@curtosis @rajivsethi That's certainly true. But it doesn't strike me as remotely new. It's not new that people on the right (and the supposed center left) think that the Federal government is some kind of bloated jobs program, for example, when Federal employment has been capped for decades. 1/
@curtosis @rajivsethi On the one hand, that's surely the result of misinformation. People are badly misinformed. But it's not a new, social media kind of misinformation. It's politics we take as ordinary. As Williams points out, often the most destructive misinformation comes not from fringes, but from "mainstream", often liberal sources. 2/
@curtosis @rajivsethi (Famously, the "liberal" press for years took the claim "cutting the deficit is virtuous and desirable" as a fact demanding no justification by "objective" commentators, even though it is in fact a circumstance specific and high contextual question. To say that has been consequential in our politics is to understate the case.) 3/
@curtosis @rajivsethi One might respond by saying all of that was bad too, someone should have adjudicated lies and misstatements by prestigious economists and Obama Administration officials as much as they should today's conspiracy nuts, we need a bold new regime of information hygiene far beyond what has prevailed historically. 4/
@curtosis @rajivsethi But absent that, it strikes me as special pleading. Both of our major political formations rely on lies, exaggeration, and misinformation to help form their coalitions. My fave Bernie frequently parrots a line about the fraction of Americans living paycheck to paycheck that's probably false. 5/
@curtosis @rajivsethi If we're going to take on misinformation, stories too good to fact check that serve to cement political tribes, we need a pretty bold plan. Taking the status quo as of 2012 as "decent" and eliminating the sorts of disinformation that have emerged since seems less like referreeing a genuinely informative marketplace of ideas and more like taking sides. /fin
A good parsing of the great censorship vs misinformation debate by #DanWilliams https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/there-is-no-censorship-industrial ht @rajivsethi
i think i want a browser plugin that substitutes "fucking never" for the words "maybe later".
great wealth simultaneously turns people into idiots and grants them great power.
@admitsWrongIfProven we’d like to achieve a political goal. we’ll define “how to achieve this unsolved problem” as “organize”. great. what have i learned if you tell me i must organize?
@kentwillard @mmasnick what do you mean? Musk buying X was philanthropy. $44B spent for the public good.
the least informative word in political discourse is “organize”.
what exactly do you mean? start a nonprofit? have your neighbors to lunch? join somebody’s thing? find some friends and picket your representative?
you’ll cherry pick some thing and say that, *that*, was organizing.
okay. what now?
“It’s also important to remember that CPI and PCE, by their very nature, are weighted to the consumption expenditures of higher income households. That’s because they spend more.” #NathanTankus https://www.crisesnotes.com/one-election-takeaway-voters-hate-temporary-safety-nets/
okay. so maybe it wasn’t a landslide victory. but it was for sure a mudslide victory.
there should be a river in Crimea called Crimea River. (sorry.)
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@econproph ice cream is a superfood. at least it's a supplement i'd feel good about peddling.
i really wish Big HVAC were a more powerful lobby. https://zeroes.ca/@hannu_ikonen/113529561457207168
i'munna pin to my tie an "As Seen On TV!" button and get myself a cabinet position.
"our failure to remember that the mega-platforms are just intentionally extractive constructs run by brainmelted but very human weirdos is a failure of accountability, but our failure to remember that it doesn’t have to be this way is a failure not only of imagination, but of nerve." @kissane https://www.wrecka.ge/against-the-dark-forest/
i used to be fond of Marc Andreeson. we'd chat very reasonably on Twitter sometimes, and i was a fanboy of Netscape back in the day.
he's one of those "what happened?" people to me.
cf @mmasnick https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/14/you-dont-believe-in-free-markets-and-free-speech-if-youre-demanding-criminal-charges-against-people-for-their-free-market-free-speech-decisions/
( interfluidity "office hours" begins now if you'd like to chat https://www.interfluidity.com/office-hours/ )
if as a pastor you know you’ve done terrible harm to your flock, wouldn’t there be something psychologically compelling in believing you’d found a way to lead them to the rapture?
“gambling for redemption” isn’t just for bankers. 1/
longtime tech founders, VCs, and executives are sure AI can solve all the problems they’ve aggravated. /fin
The standard deduction should be 150K individual / 300K married.
we tend to obsess about Trump, but he’s already done his work. for now his chaos is a saving grace. if he were sidelined, more capable elements of the movement he brought to power might find a firmer footing.