costs on individuals living in America’s biggest cities. Their research found that an annual salary north of $300,000 in New York City, San Francisco and Honolulu is required just to bring home $100,000 after taxes and cost-of-living adjustments.

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For context, the median American household income is $70,784, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But SmartAsset’s research shows that a family living in the Big Apple or Silicon Valley would need more than four times that amount to feel like they’re in the “middle class.”

Regardless of income level or location, it’s always a good idea to save money. With that in mind, here are five ways to stretch your paycheck.

Minimize housing costs

Housing expenses can be among the most significant drains on your finances. Making adjustments to these costs can be an effective way to stretch your paycheck further.

If you’re looking to buy a home, it’s important to stay well below your mortgage approval amount to ensure you don’t stretch your finances too thin. Locking in at a good interest rate can also save you money in the long run.

According to a study by Freddie Mac, borrowers who obtain at least five quotes when shopping for a mortgage save an average of $3,000 over the life of the loan.

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It’s important to ensure that your monthly payments are stable and less than one-third of your monthly income. This is known as the 30% rule and is widely recommended by financial experts. By adhering to the rule, you make sure that your housing costs aren’t eating up too much of your budget, leaving you with more money to save or invest.

Put simply: strive to live below your means.

Read more: ‘It makes an enormous difference’: Warren Buffett says this simple ‘trick’ is the key to earning a generous retirement nest egg

Maximize tax-advantaged retirement accounts

Contributing to a 401(k) or IRA can help to reduce your taxable income and thus lower your tax bill. It can also fuel your wealth-building over time.

You should also look to take advantage of employer-sponsored benefits. Many employers offer perks like commuter benefits and flexible spending accounts, which can help to reduce your out-of-pocket expenses and save you money.

If your employer offers health insurance benefits, be sure to take advantage of them so you can reduce your health-care costs and save money on medical expenses.

Hire a professional accountant

If you make a lot of money, it’s a good idea to hire a professional accountant to help with your finances, including filing your taxes, to ensure you don’t make any costly mistakes.

Those of you who have a side gig might want an accountant to help you figure out how to deal with the income tax complications that come with being self-employed.

Even if you don’t make a lot of money, it might still be worth it to hire an accountant. They can help you get the most out of government subsidies and tax credits that you might qualify for. This could save you a lot of money in the long run and bring you peace of mind.

What to read next

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

The post You want a wage north of $300K in NYC, San Francisco and Honolulu simply to deliver residence $100K — here is why plus 3 simple methods to maintain extra of your paycheck appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

New York — Companies have long embraced Pride Month in June as an uncomplicated way to market to members of the LGBTQ+ community while telegraphing progressive values. But this year won’t be nearly so straightforward.

In recent weeks, two major brands, Target (TGT) and Bud Light, were targeted by right-wing media and on social platforms for relatively small LGBTQ+ initiatives: Bud Light’s Instagram partnership with a trans influencer, and a subset of Target (TGT)’s line of goods marketed to trans customers and allies.

Right-wing commentators, politicians and others called for boycotts, and the brands’ employees were threatened with violence. In both cases, the companies seemed cowed: The CEO of Bud Light owner Anheuser-Busch (BUD) released a vague statement calling for unity and Target pulled items from shelves. Both brands say they continue to support the LGBTQ+ community: Bud Light on Tuesday announced a donation to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce in support of LGBTQ+ owned small businesses, and Target has continued selling much of its Pride merchandise in stores.

Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store in New Jersey on May 24.

Seth Wenig/AP

But the backtracking shows that backlash and threats could create a chilling effect for companies, and leave them without a clear path forward.

Executives “are becoming much more skittish about taking these stands and making strong statements,” said Daniel Korschun, associate professor of marketing at Drexel University. “The pendulum is swinging a bit back … toward a more conservative approach, where they’ll be less vocal.”

Although support for gay rights has increased over the years, gaining acceptance among most Americans, trans acceptance is a more contentious issue. About 43% of adults said society had “gone too far” when it comes to accepting people who are transgender, according to a March survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Norc. About 33% said society “has not gone far enough,” with 23% saying society has reacted “about right.” When it comes to accepting people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, a smaller percentage — 29% — said society had “gone too far.”

Campaigns that may have been considered low-risk are now drawing ire from public figures who oppose trans rights along with their supporters, creating a PR mess that may hurt sales. Backing away — rather than quelling the negative reactions — has dismayed the very demographic the campaigns were supposed to reach and may close avenues for future inclusive marketing efforts.

“Allyship is sometimes uncomfortable,” and businesses are learning that, said Jared Todd, press secretary of the Foundation at the Human Rights Campaign, which maintains the Corporate Equality Index, a measure of companies’ LGBTQ+ practices. “I don’t think people realize that quite enough.”

They might realize it now. Anheuser-Busch lost its spot on the HRC Foundation’s Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality in 2022 list over its response, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom called out Target’s CEO for “selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom (left) and Senator J. D. Vance are pictured here in a split image.

Justin Sullivan/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The current landscape “is alarming,” Todd said. “It’s alarming to businesses, it’s alarming to executives — and it should be.”

Staying quiet may once have been an antidote to potential boycotts, but “there’s not as much of a neutral space anymore,” Korschun said. “That middle ground is going away.”

So this year, companies that want to participate in Pride have to be prepared to take a real stance.

A new phase

The conventional wisdom about boycotts was once simple, Korschun noted: Angry customers will likely lose interest or get distracted by another perceived corporate transgression.

But it “feels that we are moving into a new phase now, where politicians are getting much more involved,” Korschun said. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) tweeted that Target “decided to wage war on a large share of its customer base,” adding “I no longer shop at Target.”

That involvement from politicians is “mobilizing consumers in a way that they might not have mobilized otherwise,” Korschun said.

