A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org
Moved full time to my other account @BE soon as this instance is still having issues.
Joined Nov 2022
@mloxton @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963
I think you could argue chicken or the egg on that one, for sure. I'm not arguing either way, just that there's no opposition as a fact on the ground.
@StillIRise1963 @mloxton @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world
I just linked to an article in a separate reply to you(sorry for the multiple threads here), but from my viewpoint I see the Democrat Party as having abandoned the state.
Look, there hasn't been a D governor in 28 years. I think the party just decided to spend their money elsewhere, but it also could be just plain incompetence. Either way, there's no functional D party at the moment and we'll see what Nikki Fried decides to do with that.
@StillIRise1963 @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world
I agree. I also see that Florida probably needs to be looked at as Texas has been by the Democrat Party, or they need to make an actual attempt to build party infrastructure.
I was looking for an article that I'd read recently, and didn't find it, but this one made a similar enough point that I think it works. Without an opposition voice, everyone in Florida just gets the DeSantis viewpoint.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/the-agonizing-fall-of-the-florida-democrat.html
(I know it's behind a paywall but 12ft works on it if you are so inclined.
@doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963
Yes, without doubt.
@mloxton @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963
I think the bigger hurdle is that a second party has to show up. We'll see what Nikki Fried decides to do from here, but, the state is largely abandoned by the Democrat Party.
I've lived in one county here for probably 15 years now and I don't think the Democrats have even bothered to run a serious candidate for any office in that time. The same failed candidate has run multiple times for Congress, always gets 30% of the vote, and every now and then some young person decides to run on their own.
It's hard to make progress when there's no opposing voice to the party in power.
@doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963
Living in Florida and tangentially knowing some of the people who might push back, there's a pervasive feel of "Whatever we do will be rejected by the Governor and eventually the Supreme Court, so, why waste the time and money" at the moment.
I'm speaking long, long term. Maybe in your lifetime, maybe not. Political entropy is a real thing, though.
I am *not* saying that you are seeing Blue MAGA ruling the Democrat party today. I *am* saying that the likelihood is that at some point, if the US survives long enough, that will be the case. That's simply the way it works in the sample of world democracies that we have.
It is often the case that the shift from center is in response to another party's shift from center. Data suggests this is where we're at, although just slightly at this point.
I'm not sure if you're riffing off of what I said, or misinterpreting it.
Did I say that the left has moved as far from center as the right?
Did I say that the left and right have equal problems with extremism today?
Blue MAGA exists, it's just not accepted by any party. MAGA, as I stated, has been accepted by its party and the party has decided to move to it.
This is why, unchecked by whatever forces are at play in their party, all parties eventually become further and further from center. The furthest from center are the most vocal, the "true believers," and will always drag the party their direction when able. Just look at the Republican Party. They finally stopped fighting the extremists and joined them by shifting the entire party their direction.
I don't really believe in the linear description of left vs right(it's much more complicated than that, and this is how we ended up with a dysfunctional 2 party system, and that's a whole other post), but, in those terms, the 50% who are furthest to the left or right are always pulling those who aren't. The 40% are pulling those and on and on while the 1% are pulling the 10%. Basically, no one has zero pull one direction or the other.
This is essentially also why every capitalist society will eventually become an oligarchy.
I could write an essay on this, and I won't, but this is why "blue MAGA" (or whatever you wish to call them) is as real as MAGA is and you will never satisfy everyone with your positions.
I've always been liberal, I've drifted more liberal as I've aged and I've always been comfortable with the fact that my preferred policies won't make every liberal happy. Is what it is.
Rather than fight with people who essentially believe in the vast majority of what they do, it would always be better to focus their attention on people who have very different views instead of alienating allies, but, just look at the Democrat Party's treatment of "progressives" to see how well liberals are doing at that.
It still blows my mind that after laughing at the former guy for "If we don't test, then there's no cases" we just plowed right ahead and made it reality.
@nancylwayne @Alice @grimethorpeband@mastodonapp.uk @tofugolem @KN3RDS
Thank you! Very much enjoyed discussing things with you, as well.
You are, of course, correct that a lot of it revolves around CYA at this point.
The one that really got me was the "our parents don't think the schools are safe, but, while we have a boatload of money earmarked for making it safer, we're not going to do that."
@aintist @colorfiend @KimPerales
I've heard that our local schools won't take CR boxes either. I don't understand the rationale...
It's a running joke in our house. Anytime anyone asks a question about anything someone yells "It's a mystery!" and we all laugh. Pandemic humor.
At a certain point I decided I could no longer tell if the "It's a mystery" articles were legitimate, or just a way to pretend like they can't figure it out so they don't have to actually try to solve anything. It's pretty bizarre to me.
Right, I mean, this money exists:
https://www.ed.gov/improving-ventilation-schools-colleges-and-universities-prevent-covid-19
And to the best of my knowledge almost no schools have used it, despite complaining about facilities maintenance money endlessly prior to the pandemic. I believe only about 10% of it has been spent as of the last update I saw, and almost none of that on facilities. It mostly went to personnel and tutoring costs.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160358099/school-attendance-chronic-absenteeism-covid
Yet another "it's a mystery!" article. This one from the formerly reliable news source of NPR with such gems as:
"I think people have been a little bit under the false impression that when COVID became more endemic, that that would then result in a significant improvement in attendance. And I'm not seeing that."
and
"...Carlson says his district's Native families don't generally think of school as a safe place.
"It's really difficult to get those families to say, 'Yeah, sure, we'd love to send our kids back to school.' "
The solution? Not making schools more safe, of course. That would be too straightforward.
"Money is not an issue ... The entire nation is currently flooded with federal [COVID] assistance money."
"Home visits are one proven strategy schools are investing in."
or
"His district has also hired more attendance counselors and "community navigators" to help caregivers tap into district resources"
or even
"Chang says another way to improve attendance is to gather regular, transparent data throughout the school-year, rather than only once, at the end of the year."
because, clearly, collecting attendance data will solve the problem.
These people really don't get it and I've lost hope that they ever will.
By that, I assume, he means that he regrets saying it out loud.
That's awesome! I recently discovered that an old colleague of mine quit his lab job some years back and started a program teaching coding to elementary kids. You'll have to tell me how it goes!
I've never pushed coding on them as anything that they "have" to do, but when they're not using their tablets for school I give it to them as something they can do for fun and so far so good on that front. They both enjoy it enough they they tell their teachers they want to work together as coders later in life.
@GinevraCat @auscandoc @EverMama8 @pixplz
Really great data point and thank you for sharing!
Moved full time to my other account @BE soon as this instance is still having issues.
Joined Nov 2022
