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
@bobboyle Elon Musk is a troll that likes to get reactions out of people.
Congratulations, you gave him what he wanted.
I don't think you quite got to the right conclusion.
You're still talking about choosing different symbols to elevate, choosing between symbolic issues, worrying about attacking one symbol and allowing a different symbol or interpretation to rise up, and at that point it's still just rolling in the mud. Maybe a different part of the mud patch, but it's still just rolling in the mud.
That's not the way to win the contest. It plays into their strategy.
The way to win is to ignore all of this and focus on substance. Did Musk make a Nazi salute? Who cares! Let's talk about the actual content of executive orders released today. Let's talk about substance.
You're being drawn into their rabbit hole and fighting a complicated argument about interpretations of symbols, and that just distracts from talking about matters of solid fact that actually impact people substantially.
@adwright firstly, keep in mind that the way you phrased that reply, you sound pretty crazy. You should be aware of that if you want to actually convince anyone of anything.
But to the point, you can oppose the guy by saying he's a toxic troll, and that would cover everything that you're complaining about. If you start going down this road of trying to prove his Nazi motivations or whatever, well now you are painting yourself into a corner where your arguments are a bit out there and you'll need a lot more proof to defend them... but why? You end up undermining your position by choosing a tougher row to hoe.
He's a troll. Let's eject him as a troll. That's enough to get to the conclusion.
@unusual_whales It's so funny how many Biden spokespeople said over and over that there was no such freeze on weapons.
And this is how they lost.
@danwentzel they could say that, but it would be undermining democracy if they make such an announcement.
The democratic process elected Trump. I'm sorry the DNC put forward a candidate who was so bad that she lost to a convicted felon who lies all the time, but they should probably do better.
In the meantime, while they're working on fixing their own house they should not undermine the rest of the country by refusing to engage in the governmental processes.
They should build up, not tear down.
@ewolff you know you're playing into his hands with that sort of thing, right?
He tries to get reactions out of people, and oh look, you gave him the reaction he was looking for.
Somewhere he's really enjoying being in your head.
@adwright He's well known to be a troll.
Why go any farther than that?
I thought it was so significant, but of course no one noticed, that #Democrats had the votes take control of the #House in a couple of different ways given how divided the #GOP was.
And surely Democratic leadership was aware of that possibility, but chose to let Republicans have it.
So like you said, they don't want to win, they'd rather sit back and sneer.
I really wish we would hold them accountable for this sort of thing and stop reelecting that group.
@pluralistic see this is the key captive users and no constraints? That's a contradiction. If the users are captive that's a giant constraint!
No, this is the nonsense that people post around here about BlueSky, and we should identify the silliness.
In many ways that platform is better than this one, and it's worth recognizing that, not fighting against it with arguments so don't really make sense.
@debacle No, BlueSky is out there and distributed. It's not centralized or walled.
In fact this is one of the beauties of it, it takes down some of the walls around instances here on this platform.
It's LESS of a walled garden.
@BlueBeachSong but does she celebrate the functioning of the government that she has sworn to uphold?
@tehuti88 The most important thing is to realize that the president only implements the laws passed by Congress. THEY are really the source of the problems, and we keep reelecting the same congresspeople that fail us over and over again.
We need to stop. We need to boot out an awful lot of congresspeople and not let them escape accountability by pointing to the other branch of government.
Nothing's going to improve so long as they keep passing bad laws.
@left_adjoint I would just emphasize that the main thing people can do about the federal government is be careful about who they elect as representatives.
So often people are so obsessed with the presidency that they don't even know that they are reelecting representatives that are promoting the exact situations that they regret so dearly.
You're right, drinking down despair is not useful. Educating yourself on what your representatives are doing might just be, though, because you might find out you're re-empowering people that are failing you.
@TCatInReality I imagine at least some labor officials are familiar with the story of killing the golden goose...
@JackTheCat Well that's not true.
That's not how the federal government works, and if Whitehouse really believes this, if he's not just lying to the public, then he really should not be senator.
@JackTheCat@mastodon.scot Well that's not true.
That's not how the federal government works, and if Whitehouse really believes this, if he's not just lying to the public, then he really should not be senator.
@Bad_Banner What?
Trump and his supporters have embraced policies of supporting legal immigration.
On the other hand, Democrats ran a candidate so terrible that she was beaten by a felon who is roundly regarded as an untrustworthy lying scumbag.
So yeah, people who voted for Trump can certainly be proud of immigration in their family history. I would encourage them to talk about that because it builds up norms that support immigrants, which seems very healthy.
And Democrats need to get their acts together.
@realTuckFrumper Well I think that's pretty much how he got elected, echoing the feelings of a whole lot of Americans that are pissed off by things like this.
@karlauerbach The Supreme Court said that presidents can be prosecuted when they break the law.
I don't expect that to be overturned anytime soon, and I think that's a good thing.
@emptywheel.bsky.social I don't think it's a fight over whether to think the law binds Trump as much as a fight to have people understand basic civics, the basic structure of the US government. There's a lot of people who do not understand how any of this works, and so they're left confused about these topics.
For example, misunderstanding about the different roles of the different branches and how they keep each other in check leads a lot of people to believe some really silly things.
YES the law binds Trump. And it's critical that we stop reelecting representatives who would be deferential to the executive branch.
But if people don't know how the government works they won't be able to hold our representatives accountable for enabling Trump.
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
