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
@Remittancegirl What they say is that evidence showed kids tolerating the disease extremely well, so they would get some sniffles and be fine.
The vulnerable that they live with is more of an argument.
But it is fair to say that it was irrational to keep kids out of schools since the risk was so low to them.
@Beachbum Y'all are reading too much into it.
Sounds like Trump was just sucked up to. Leaders around the world have figured this out, that sucking up to the guy is the way to get him to agree to anything. He's just really easy to manipulate by sucking up to him.
Everyone seems to know this at this point.
There's no no big grand conspiracy to make money or anything like that here, there's just operative sucking up to Trump to get him to say what they want him to say.
It would be much more interesting if it was a business deal, but it's not. The guy is not that smart. He's dumb enough to let folks around him manipulate him by sucking up to him, and that's the long and short of it.
He's an idiot, he's not smart enough to run a big conspiracy.
@venya Well it's worth emphasizing, Hegseth thinks he will get away with it because we elected and reelected a bunch of representatives who are cool with this sort of thing.
We need to emphasize that it's up to voters to stop reelecting ineffective congresspeople. In the end it's up to us because in the end it's up to the people that we elect to hold these folks accountable.
We get the government that we vote for. We should stop voting for this one.
Well in general the problem isn't logic but rather fact.
Often enough they make entirely logical and rational choices based on factual falsehoods.
Given x then y might be entirely logically correct, but if x is wrong then the logic doesn't get them where they need to go.
The reason this matters is because it speaks to the need for reliable journalism to correct the record. It speaks to the real problem of loss of faith in institutions, all too often deserved loss of Faith.
We need to identify the problem correctly to solve it.
@samlitzinger There was a time when we talked about building up instead of tearing down...
I think that philosophy is probably more healthy.
@samlitzinger@journa.host There was a time when we talked about building up instead of tearing down...
I think that philosophy is probably more healthy.
@cdonat but ATProtocol is simply more focused on digital sovereignty, regardless of where it was developed.
The two protocols are very different, and that has nothing to do with Europe versus US. AT in many ways is simply better.
The problem is that half the country literally doesn't recognize, factually, what he's doing. Half of the pop media reports the opposite of what's actually going on.
It's hard to get people to call for his removal from office over his behavior when half of the country isn't informed about what his behavior actually is.
@OneEyeKing No it's not that they are distracted, it's that they are misinformed.
They are very focused, it's just that the thing they are focused on is a lie.
This is a crucial difference.
@OneEyeKing I think it's important to emphasize that a lot of folks aren't so much voting over values as they are voting over their particular set of facts that don't necessarily match the real world.
In analogy, you and I can both agree in terms of values that we should dress to be comfortable, but we're going to dress very differently if you believe the middle of a scorching summer while I believe we're in the depth of winter. Agreement in values, of fact.
THAT is what I would say is the reason we are here as a nation. Different groups have completely different sets of facts that they are working with, and we no longer have institutions able to sort out what is true.
People spend so much time addressing values that are actually shared without realizing the real dispute is over fact. So they talk past the actual problems.
volkris
boosted
From conservative talk shows last week, referring to Cheney's opposition to #Trump: #DickCheney did do some good stuff before he turned into a far leftist in the end. #USPolitics
Today #Trump supporters are crowing about how he keeps winning over every court that comes after him, he's a force of nature that no one can land a hand on, because he's just so awesome, and a rebuke against politicized use of the courts.
Trump keeps winning!
Meanwhile, outside of that uninformed echo chamber...
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/26/donald-trump-penalty-lawsuit-hillary-clinton-00669616
The controversy surrounding the Senators' ad regarding illegal military orders really distills the state of US politics at the moment.
For example, mainstream conservative influencers are treating the ad as if it really was speaking directly to soldiers, as they are so unsophisticated that they take a political spot at face value.
This kindergarten level of naivety drives so much of the political discourse shaping US politics in this era, and helps shield #Trump from accountability.
Unfortunately, this gets into the thorny question of whether something is a lie if the speaker really believes it.
The #Trump admin actually believes a lot of things that are factually wrong. Courts have trouble addressing such situations as they're supposed to be arbitrators of law, not of fact, so they're generally supposed to judge based on the record that's put before them.
It says a lot that these days have reenergized debates among legal scholars as to when factual errors are so egregious that a court has to call them out.
@bweller Well, where exactly do you think I got something wrong? Perhaps you misunderstood something, and I'm happy to clarify, or I'm happy to cite sources and lay out my perspective.
Or, you could always correct something that I have wrong by providing your own sources.
Let's build up, not tear down. No good comes from that.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell I don't think it's that they are being treated like garbage. It's more that they feel entitled, and they get upset when they don't get their way.
MTG is part of a minority in the House who think that they should be getting their way all the time, but that's not how it works. When Johnson tries to explain math to them, they throw fits.
MTG seems to have quit because it just wasn't fun anymore, she wasn't getting her way like she thought she would be. Well, unfortunately Republicans acting that way are a significant contributor to the dysfunction in Congress.
Johnson has the job of trying to satisfy them while still running the chamber.
@Yoshi What he said was that we could use this distributed generation to quickly add extra energy production when supply was lagging.
It's an extremely reasonable approach, and one that so many have been calling for for years.
@cdarwin turns out his employer wasn't actually interested in cutting spending, so seeing the futility of the effort, he gave up.
If you read Citizens United, the perspective captured in this piece is completely wrong about what it actually said. And a whole lot of people are! The reporting on what the ruling actually said has been really terrible over the years, sensationalized and politicized really.
And so this article reflects a movement to fix a problem that doesn't actually exist.
And that's a shame, but it needs to be called out to prevent people wasting time from tilting at windmills when there are real problems to address.
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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