"If you cannot get married and start a family within three quarters, the company will terminate your labor contract...."

"Not responding to the call of the country, not marrying and having children, is disloyal."

Said the memo to unmarried employees of Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group, quoted in "Chinese Company to Single Workers: Get Married or Get Out/As China’s government worries about the falling birthrate, some private employers have ordered workers to do their part, or else" (NYT). 

The notice from the chemical company, which began circulating online last month, was directed at unmarried employees between the ages of 28 and 58, including divorced workers. As online ridicule grew, the company quickly backtracked. Reached by phone, a woman at its headquarters said the notice had been retracted, and that the local government had ordered the company to undergo “rectification.”...

Years ago, when the Chinese authorities wanted to limit births, they resorted to coercive measures like forced abortions and sterilizations. (The city where the chemical company is based, Linyi, was particularly notorious for such tactics.) Now that Beijing is trying to do the opposite, it is taking a softer approach, perhaps to avoid setting off large-scale resistance.

"Liberal French women dress up as Nazis to protest against the so called ‘Fascist Epidemic’ during Women’s Day."

Weird photo, but since I don't want to suddenly thrust naked breasts in your face, I'll send you over to X to see it: here.

"All my life, I’ve loved a good quit. Leaving something broken always felt like freedom. Recently, I noticed I’d gained a lot of company..."

"... people online sharing testimonies of going 'no contact' with relatives. The diction was always the same: I went no contact; I had to go no contact. I understood the appeal of the phrase — the sense of control; the determination to cast oneself as the subject of a bad situation; the surety of the women sitting in their cars, their faces filling our TikTok screens, pronouncing with youthful confidence, 'I don’t fucking care if it’s your mom, your dad, your sister, your brother, your grandma, or your grandpa: If they’re toxic, then you have got to get rid of them.' It sounded so prudent, so clean, with its echoes of antiseptic pandemic DoorDash deliveries. It felt, as Eamon Dolan describes... in his forthcoming book... 'liberating and joyful,' like 'I could stand up straight at last,' like coming off 'house arrest.' Heroic, decisive. Such a great plot...."

Writes Elizabeth Weil in "What Do I Owe My Sister? Online, going 'no contact' with family members is often seen as liberating, empowering. If only I felt that way" (NY Magazine).

ADDED: For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "There seems to be a current trend for people going 'no contact.' What's the source of the recent trend and how is it going? Any pushback?"

"Most men live lives of quiet desperation," said Joe Rogan.

On the new episode of Duncan Trussell's podcast — audio and transcript here.

The guys were not talking about Henry David Thoreau. They were talking about men struggling to live with women. Here's the context (which begins at 00:57:11):

ROGAN: I had a buddy of mine who was an actor and he got this part, I think it was in a movie. It was good, you know, good little, small part. He was real excited and his girlfriend started crying and she said, when is something gonna happen for me?... That was her response....

TRUSSELL: Jesus, dude. That's so dark.

ROGAN: I think about that guy sometimes. 'cause I was, I was on a, a show with him, one day, just bit part on a show. And I was like, this guy's gonna be a movie star.... But I remember him telling me, he's like, she started crying, man.... She was crying saying, when is it gonna happen to me? So [he says] I don't know what to do. And I was like Captain Fucking Jettison — I'm Captain Fucking Pull the Parachutes — that's me.... So I was like, dude, you gotta bail out.... You gotta bail now. This one, you can't fix that girl....

TRUSSELL: That's so fucked up.

ROGAN: But she's pretty hot.... 

TRUSSELL: Dude, I wouldn't have bailed.

ROGAN: She had the heavies... she had natural heavies.

TRUSSELL: Natural heavies. It's worth it!