Some of those lashing out have described a campaign against Pride itself, rather than Bud Light or Target (TGT) specifically. “The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” right-wing commentator Matt Walsh said on Twitter. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain.”

It’s no coincidence that the anti-trans assault comes as trans rights are under legal attack across the nation. More than 200 bills have been introduced targeting transgender and non-binary people this year, HumanRights Campaigns reported in late May. Transgender people are more than four times as likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people, according to a study from the UCLA School of Law.

“This has been a well-funded and a coordinated effort to silence the LGBTQ community,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, which aims to build acceptance for the queer community through media. “It’s an all-out assault.”

Yet groups like GLAAD have seen this reaction before — and it ended up turning around.

Reviving an old playbook

Though Pride has been mainstream for years, there was a time not long ago when featuring gay and lesbian people in ads could spark negative response, noted Ellis.

“Ten years ago, we used to have war rooms behind when a company would have a new ad that included LGBTQ people,” she said. “There were a couple of years it was a little rough going.”

Eventually, sentiment turned toward mainstream acceptance. Now, “I think we’re at that inflection point again,” she said.

A 2022 poll conducted by Morning Consult for the Trevor Project found that about 29% of US adults personally know someone who is trans. The remaining population, said Ellis, is “being filled with misinformation … and hate and discrimination.”

Demystifying trans lives for more Americans will lead to greater acceptance, she said, noting that this is a “critical” moment for trans rights and acceptance. “We need corporate America and we need these powerful CEOs to help.”

This year, Pride is different for companies.

Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty Images

GLAAD has organized a “corporate rapid response team for Pride,” Ellis explained, designed for brands to prepare for and address possible outrage. The goal is to prevent “quick decisions that end up hurting our community, ceding space to bullies and violent folks,” she noted, adding none of the companies that partner with GLAAD have backed away from LGBTQ+ initiatives.

The Human Rights Campaign is taking a similar approach, said Todd: “We are in the business of sitting down with these companies and making sure that they have a clear pathway for inclusion and supporting diversity.”

It’s not just about goodwill, advocates say. Companies that have remained committed to polarizing positions are often rewarded financially. Nike (NKE), for example, didn’t waver from its campaign with football player and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick. The ad was supported by the coveted young consumers demographic and won Nike (NKE) an Emmy. In the years since the campaign, Nike (NKE)’s share price has increased.

Most Americans “believe that representation matters,” Todd said. “When companies lean into that, and prove that through what they do and say, they come out on top.”

Plus, noted Drexel’s Korschun, customers tend to punish companies when they go back on their word.

The dangers of corporate hypocrisy

Shoppers are willing to overlook certain changes in stores, noted Korschun, like price increases or temporary shortages. But customers bristle at what they see as hypocrisy.

“Consumers react very poorly when companies say one thing and do another,” Korschun said. “Inconsistency is very disconcerting to many consumers.”

That’s partly because when companies walk back decisions, customers wonder whether they’ll do the same in business dealings — like return policies, for example.

As Korschun put it, “If I come to the store with a problem in the future, related to just a regular purchase … are they going to walk back promises there, too?”

These days, companies that want to benefit from marketing to marginalized groups have to be ready to back those decisions, agreed Jared Watson, assistant professor of marketing at New York University.

“When brands are deciding to participate in advocacy in any format, they need to think about what that long-term advocacy looks like,” Watson said. “Whether they’re willing to internalize that support as a value for their brand, or not. And if they aren’t, then it’s maybe not something that they should be championing.”

Ultimately, Watson suspects the higher stakes will have a polarizing impact on brands.

Some might decide to play it safe. But others, he said, will lean in. North Face this year moved forward with a Pride marketing campaign that features Pattie Gonia, a drag queen and environmentalist — and the company isn’t backing away despite calls for a boycott from some Republicans.

Some brands will think, “‘What’s happening to Target is an attack, not just on the LGBTQIA+ community, but all of us,’” Watson said. “’We need to show we’re not afraid.’”

___

From Stonewall to today: 50+ years of modern LGBTQ+ history

From Stonewall to today: 50+ years of modern LGBTQ+ history

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, the New York Police Department unwittingly helped start the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. At the time, clubs with gay or lesbian patrons weren’t allowed to serve alcohol, but the Stonewall Inn still served booze to their customers, which gave police cause to raid the bar. The clientele pushed back, and 13 people were arrested. LGBTQ+ people and their allies protested for days. Among the crowd was transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, who later founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided resources for LGBTQ+ youth and sex workers.

After the events at Stonewall—which the NYPD eventually apologized for in 2019—more and more people pushed for LGBTQ+ equality. Activists organized the first LGBTQ+ marches in the United States and around the world, giving rise to annual Pride parades. In 1973, the American Psychological Association no longer considered being gay or lesbian a mental illness, and the first openly lesbian politicians were elected in the following year. Currently, openly gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer candidates occupy political offices at most levels of government, including in the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate, and state governorships. 

There is still more to be done, but since Stonewall, the government has passed laws banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal. More than two dozen countries have passed legislation giving marriage rights to everyone.

In the military, it took decades for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members to win the right to enlist. And it wasn’t until 2011 that LGBTQ+ troops could openly serve in the United States armed forces. While the Obama administration repealed the ban on transgender troops in 2016, former President Donald Trump effectively reinstated it in 2019 (though the ban was overturned by the Biden administration in 2021).

To find out more about LGBTQ+ history, Stacker combed through news reports and used data from GLSEN to compile over 50 years of LGBTQ+ progress. Read on to see the evolution of this movement, from then to now.

