fact or fiction
Is it a fact or is it merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores relationship myths and truths to get your head out of the clouds and back into romantic reality.
The Voucher Program
Tennessee's Education Savings Account program was introduced to the legislature in 2023 with a specific image attached to it. A poor child in a failing school whose parents finally have the power to do something about it. That image did most of the political work. The bill passed. The program launched. And then the data started coming in, and the data described a different child entirely.
By Tim Carmichaelabout 24 hours ago in Humans
Trickle Them Down, But Not Out. Top Story - February 2026.
The thing about smart people is that they should know better, but alas, intelligence is not the same as wisdom. Not only do the mistakes of experts too short on vision—when they are not corrected—have the potential to do great and far-reaching damage, but they also undermine public confidence in the very notion of expertise. This is particularly so when expertise is wielded in defence of the rich and powerful as a cudgel against those laid low. As an academic, this lack of faith in “so-called experts” is painful to see as it plays out in the spread of dis-/misinformation, conspiracy theories, and anti-intellectualism writ large. But it is also an understandable impulse given the catastrophic failure of an economic ideology pushed by certain economic experts. Supply-side economics has shaped a broken system for the last half-century and has arguably done more to undermine the fabric of the American Dream than any policy framework of the past century.
By Cory Wright-Maleya day ago in Humans
From Resort To Nightmare
SOCIAL STANDARDS MAGAZINE February 19 2026 Andrew Strelley, international correspondent When Joshua Tadley’s friend, Matthew Besthorpe, came home from last vacation in a tropical climate, there was not exactly a happy welcome. He lay still in a box, no sign of life in his body. How did it happen?
By Moon Deserta day ago in Humans
The Legible Child
A particular kind of exhaustion accumulates not from overwork but from performing work that cannot be seen. It settles slowly, over months or years, until one day a teacher stands at a photocopier early in the morning, watching pages collate, and notices she no longer knows why she chose this profession. She gathers her papers, walks to her classroom, and begins another day of documentation.
By Tim Carmichael2 days ago in Humans
The Habit That Helped Me Stop Comparing Myself to Others
I didn’t realize how much comparison was stealing my happiness until one quiet night changed everything. For years, I had a habit that looked harmless. Every morning and every night, I scrolled. Social media. Success stories. Travel photos. Business wins. Engagement announcements. Fitness transformations.
By Dadullah Danish3 days ago in Humans
Power, Protection, and the Limits of Liberal Ideology
The Epstein saga didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened inside a specific ideological architecture — one built on liberal principles of individual freedom, institutional trust, legal process, and market logic. Understanding how that architecture both enabled the abuse and is now struggling to reckon with it tells us something important about liberalism itself: its genuine achievements, and its profound blind spots.
By noor ul amin4 days ago in Humans
Where There Is No Still Water
John got back into his car. He was tired and shattered. He did not know if he could go on or how he would. The tears he had held back while visiting Lizzie welled in his eyes. As he started his car, they exploded. Deep, guttural sobs for answers that escaped him.
By Calvin London5 days ago in Humans
Roots and Fruit
Roots and Fruit Photo by Lukáš Kulla on Unsplash Most people evaluate life by what shows. Results, behavior, success, failure, growth, collapse. Fruit is easier to measure than roots, so it becomes the focus almost by default. When something goes wrong, attention rushes to what is visible and immediate. When something goes right, credit is assigned to the most recent action. But this way of seeing consistently misreads causality. Fruit is never the beginning of the story. It is the result of something that has been growing quietly, often unnoticed, for a long time.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 days ago in Humans
