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
US Speaker of the House
Prepared speeches are standard operating procedure for the US Congress.
I'm sure they didn't even have to be asked since writing and reading out composed speeches on the floor of the chamber is about half of what Congresspeople do in their official capacities, whether anyone is listening or not.
@sevignes@mas.to
But that's a different function.
When I QT it's because I want to share something interesting or exciting with other people, when I feel my contribution would only be noise in the original thread without contributing to that discussion.
They are very different interactions.
To clarify context, I don't mean the context of the post but the context of the content, say adding in some specialized knowledge that the general public might not have, so they might miss.
Character limits and QT are different issues.
Well, except that at the moment the standard Mastodon character limit on QTs is zero :)
But it'd be an advance even to implement QTs with a small limit, even say 20 characters, just enough to highlight the reason the original quote is worth boosting.
Some of the concessions diminishing the Speaker's power, giving rank-and-file more say, would benefit Democrats, though, giving them more opportunities to push amendments and such.
Some of the Republican criticism of the whole thing is how the concessions would benefit the other side of the aisle.
Careful about throwing out babies with bathwater.
@Maxanadu_MX02 the vote failed, and it's just another sign that #Trump's present influence in the party is often grossly inflated.
(and I hate to see anything about him further inflated)
It turns out one *answers* present, but since they didn't submit a name, it doesn't count as a vote. Representatives who are there but answer present will change the number needed to win.
"A candidate for Speaker may receive a majority of the votes cast, and be elected, while failing to obtain a majority of the full membership because some Members either are not present to vote or instead answer “present” rather than voting for a candidate."
@sevignes@mas.to @supernovae@universeodon.com
But that's exactly why I would want QT, because it's often not clear what interests us about a post we want to boost, and a QT lets us speak volumes by amplifying the interesting part.
The intentional lack of #QT in #Mastodon prevents us from giving context to help others see through our eyes the beauty and value in someone's post.
Last I heard they were a platform that was compatible with Fediverse but had actively turned off federation, walling themselves off.
My quick glance looks like they still have their wall up.
@J12t@social.coop
Well, keep in mind that the responsibility is on the Mastodon side of things to present a good user experience.
So long as Tumblr interacts with ActivityPub in a reasonable way, then it's up to Mastodon to also interact with ActivityPub to take it from there.
They don't directly interop.
It's kind of a "First, do no harm" situation.
If the House (ALL members of the House) is so bitterly divided that it can't even choose a Speaker to manage its functions, then it's kind of hard to see how it can produce legislation of any sort of quality.
An idea is that it's better not to act at all than to act badly.
So the House will stay gridlocked until its members decide that it's better to act than not to act.
One amazing thing is that so few reporters asked these questions during the actual race.
Considering the number of non-Black candidates they've put forward for that challenge, and the number of non-Black votes they're needing to get, this story seems to be cherrypicking to try to support a stereotype.
If you think I was belittling you, you misunderstood, and I'm happy to clear that up.
No I'm not belittling you. I'm just pointing out that this use of language is kind of funny, defining conservative in terms of conservative plus terms like fascist which have even less in terms of substantial meaning.
I assume you were expressing exactly what you wanted to. It's just the art of how you did it that's interesting.
It could be he simply thinks he's the best person the party has for the job.
Occam's Razor and all
@timbray I think the key, and the drum I keep beating because more people need to realize it, is:
#Mastodon, #Fediverse, and #ActivityPub were built on the assumption that you have no #privacy here.
Anything you post is available to the world, no matter what settings you might choose for the post, no matter if you try to delete content, etc. That's just how the system is designed for better or worse.
(And I think for worse)
People should not post on such a fundamentally public place and expect privacy. That they do is a really big deal to me, that they're not informed about how the system works in this regard.
But since they are posting so publicly, well, public is public.
When I clicked I got an unauthorized error message.
But they're different user interfaces to the same content, to the same universe.
That's what I'm trying to emphasize.
So you DO go to PeerTube to consume everything on the Fediverse, including those 2,000 word essays, even though you might or might not skip over them because the interface isn't very good at displaying them.
It's all the same content, so no particularly different corners.
We have different interfaces to empower different users to consumer all of that content in the ways they each prefer.
It's like, a book vs a book on tape: same content, just different interface because one person prefers to read the physical paper while another listens while driving.
@LumiKlovstad your comment is really funny to me as it takes some poorly defined terms and throws in a few more just for the fun of it.
It's simultaneously a bit circular and insubstantial, except for the mud it slings.
@jayrosen_nyu
That's the opposite of my take.
Again, as I said, their strategy might be for the best.
They just can't pose as if the House shutdown is a terrible thing that the Republicans are doing when they're aligning with the hardcore Republicans to vote against the appointment that would open it.
If keeping it closed is a good thing, then great, they should own it.
Except it's not just Republicans' mess since until a Speaker is chosen Democrats don't get to work on legislation either.
The lack of a speaker impacts all aspects of the House of Representatives, and at this point Democrats are complicit in any mess caused by their disinterest in resolving the vote.
They could have easily voted for McCarthy and gotten their chamber to work yesterday, but instead they effectively voted with hardliner Republicans against resolving the House's issues.
They voted to maintain their own mess.
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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