You may also like: Looking back at 50 years of pride festivals

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP // Getty Images

1969: Stonewall Riots

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Anger erupted after New York City police arrested 13 people during a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a bar and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. Advocates protested for days, even though police took action—even turning fire hoses onto the crowd. Many say the event catalyzed the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

Drew Angerer // Getty Images

1969: Gay Liberation Front forms

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The events of Stonewall led to the creation of the GLF, a group that organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day in New York in 1970—now considered the first Pride parade. It started with only a few hundred people, but by the time the group reached Central Park, thousands were marching for LGBTQ+ equality.

Evening Standard // Getty Images

1972: Sweden allows people to legally change gender

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1972, Sweden became the first country to give people the right to legally change their gender on identifying documents. However, people needed to be over 18 years old, unmarried, and sterilized; the country didn’t remove the mandatory sterilization law until 2013. In some U.S. states, people still need to undergo gender-reassignment surgery to legally change their gender.

rbkomar // Shutterstock

1972: UK has first Pride parade

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The United Kingdom held the country’s first LGBTQ+ Pride parade on July 1, 1972. Britain’s GLF organized the event, and about 700 people showed up to march. Their slogan was simple: “Gay is good.”

LSE Library // Flickr

1973: Homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental illness

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Until the early ’70s, physicians could diagnose someone in a same-sex relationship as mentally ill. But in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed “homosexuality” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or the DSM-II).

US Department of Labor // Wikimedia Commons

1974: First openly lesbian officials elected

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Kathy Kozachenko and Elaine Noble became the nation’s first openly lesbian or gay elected officials in 1974. Kozachenko won a seat on the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan, while Noble held a position in the Massachusetts General Assembly.

Jiaqian AirplaneFan // Wikimedia Commons

1977: First openly gay man elected

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Harvey Milk made history when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay male politician elected in a major city. Before he was assassinated a year later, Milk helped pass city ordinances to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.

JIM WATSON/AFP // Getty Images

1978: The rainbow flag is created

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1978, Harvey Milk’s friend Gilbert Baker brought his 30-by-60-foot rainbow flag to an LGBTQ+ rights rally in San Francisco. Afterward, it became an enduring symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community. According to The Washington Post, Baker sometimes referred to himself as “the Betsy Ross of gay liberation.” He died in 2017 at the age of 65.

Spencer Platt // Getty Images

1981: Norway enacts anti-discrimination laws

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1981, Norway amended its laws to include protections for LGBTQ+ people. The legislation stated that business owners couldn’t discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation nor deny them access to public events. Hate speech was also prohibited.

Andrzej Wójtowicz // Wikimedia Commons

1981: Gay men affected with ‘rare cancer’

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1981, the New York Times reported 41 gay men had been afflicted with a “rare cancer.” Doctors originally thought HIV/AIDS was a skin cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma. A year later, though, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) started calling the illness “acquired immune deficiency syndrome,” or AIDS.

felipe caparros // Shutterstock

1982: Wisconsin passes LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination law

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1981, Rep. David Clarenbach (D-Wis.) brought forth a measure to protect LGBTQ+ people from employment discrimination in public and private sectors, making Wisconsin the first in the U.S. to pass a statewide law against such discrimination. The law also banned landlords from denying housing based on sexual orientation.

Pixabay

1983: BiPOL forms

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

BiPOL, the first bisexual political group, started in San Francisco in 1983. They helped put on the Bisexual Rights Rally a year later, which took place outside the Democratic National Convention.

AlisonW // Wikimedia Commons

1986: Bowers v. Hardwick

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

After Michael Hardwick failed to show up for a court summons for public drinking, a police officer went to his house. That’s when he and a male friend were arrested for having consensual sex, which was illegal between two people of the same gender. The case, Bowers v. Hardwick, went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the state. The Court didn’t strike down sodomy laws until 2003.

Pixabay

1986: New York passes anti-discrimination bill

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

After more than a decade of debate, New York City passed an anti-discrimination bill in 1986: Sexual orientation couldn’t be the basis of discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations.

Wangkun Jia // Shutterstock

1987: UK opens first HIV/AIDS clinic

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The HIV/AIDS crisis continued into the late ’80s. In 1987, Princess Diana dispelled the myth that the disease could be transmitted by touch: without gloves, she shook the hand of an infected man at the opening of the United Kingdom’s first HIV/AIDS unit at the London Middlesex Hospital.

Rick // Wikimedia Commons

1987: Barney Frank comes out as gay

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Although his straight allies and colleagues cautioned him against it, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) revealed his sexual orientation in 1987, making him the second openly gay congressman. Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) reluctantly came out in 1983. Frank announced his retirement in 2011.

Tasos Katopodis // Getty Images

1987: ACT UP

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) helped change the way people thought about the disease. Their slogan was simple but effective: “Silence = death.” Many say that the group jump-started a movement that led to the creation of HIV/AIDS drugs.

You may also like: Defining historical moments from the year you were born

Elvert Barnes // Wikimedia Commons

1988: National Coming Out Day starts

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

A year after the second March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, a group of activists founded National Coming Out Day (October 11), which aims to help LGBTQ+ people live openly.

Elvert Barnes // Wikimedia Commons

1989: Denmark legalizes same-sex unions

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Demark recognized same-sex domestic partnerships in 1989, which extended the rights of marriage to gay and lesbians couples. In 2010, same-sex couples in the country could register for adoptions, and by 2012, they could legally get married.

KELD NAVNTOFT/AFP // Getty Images

1990: First Pride parade in South Africa

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Activist Simon Nkoli helped start the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand. GLOW organized the first Pride parade in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1990, where people also marched against apartheid. Some LGBTQ+ marchers were so scared of exposing themselves that they marched with bags over their faces. Only about 800 people gathered for the first parade; by 2018, that number swelled to 22,000.

Lois GoBe // Shutterstock

1994: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ enacted

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Then-President Bill Clinton signed “don’t ask, don’t tell” as a compromise with Republicans: gay and lesbian service members could join the military, but they could not tell anyone about their sexual orientation. Some officials—including Colin Powell, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time—voiced concerns about AIDS and whether gay and straight soldiers would have to live in the same quarters.

