The monthly link roundup is just a few links this time.  But first, a plug to the journal club that I organize monthly.  Last month, we read an article about incels and asexuality, and I thought some readers might enjoy that.

What it was like to be a doctor during the AIDS crisis | Psychology Today – Alan interviews a doctor.  I’m way too young to remember the AIDS pandemic (ongoing though it is), but its impact on gay culture is immense, so I value these primary historical accounts.

Tracing the Roots of Pop Culture Transphobia | Lindsay Ellis (video, 59 min) – Isn’t it odd how transphobes fixate on this narrative of trans women assaulting women in bathrooms?  I mean, it’s not impossible, but it’s a rather unrepresentative view of oh wait they got it from the movies, didn’t they?  I remember when vomit reactions to trans women was a common trope.  And when I remember this, I think, fiction is such bullshit, we should stop making fiction forever.

Old Scott Alexander email links him to the alt-right | r/sneerclub – It’s drama that you’d only care about if you’re familiar with the Rationalist community.  There was a hullabaloo in the Rationalist community because the NYT published a mediocre article on Scott Alexander.  Then someone leaked a private e-mail from Scott Alexander in 2014 where he expresses his belief in HBD (what we’d call race science), among other ridiculous things.  I thought we already knew Scott was into race science?  My favorite part was where he says he can’t dismiss things that sound absurd, because he believes in cryonics!

BTW some FTB oldtimers may recognize the recipient & leaker of the e-mail under a different …uncredible… name.