volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
@eddeeMN that a person is a liar is no justification for setting up a straw man argument.
Still, the fact that key campaigns against this proposal, and that his voters reject the proposal, comes together to say that he would lose support and lose votes should he actually try to implement the thing that he says he doesn't want to implement and that his people don't want him to implement.
It gets into this really nutty conspiracy theory. Yeah, Trump's a liar, but that doesn't give much license to ignore everything else happening in his entire orbit to put words in his mouth and criticize him for the thing that he explicitly rejects.
Just because he's a liar doesn't mean you can ignore everything and make up an alternative story and run with it.
@mhjohnson I think one blaring thing is that the Times headline talks about a winning streak for Trump, and yet Trump LOST in for example not getting the broad broad executive privilege he asked for.
So the headline from the Times itself promotes the false story they've been peddling all these months, and that needs to be called out.
@eddeeMN and Trump has explicitly rejected the plan.
So Trump and other high-profile conservatives have joined with critica of Heritage to say that they are misguided and that this is not the way forward for the country.
It's not a blueprint for a second Trump term because Trump has said that's not anything he's interested in going by.
Congress does not set state election districts.
That's not a federal authority.
That is set on the state level, not by Congress.
@MugsysRapSheet they don't.
That's absolutely not true.
Legally, that is not how voting works. Congress does not pick their voters. For a couple of different reasons. Not the least of which being the legal separation between federal and state powers.
So no, Congress does not pick their voters. It was intentionally designed to prevent that, and legally that is not possible because of those safeguards.
I don't know who told you otherwise, but you need to stop listening to them, they are misleading you, and we have such a huge problem of misinformation in this country, conspiracy theories being spread around.
@TheOldGuy to be clear, the guy is a troll that you can't believe.
Does he hate Taylor Swift? Who knows, but you know what he does love? People talking about him.
And you played right into his game.
We have an old saying on the internet, don't feed the trolls. Just ignore them. If we had just ignored Donald Trump he would have decayed into the oblivion. He would have become irrelevant.
If you don't want to support him, ignore him. But posts like this are exactly what feed into his game.
You're supporting him by giving him attention.
@MugsysRapSheet I'm admitting that the only views Congress represents are those of the people who bother to vote.
You want your views represented? Vote!
Otherwise you're out of the system. That's just how it works.
@EtherNRhum yeah I think journalism has a huge amount of responsibility for the state that we are in right now. Journalism has done such a horrible job not only failing to tell people how things work, but outright lying to people, saying things that are simply false on a daily basis. Education has been completely corrupted.
But the land of the free is free, for what that's worth. The problem is that people, like you said, have been misinformed so they are freely acting based on bad information.
It's important to realize that the core of this problem is not Trump. He's the symptom, not the cause. We desperately need to fix education. Yelling about Trump is not going to make this better and in many ways it makes it worse.
@breedlov but you're missing the next sentence where he said the stories were based on reports from constituents.
It seems that you're calling it a story implying that it's false, but some stories are true.
This tale is coming from witnesses. Is it true? I have no idea! But a lot of people are missing that there are people saying it's true.
Firstly I really don't I don't care one way or another. I don't have a dog in that fight, pun intended, but we should at least be clear that these stories are based on witness accounts.
@mikeash or to put it simply, Trump's whole thing is lying to his supporters about how strong and effective he was, that's what he's running on.
You're free to promote that propaganda if you want, just keep in mind that you are promoting his presidency, promoting his own messages, as you do.
Do what you want though, just be aware of that you are playing his game, promoting his candidacy, reinforcing his messaging.
If you're comfortable with that, have at it. It makes it more likely that he will win, but you do what you're going to do, just keep in mind that you are reinforcing his messaging.
Oh, no, not at all. I'm glad to clarify. I'm not telling you to shut up at all. Speak all you want.
Your position doesn't match with the facts. You can definitely keep promoting that perspective if you want, this is social media, you can say all you want.
What you're saying doesn't match the facts, but you're still absolutely welcome to say what you want.
But there is the consideration that not only is what you're saying easily debunked by the record, but it does help support Trump. If you want to support Trump, go for it. I wouldn't want to do that, but you are perfectly right to play his game if you want to, and help get him reelected.
Just be aware that it's what you're doing.
If you want to help get Trump reelected by promoting factually false narratives, your call.
@mikeash I mean good thing I'm not making that argument then.
What are you talking about? I honestly don't know what that response is going on about.
@MugsysRapSheet as you said, the people who vote voted their beliefs.
Anyone who decides not to vote takes themselves out of the process.
And so, again, we need to emphasize that we can vote for better people if we want to. We have that power. And we need to hold our representatives accountable by voting for better people.
Anyone who decides not to vote is voluntarily forfeiting, so they're just not relevant by their own choice.
Anyone who doesn't want to be part of the political system I have no problem with. In fact I encourage that. If you don't care, don't vote, leave it to the rest of us to figure out.
BUT those of us who do have opinions and are willing to hold representatives accountable, we have the power to choose better people.
@mikeash again I am saying that if you watch how they act they are not 100% behind him, as they rake him over the coals very often.
No they didn't vote with him in lockstep when he was in power, there was a lot of his legislative agenda that they voted against.
The story you're trying to tell just doesn't match the record either now or when he was president. Again, we should be emphasizing what a loser he is because this story about him being such a strong leader is part of what puts him on the precipice of being re-elected.
We should have been emphasizing for the last couple of years that this guy was a loser that couldn't even hold his own party together. And if he's reelected now he's going to be just as weak.
To paraphrase Archer, do you want Trump? Because talking about him as a strong leader like this, that's how you get Trump.
The guy is a fuck up, with a long record of failure, and rejection by his own party, with legislators voting against him and promises that he didn't fulfill to his own constituents. THAT is what we needed to be emphasizing.
@EtherNRhum I mean that's a nice conspiracy theory you have there, but it really isn't realistic.
Half the country simply disagrees with the other half.
That's not Russians hacking the system or whatever you think is happening. That's just neighbors talking to their own circles instead of each other.
@MugsysRapSheet I don't know what you think is denial. I think I'm agreeing with you.
Yeah, incumbents are reelected by voters, that's what I was saying. So if voters don't like how their representatives are representing them, they should stop giving those people that power.
I don't know what you think I'm denying here, it's really important to emphasize that we don't have to keep sending the same people to Congress if we don't like how they are handling themselves.
It's really important to emphasize that we can elect better people if we want better people elected.
@Nonilex I often get the impression that you don't really talk to conservatives and so you don't really know how they act since the way you described them is so different from how I see them reacting on a daily basis.
It really comes across as promoting a liberal idea of how conservatives are instead of actually talking about how conservatives are from their own mouths.
@MugsysRapSheet I believe we vote for our congresspeople, and if we don't like the job they're doing we need to stop reelecting them.
I think this is a very important issue, far more important than the president. I mean, a president generally can't do anything that the people that we put in power don't authorize.
So if your congresspeople aren't representing you well, for God's sake stop reelecting them.
@HopelessDemigod only if they're hot
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
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