Mark Wilson // Getty Images

1994: American Medical Association opposes conversion therapy

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

As the mid-’90s approached, the AMA told doctors to have “nonjudgmental recognition” of their gay, lesbian, and bisexual patients, and also stopped recommending that physicians try to “reverse” a patient’s sexual orientation. As of May 2022, Washington D.C. and 20 states have banned this type of conversion therapy.

You may also like: US cities with the dirtiest air

Shawn Goldberg // Shutterstock

1995: Gay and lesbian workers can get government security clearance

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Until 1995, someone who was gay or lesbian might not get a federal security clearance because government officials considered sexual orientation a security risk, the rationale being that gay and lesbian people who kept their lives secret could be subject to blackmail. Then-President Bill Clinton signed an executive order ending the regulation.

US Federal Government // Wikimedia Commons

1996: President Bill Clinton signs Defense of Marriage Act

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In 1996, Clinton signed a law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In 2013, he wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post asking the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA. In the piece, Clinton wrote he believed the law to be “incompatible with our constitution,” and the Court agreed with him.

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP // Getty Images

1996: High schooler starts Gay-Straight Alliance

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

After she started the Gay-Straight Alliance at her Utah high school, Kelli Peterson—a 17-year-old lesbian senior—made national news. The administration didn’t want to allow her LGBTQ+ group but the Equal Access Act meant the school couldn’t legally prevent them from meeting. Instead, Salt Lake City’s Board of Education banned all high school clubs. Students sued the school, and a federal judge ruled in their favor.

Denin Lawley // Unsplash

1997: Ellen DeGeneres comes out

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Ellen DeGeneres told the world she was a lesbian on the cover of Time magazine. Then, her television character, Ellen Morgan, became the first openly LGBTQ+ lead in a sitcom. DeGeneres won an Emmy for writing the series, but her show was canceled a year later. In 2003, she started her long-running eponymous talk show and later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Barack Obama.

SAUL LOEB/AFP // Getty Images

2000: Vermont recognizes same-sex unions

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

A 1997 lawsuit led Vermont to pass a bill guaranteeing same-sex partners the same legal rights as married people. The Vermont Supreme Court held that the state was unconstitutionally discriminating against gay and lesbian couples. In 2009, Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Jordan Silverman // Getty Images

2000: Netherlands recognizes same-sex marriage

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

After changing one sentence in their legislation, gay and lesbian couples in the Netherlands were given the right to marry, divorce, and adopt. The Dutch country was the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP // Getty Images

2003: US legalizes consensual same-sex acts

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The Supreme Court legalized all consensual sex acts between same-sex adults after the ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. “Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government,” wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Alex Wong // Getty Images

2004: Massachusetts performs first same-sex marriage

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

On May 17, 2004, Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey became the first same-sex couple to get married in the U.S. A year earlier, the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled that the ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples was illegal. It took until 2008 for another state (Connecticut) to follow.

You may also like: Best-run cities in America

Angela Jimenez // Getty Images

2009: Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Then-President Barack Obama enacted the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to give the U.S. Department of Justice additional funding to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. This includes crimes committed based on a victim’s race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Some activists, however, feel the law did not do enough to increase prosecution of crimes against LGBTQ+ people.

Chip Somodevilla // Getty Images

2010: Same-sex marriage legal in Iceland

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

After same-sex marriage became legal in Iceland, the country’s openly lesbian prime minister wed her long-time partner. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Jónína Leósdóttir were previously in a civil union. That same year, same-sex marriage became legal in Portugal and Argentina.

OLIVIER MORIN/AFP // Getty Images

2011: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ repealed

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

At 12:01 a.m. on September 20, 2011, “don’t ask, don’t tell” was no longer in effect. Then-President Barack Obama signed a law repealing the policy in December 2010. The decision allowed gay and lesbian troops to serve openly in the military.

Mark Wilson // Getty Images

2012: First openly LGBTQ+ senator

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay or lesbian senator in 2012. Before heading to the Senate, Baldwin served as one of only four openly gay members of the House at the time.

Scott Olson // Getty Images

2013: Supreme Court recognizes same-sex marriage

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court held that the Defense of Marriage Act—which stated that marriage could only be between a man and a woman—was unconstitutional. They also decided not to hear a case about Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage. This paved the way for nationwide marriage equality, which would come two years later.

You may also like: Youngest and oldest presidents in US history

Alex Wong // Getty Images

2014: Transgender students get federal protection

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education extended Title IX coverage to transgender students. The civil rights law bans sex discrimination in schools or activities that are funded by the federal government. The Trump administration aimed to roll back trans protections and include only people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth in the legislation.

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP // Getty Images

2014: First transgender person nominated for Emmy

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Transgender actress Laverne Cox became the first openly trans person nominated for an Emmy when she received the nod for her role in “Orange Is the New Black.” She also appeared on the cover of Time the same year. Cox made history again in 2018 when she became the first openly trans person on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Jason Merritt // Getty Images

2015: US legalizes same-sex marriage

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court historically ruled to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states. Justice Anthony Kennedy reasoned that the Constitution grants all couples “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”

Ted Eytan // Wikimedia Commons

2016: Ban lifted on transgender troops

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In June 2016, the military lifted the ban on transgender troops. That same month, the Obama administration dedicated the Stonewall Inn as a national monument, the first LGBTQ+ site added to the National Parks System.

Alex Wong // Getty Images

2017: First openly transgender state legislator elected

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Virginia voters made history in 2017 when they elected transgender candidate Danica Roem to their state legislature. That same year, then-President Donald Trump announced that the military would no longer accept transgender troops because of “tremendous medical costs and disruption.”

