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
That's not at all my position.
So when you project that onto me, well, I guess it's something like a mirror for you.
Peace of work indeed.
@jhavok Yeah, and I think if more of us talked about him that way it would really go far to deflate his power.
Yeah, he is just a real estate grifter. He doesn't know how any of this government stuff works, so people around him are using him, the real estate grifter, to promote their own projects.
We should identify him as exactly that level of loser. If we had been talking about him that way for all these years the people around him wouldn't have been able to put him in the position where they could use him like this.
He is just a real estate grifter, and now a felon too I guess. We need to call him out for that.
The thing to remember, and this is a fantastic illustration of it, is that the US administration has no spine or theory of operation. Trump is a moron who does not lead the administration. He doesn't know what he's doing, he just does whatever people tell him to do. We really need to emphasize that. He is a loser and a follower, I know I'm being a little harsh there but but that's what we need to emphasize.
So when it comes to Venezuela, we need to talk more about the motivations? Absolutely! And I highlight the plural there!
There is no one motivation. All of the people in the administration and in popular conservative media spheres have different motivations. They all have different reasons for setting US policy. They all have different motivations, and Trump is so goddamn weak that he doesn't get to set the motivation of the government.
And so it's just a mess. They're going to kill a lot of people, and they can't even say why.
And we kept electing people to Congress who don't care enough to hold them accountable for it. We should stop reelecting those ineffective people.
Siiiiiigh.
@faab64 Oh it's worse than that.
Fascism implies some kind of order, some structure that somebody is in charge of. But that's not what we have here.
This is just a baby throwing tantrums without any understanding, and people around the world reacting to the baby trying to make him shut up.
Not quite.
Closing the airspace isn't a thing. He doesn't have authority to close the airspace. So that's not it.
But he will start murdering people in the sky the same way he has started murdering people in boats. So that's a thing.
Airlines will avoid Venezuela because they don't want Trump to kill their pilots and passengers.
Trump is a maniac. An imbecile who doesn't understand the concept of killing people even as he orders death.
@faab64 Well world leaders have come to understand that by sucking up to this dude they can get money and resources out of him.
@jhavok this is one of those cases where the real world doesn't give any perfect solutions, only trade-offs, yeah people will die, but people will die whatever you choose. It's not like you can wave a magic wand and there won't be death. That is not an option in the real world.
The issue is that a whole lot of people were harmed due to politicians seeming to suggest that they could make a choice that would avoid death, which was always a false promise.
What are a few dead kids? Unfortunate reality. There's no choice to not have death. We need to be adults and recognize that, and tell the politicians who seem to promise that snake oil to buzz off.
Unfortunately, we reelected them. We chose this.
@aaron.rupar there's a simpler explanation though: they don't know what they're talking about in the first place.
It's not that they're lying, it's that they don't know anything. They don't know what's true in the first place, so they can't lie about it.
They're just idiots. That's the simplest explanation. And it's backed up by all sorts of things up to Trump having been convicted of felonies because he was too damn stupid to get his paperwork in order.
@aaron.rupar there's a simpler explanation though: they don't know what they're talking about in the first place.
It's not that they're lying, it's that they don't know anything. They don't know what's true in the first place, so they can't lie about it.
They're just idiots. That's the simplest explanation. And it's backed up by all sorts of things up to Trump having been convicted of felonies because he was too damn stupid to get his paperwork in order.
@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.
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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