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PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP // Getty Images

2018: ‘Rainbow wave’ in politics

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Voters elected more than 150 LGBTQ+ politicians to office in 2018. Among the history-makers at the time were Jared Polis, the openly gay governor of Colorado; U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Native American lesbian representing Kansas; and Malcolm Kenyatta, the first gay Black man elected to the Pennsylvania legislature.

Whitney Curtis // Getty Images

2019: Taiwan passes same-sex marriage

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage. Only a year before, lawmakers voted to deny the right to same-sex couples.

SAM YEH/AFP // Getty Images

2019: Transgender troops banned from military

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Then-President Donald Trump’s restrictions on transgender people in the military went into effect on April 12, 2019. While the administration claimed there was no ban, transgender troops were required to serve as the gender they were assigned at birth under this regulation.

Alex Wong // Getty Images

2019: Mayor Pete runs for president

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Democrat Pete Buttigieg is the second openly gay man to run for president of the United States. (In 2012, Fred Karger, a lesser-known Republican, became the first.) Buttigieg—who entered the Navy Reserves under “don’t ask, don’t tell”—dropped out of the Democratic primary in March 2020 and endorsed Joe Biden. In 2021, he became the first openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history, serving as Secretary of Transportation in the Biden administration.

John Gress Media Inc // Shutterstock.

2019: Being transgender no longer a ‘disorder’

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The World Health Organization no longer considers being transgender a mental illness. The WHO removed “gender identity disorder” from the International Classification of Diseases, which is a global manual for diagnosing mental illness. The update may help put an end to the practice of forcing transgender people to get surgery and forced sterilization in order to legally change their gender.

DEREK R. HENKLE/AFP // Getty Images

2020: NYC Pride March canceled by coronavirus

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

For the first time since its inception, the NYC Pride March was canceled out of an abundance of safety and due to social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. Other events around the globe were similarly canceled. But that hardly means Pride Month was called off—instead, virtual events have since become common during the month of June to celebrate the historic milestones of the LGBTQ+ movement and to observe the battles still being fought for equal rights today.

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Gotham // Getty Images

2021: Biden reverses Trump-era ban on transgender people in the military

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

Just five days after taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that overturned the previous administration’s ban on transgender people in the military. Before the ban in 2017, it was estimated 2,450 service members were transgender, with about 0.1% of the total force seeking gender-related treatments. The Trump administration deemed gender-affirming care too expensive for the military to budget when in actuality it would only increase military spending by 0.04% to 0.13%.

Doug Mills-Pool // Getty Images

2021: Gender-affirming care for minors is blocked—then overturned

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

A law passed in Arkansas banned physicians in the state from providing gender-affirming health care to minors—even with parental consent. Trans children in the state were immediately unable to access trans-related health care, health care which has been proven to lower the risk of suicide among transgender youth. In July 2021, following a court case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spurred by protests and activists, the bill was overturned and gender-affirming care was once again accessible for minors.

Across the pond, in December 2020, the U.K.’s High Court ruled transgender children under the age of 16 could not consent to receive trans-affirming health care. Trans youth seeking medical treatment needed to consult a judge before receiving care. The National Health Service (NHS) appealed the decision and won in September 2021. Roughly 2,400 children a year in the U.K. seek gender-affirming health care through the NHS, making this overturned case paramount for a significant number of minors.

Alina Kruk // Shutterstock

2021: Switzerland and Japan make strides toward marriage equality

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

In September 2021, a two-thirds majority in Switzerland voted to legalize gay marriage in a referendum vote. This referendum also extended family rights for same-gender couples, allowing them to adopt children and permitting couples of two women to have children through sperm donation. The new ruling will be enforced in July 2022. Switzerland is one of the last Western European countries to legalize same-sex marriage.

In Japan, the country inched closer to marriage equality in a ruling which claimed to bar same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Gay marriage is not yet legal in Japan, but this ruling will likely set a precedent for future legislation.

FABRICE COFFRINIAFP // Getty Images

2022: Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in US states

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

As of May 2022, over 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 36 states across the U.S. in 2022, some of which have become law in eight states. In Florida, one such measure—dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics—prohibits elementary school teachers from educating students in grades K-3 about sexual orientation or gender identity. Another law in Alabama that criminalizes gender-affirming medical care for trans youth was partially blocked by a judge in May. A significant number of these bills specifically target transgender people.

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

2022: First openly lesbian women elected governor

Updated
Apr 26, 2023

The U.S. has never had an openly lesbian woman hold the office of governor; however, during the November 2022 midterms, not one but two openly lesbian women won gubernatorial elections in their respective states.

Maura Healey of Massachusetts is both the first woman as well as the first openly lesbian woman to be elected governor in Massachusetts. Healey, who has been her state’s attorney general for the last eight years, defeated Republican candidate Geoff Diehl by a wide margin to secure her spot as the next governor of the New England state. 

Tina Kotek of Oregon was right behind Healey, becoming the second openly lesbian governor elected in the U.S. Kotek’s race against Republican Christine Drazan was extremely close; however, her win continues a decades-long democratic hold on the governorship. Kotek is also the first openly lesbian woman to hold the position of Speaker of the Oregon House.

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Green design is no longer just a buzzword – it’s a movement. Architects and designers are committed to sustainable solutions in all types of projects, and private homes are no exception. As technology advances, energy efficiency starts with the architecture. For new builds, choosing materials adapted to a site’s specific climate can help reduce a household’s overall consumption. During renovations, installing high-performance windows and doors can help maintain a constant indoor temperature, thereby reducing HVAC demand.

However, green living doesn’t always require a major physical makeover. Design experts agree that green change can start small, from the appliances we buy to the fabrics and finishes we use. A practical approach to sustainability requires an attitude towards longevity – even if you don’t live in your home forever, the impact of its design and maintenance will linger for generations. Go room by room with these tips to mitigate your home’s negative environmental impact.

See more

Avoid design trends to reduce waste

While it may be exciting to redecorate your home on a regular basis, reducing product usage – and the resulting waste – is a key tenet of sustainable interior design. “If you steer clear of trends and instead look to nature for inspiration, you maximize the longevity of your interior design aesthetic,” says Alicia Storie of British design firm AdesignStorie. “Trends come and go. However, interiors that we have a strong emotional connection to can stand the test of time.”

If you need a refresher, head to the fabric store or your favorite consignment store. “Consider reupholstering and refurbishing furniture before buying new ones,” advises designer Laura Hodges of Baltimore and Washington, DC. “Shop local and try out vintage or antique furniture” to support the circular economy.

Consider materials – and their lifecycles

It’s tempting to source marble from Italy and windows from Germany, but the energy required to ship these products can add significantly to your home’s overall carbon footprint. Instead, use third-party, certified local products, like “FSC-certified woods, OEKO-TEX and GOTS-certified linens, upholstery and textiles,” says New York-based interior decorator and designer Laurence Carr.

“Considering whether the parts and components are built to last and whether they can be reused, repurposed, refurbished or recycled is an important part of designing a home,” says Hodges, who also advises brightening Installing kitchen worktops The space requires less artificial light outside of daylight hours.

Question the ingredients

“Just as we’ve come to question where our food comes from and what’s in it, so must we with our fabrics,” says designer Chenault James of Louisville, Kentucky. “The textile industry uses a variety of chemicals such as dyes, bleaches and finishes that are harmful to the environment and people. Technology has made a great looking polyester faux linen or velvet possible, but we have to think about the fact that it’s not biodegradable.”

Throughout the home, stick to natural fibers like cotton and linen for curtains and upholstery, and opt for carpets made of wool, sisal or jute. Paints and varnishes should not contain any VOCs – chemical compounds whose outgassing can damage human organs and form ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone can trigger a variety of health problems, particularly in children, the elderly and people of all ages with lung diseases such as asthma.

Choose products wisely

Thoughtful shopping choices can make a big difference to a sustainable home. “In the kitchen, you can put a compost bin in the cabinets and use biodegradable/natural cleaning products, organic linens, reusable paper towels, beeswax food wrap and reusable silicone bags” to reduce waste, says Hodges. In the bathroom, she recommends reusable makeup remover pads, bamboo toothbrushes, and refillable dental floss, while mattress and pillow protectors extend the life of linens.

Choose devices that use less energy

“Optimizing energy efficiency means you use fewer resources in your daily life,” explains San Francisco architect Monica Sanga. “Choosing energy-efficient appliances and low-flow faucets/faucets is the easiest solution.” In her own home, Sanga has chosen an induction hob, automatic blinds and light sensors to reduce both her gas and electricity use. Meanwhile, Hodges is designing bathrooms with “LED lights, double-flush toilets, heated floors and aerated faucets” to save on water and energy use.

Upgrade your systems

When you’re ready to take on a larger project, review and adjust your systems. Installing a method to capture and recycle gray water (from outside the toilet) can reduce water use, while solar panels — often subsidized by government programs — minimize generator needs, says Carr. Heat pumps are Sanga’s “new standard for stove replacement” and she emphasizes the importance of passive heating and cooling through proper insulation and shading. A simple solution is window curtains, which “filter natural light, limit energy use from artificial lighting, and insulate the home from cold air and the sun’s heat,” says Hodges.

Get a green education

Like any niche industry, the world of sustainable design and products can be opaque and riddled with jargon. Carr suggests doing your homework before making any lasting decisions. “Find out about standard third-party certifications and transparency in the architecture and design industry to make informed choices when purchasing products or working with an architect, designer, contractor or landscaper,” she says. “These certifications are a powerful guide to healthier materials and high quality, trusted products, brands and services.”

If renovating your home all at once seems a bit too much for you, take it one step at a time. While bigger, lasting changes have bigger, more positive impacts on the environment, “I also believe in small steps when it comes to sustainability,” says Hodges. Sanga agrees: “Ultimately, the most sustainable choice is the one you can commit to.”

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Step 3: The economy… but that step hasn’t happened yet.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

San Francisco was the hottest office market in the US in 2019, when the office vacancy rate was just 7.1%, as tech and social media companies and all kinds of startups piled on top of each other, renting office space they didn’t need and couldn’t use , to prepare for a future that would not come.

Now, Q1, 2023: The vacancy rate is 32.7%. According to Savills, almost a third of San Francisco’s office space was for rent, an all-time high. And all trends are going in the wrong direction. In the worst year of the dot-com bust, 2003, the vacancy rate reached 18%.

First quarter vacancy rates ranged from 28% in the South of Market Area (SOMA) to 55.4% in the Yerba Buena area.

Of the 86.6 million square feet (msf) of total office space, over 28 msf is vacant and on the market. This includes a record leasable area of ​​8.9 msf, up from 7.7 msf a year ago.

This type of aggregation of sublet space is gross. At that moment, companies like Meta realize they’ll never move into the spaces they rented years ago for a future that didn’t come, and then try to find a tenant for the remaining years of the lease to help out you bear the transport costs. They tend to undercut landlords who try to rent their own vacant space directly, as the goal of subletting is not profit but lowering operating costs.

Meta said in January that it plans to list its 435,000 sf office at 181 Fremont Street for subleases.

Salesforce, the city’s largest tech employer, put another 125,000 sf on the sublease market in March, this time in the Salesforce Tower, owned by Boston Properties. This brings Salesforce’s total sublease space to over 1 million sf.

I mean what were these people thinking when they rented this space? These big tech companies that think they’re going to grow forever have big real estate divisions run by highly paid executives with titles like VP of Global Real Estate whose job is building campuses and leasing offices, and they’ve done that, and that is what they end up with.

The first major defaults – because of the interest. PIMCO’s Columbia Property Trust defaulted on two downtown office towers: 201 California Street and 650 California Street. In the latter, Twitter rented the 30th floor and simply stopped paying rent after Musk acquired it, according to a lawsuit filed by Columbia in December. In theory, Twitter is on the hook for the lease until January 31, 2025.

One problem behind the default is the adjustable rate mortgage bond. Columbia completed the adjustable rate mortgage in December 2021. I mean, what were these people thinking? That was the time when inflation was spiking and the Fed was choking on QE and warning of rate hikes and these idiots who might have been holed up in the pivot trader camp threw out the Fed and got a 3% floating rate note and up By early 2023, it had doubled to 6%. OK, game over – this is where the talks begin.

The company said it was in talks with the lenders to restructure the mortgage. Lenders definitely don’t want the towers. Defaulting on the mortgage of office towers in this market is like putting a gun to your head. And they will talk.

But this time it’s not the economy yet, this shoe has yet to fall. This time the main drivers are two factors:

1. Confiscation of office space in the years leading up to 2019 to prepare for a future that would not come. As everyone ate up office space they didn’t need, an office shortage ensued, fueling the office shortage even further. Human brains are funny when it comes to hogging, as we learned during Spring 2020’s Empty Shelves episode.

2. Home office since the pandemic. Many San Francisco employers have embraced it fully, while others are desperate to hybridize some workers back into the office for a few days a week. But they realize they don’t need all the space they’ve hogged over the last few years.

Leasing activity fizzled out in the first quarter. Only 900,000 sf was leased compared to 1.5 msf in Q1 2022 and 2.5 msf in Q1 2019.

The largest transaction was Gap’s sale-leaseback of its Athletica headquarters. It sold the 162,000 sf building at 1 Harrison Street to Sobrato Organization for $80 million and leased it back for a year. So that didn’t take any office space off the market.

The third largest transaction was an extension by Bank of the West. This has not taken any office space off the market either.

The fourth-biggest deal was Reddit’s downscaling move: It’s moving out of its 78,000-square-foot Market St. office it subleased from Block and moving into a 47,000-square-foot space at 303 Second St. This move will create even more vacancy space on the market.

Average asking rents continued to fall. For Class A space, they dropped to $74.59 per square foot per year. This is about 16% down from the peak in 2019.

Price would normally solve demand problems by causing prices to fall until demand occurs. But with heavily leveraged commercial properties, landlords aren’t able to lower rents past a certain point because even if they could fill the building, landlords couldn’t pay the mortgage with lowered rents, and contract language could put them in default. And so they fall behind.

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A homeless man in California recently admitted that he moved to the West Coast from Texas because he knew it was easier to live the homeless lifestyle in San Francisco.

“If you’re gonna be homeless, it’s pretty f***ing easy here,” he said of the Bay Area city. “I mean, if we’re gonna be realistic, they pay you to be homeless here.”

What are the details?

The homeless man, identified only as James, went on to say that he receives $820 in welfare and food stamps every month and added that living on the street is easier in San Francisco because the progressive city simply doesn’t enforce anti-camping laws.

James’ frank admission came as part of a series of street interviews conducted by best-selling author Michael Shellenberger. The author, who is known for “Apocalypse Never” and “San Francscko,” posted some of the interviews in a Twitter thread Wednesday.

“People are surprised by these interviews because much of what we’ve read is propaganda put forward by activists with an agenda [and] reporters who are also ideological but also lazy [and] too scared to ask direct questions of street people,” he said in one of the tweets.

People say lack of housing forces local residents into the streets, but James says he came from Texas to San Francisco for the drugs, the non-enforcement of anti-camping laws, and the $820/month in welfare & food stamps. James says he sold fentanyl, 2 weeks ago, to a 15-year-old.pic.twitter.com/5qMr6tmlWs

— Michael Shellenberger (@Michael Shellenberger) 1644416763

James said he started receiving the government assistance with nothing more than a phone call.

“Why wouldn’t I do it, it’s f***ing free money,” he said, adding, “This right now is literally by choice, literally by choice.”

Then, offering a window into the rampant drug abuse customary in and around homeless encampments, James went on to claim that just a couple of weeks ago, he sold fentanyl to a 15-year-old.

what else?

In another interview, a homeless man identified as Ben claimed that only a small fraction of the homeless in San Francisco are actually from there. More than 90% he alleged, are from outside the city.

He also pushed back against the prevailing progressive narrative people are predominantly driven to homelessness by poverty. Rather, he said crippling drug addiction is by far the primary cause.

It’s reasonable to ask whether I’m seeking out outliers, but I met James 5 minutes after parking my car and he was the first person I interviewed, and Ben, below, was the 4th person we interviewed after ~20 minutes on the street doing interviewshttps://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490130669875253250?s=20&t=8wpXy2kh64brr9LxvYb06gu00a0u2026

— Michael Shellenberger (@Michael Shellenberger) 1644416990

Ben told Shellenberger he supports his drug addiction by engaging in petty crimes like “boosting” (shoplifting and then reselling the items) and breaking into cars.

Both Ben and James said violence and overdoses are commonplace in homeless encampments. James also said that law enforcement officers have no chance of stopping the drug cycle since San Francisco is a sanctuary city. Immigrant dealers who are back on the street within days, he claimed.

anything else?

Last year, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom caught heat for inviting homeless people from across the country to come pursue “new beginnings” in the Golden State.

“To the extent that people want to come here for new beginnings and all income levels, that’s part of the California dream,” Newsom said as he rolled out his California Comeback Plan.

Rampant homelessness and crime have been growing problems in San Francisco, in particular, for years. The city’s inability to solve the problems is a source of fear for residents. Last summer, a whopping 40% of residents indicated they planned to leave the city over the next few years due to the rapidly deteriorating quality of life.

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The New York Times

“Belonging Is Stronger Than Facts”: The Age of Misinformation

There’s a good chance you’ve received at least one of these rumors, all of which are false, and were recently brought to you as fact: President Joe Biden plans to force Americans to eat less meat; that Virginia eliminates advanced math in schools to promote racial equality; and that border officials are buying bulk copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’s book to distribute to refugee children. All were reinforced by partisan actors. But it’s just as likely, if not more likely, that you passed it on from someone you know. And you may have noticed that these cycles of false indignation keep recurring. Sign up for The Morning Newsletter from the New York Times. We are in an era of endemic misinformation – and utter disinformation. Lots of bad actors support the trend. However, some experts believe that the real drivers are social and psychological forces that people tend to share and believe in misinformation. And these forces are just on the rise. “Why do misperceptions about contentious issues in politics and science seem so persistent and difficult to correct?” Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist from Dartmouth College, featured in a new article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is not for lack of good information that is ubiquitous. Anyway, contact with good information does not reliably convey precise convictions. Rather, Nyhan writes that increasing evidence suggests that the ultimate culprits are “cognitive and memory impairments, directional motivations in defense or support of a group identity or belief, and messages from other people and political elites”. In simpler terms, people become more prone to misinformation when three things happen. First, and perhaps most importantly, when conditions in society cause people to have a greater need for what social scientists call grouping – a belief that their social identity is a source of strength and superiority and that of others Groups can be held accountable for their problems. As much as we like to think of ourselves as rational beings who put truth-finding above all else, we are social animals wired for survival. In times of perceived conflicts or social changes, we look for security in groups. And that makes us eager to consume information, whether true or not, that enables us to see the world as a conflict that places our righteous group against a nefarious outgroup. This need can arise in particular from a feeling of social destabilization. As a result, misinformation is common in communities that feel destabilized by undesirable change or, for some minorities, are powerless in the face of dominant forces. Viewing everything as a major conflict against scheming enemies can feel tremendously comforting. And therefore, perhaps the greatest culprit of our era, more than any other misinformation, is the era-defining rise in social polarization. “At the mass level, major partisan divisions in social identity create intense hostility towards opposition partisans,” which “appears to have increased the vulnerability of the political system to partisan misinformation,” Nyhan wrote in an earlier article. Growing hostilities between the two halves of America fuel social distrust, making people more vulnerable to rumors and falsehood. It also makes people cling much more closely to their partisan identity. And once our brains go into identity-based conflict mode, we become desperately hungry for information that confirms how we feel about them, and much less worried about things like truth or accuracy. In an email, Nyhan said it could be methodologically difficult to pinpoint the exact relationship between general polarization in society and general misinformation, but there is ample evidence to suggest that a person with more polarized views is more prone to believe in Will falsehood. The second driver of the era of misinformation is the emergence of high-profile political figures who encourage their followers to give in to their desire for identity-affirming misinformation. After all, an atmosphere of overarching political conflict often benefits these leaders, at least in the short term, by gathering people behind them. And then there’s the third factor – a shift to social media, which is a powerful medium for disinformation composers, an ubiquitous vector for misinformation itself, and a multiplier of the other risk factors. “The media has changed, the environment has changed, and that has potentially huge implications for our natural behavior,” said William Brady, a social psychologist at Yale University. “When you post things, you are very aware of the feedback you get, the social feedback on likes and shares,” said Brady. So when misinformation appeals to more social impulses than the truth, it gets more exposure online, which means people feel rewarded and encouraged for spreading it. “Depending on the platform, people are very sensitive to social rewards,” he said. Research shows that people who receive positive feedback for posting inflammatory or false statements are more likely to do so again in the future. “You are affected by it.” In 2016, media scholars Jieun Shin and Kjerstin Thorson analyzed a data set of 300 million tweets from the 2012 election. They found that Twitter users “selectively exchange fact-checking messages that cheer their own candidate and denigrate the opposing party candidate”. And when users came across a fact check that revealed that their candidate had done something wrong, their response wasn’t to be angry with the politician for lying. It should attack the fact checkers. “We found that Twitter users tend to retweet to agree, argue, attract attention and entertain,” wrote researcher Jon-Patrick Allem last year, summarizing a study he co-authored. “The truthfulness of a post or the correctness of a claim was not an identified motivation for retweeting.” In another study published in Nature last month, a team of psychologists tracked thousands of users who interacted with incorrect information. Republican test subjects who were shown the wrong headline about migrants attempting to enter the United States (“Over 500 migrant caravans arrested in suicide vests”) largely identified it as incorrect; only 16% said it was precise. But when the experimenters instead asked subjects if they should share the headline, 51% said they would. “Most people don’t want to spread misinformation,” the study’s authors wrote. “But the social media context focuses their attention on factors other than truth and accuracy.” In a highly polarized society like the United States of today – or even India or parts of Europe – these incentives have a strong impact on solidarity within the group and the exemption outside the group. They don’t much prefer the consensus reality or abstract ideals of accuracy. As people become more susceptible to misinformation, opportunists and charlatans are also better able to take advantage of this. That can mean that promising populists smash the establishment and control minorities. It can also mean that government agencies or freelance hacker groups are stirring up social divisions overseas in their favor. But the roots of the crisis go deeper. “The problem is that when we encounter opposing views in the age and context of social media, it’s not like reading them alone in a newspaper,” wrote sociologist Zeynep Tufekci in a widely used MIT Technology Review Items. “It’s like hearing them from the opposing team while you’re sitting in a football stadium with our fellow fans. We are connected to our communities online and ask our like-minded colleagues for approval. We bond with our team by yelling at each other’s fans. “In an ecosystem where this sense of identity conflict is pervasive, she wrote,” Belonging is stronger than facts. “This article originally appeared in the New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

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