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
He lost control a long time ago.
I sure wish people would stop treating him as if he was still particularly influential.
It only builds up his ego and keeps him annoyingly spouting off.
@J3Words@mas.to
To be clear, this isn't up to McCarthy.
The voting process is run by the clerk and responding to the entire body of representatives-elect.
McCarthy doesn't get to either make it continue or make it stop. It's up to the whole voting group to decide what to do.
@philip_cardella@historians.social
From listening to the holdouts giving interviews, in their own words, yeah that's pretty much my impression.
They don't seem to have a strong grasp of how the chamber operates, but then again, that seems to be the case with a whole lot of the people we elect and re-elect to do that job.
@philip_cardella@historians.social
Even better: how many actually know how the House operates, what the Rules of the House are, what the committee structure is like, and how the Speaker engages with committee organizing and functioning?
In other words, regardless of how many care, how many actually know WHY they should care?
Sounds like the holdouts are receiving the brunt of blame.
McCarthy will likely be fine.
Heck, he'll get to rest on the supposedly great things he'll say he would have done, if not for those pesky rebels.
Exactly.
Well, they're politicians :)
Yep, they're engaged in politics, as politicians, so hopefully each of their constituencies feels well-represented through their actions.
But all of these politicians are engaging in politics. Don't forget the entire Democratic cohort there voting in the way that prevents getting things done as well.
They're all politicians, hopefully representing the wills of the people who elected them.
Think of it as efficiencies of scale.
Yes, they exist, but at some point along the curve the efficiencies tend to drop off.
Any large organization will be the same. For a while, getting bigger may become more efficient, but after a point the overhead of managing the beast means growing larger doesn't come with the same increase in efficiency.
The corporate lifecycle is often directly related to getting a fresh start on a company that's overshot that healthy part of the curve.
Keep in mind that it's not what we all think of those 20, but about what their own constituents think about them.
I don't have the polling on that, but if they're representing their people well, well that's their job.
Also, it's worth zooming out to ask how we all feel about all of our representatives, so many of whom are actively empowering that 20 by voting for the division they're taking advantage of.
I, for one, wish my rep would respond "present" so the 20 would have one fewer ally supporting their stunt.
I imagine the #Democrats have consulted their pollsters and come to a general agreement among themselves that this gridlock is for the best.
Whether they reached that agreement because they honestly fear #McCarthy or because they think this is a political cudgel they can use in cynical political rhetoric we can't really say.
Remember that at any moment the Democrats can resolve all of this by merely doing nothing. Should a couple of them just decline to actively vote, the matter is settled, and McCarthy wins.
It's not only that Democrats aren't crossing the aisle; it's that they are choosing to actively vote in a way that leads to this gridlock.
Keep in mind that once a Speaker is elected, the Rules of the House kick in and grant the Speaker very broad, discretionary powers through which he can promote his initiatives.
That's why everyone's fighting so hard against electing a Speaker they don't want to empower.
The negotiations are about how the Speaker will use his discretion, to see if they can find a compromise that will get things done later.
You're missing that democratic processes elected all of these representatives who are voting to keep the House deadlocked.
It's not pandering to anti-democratic forces on display here; it's democratic forces themselves representing voters who are very divided.
You've overlooking the political realities, though.
Without those pork barrel projects, it's not clear that NASA would have received even the funding that it got, as politicians weren't all that interested in diverting federal dollars away from their closer-to-home projects.
Democracy for the win!
If Mastodon is four times bigger than the rest of the Fediverse
combined, then that means to focus solely on Mastodon is to miss that other 20% of the universe.
So yep, it just goes to show that The #Fediverse is bigger than just #Mastodon!"
The unserious kooks will always have the same ability to vote against the next person the majority of their party might rally around.
Keep in mind that a lot of the reason Republicans support McCarthy is because the job of Speaker entails a whole lot of technical work behind the scenes, organizing schedules, understanding the rules, etc, that few representatives might possess.
If the unserious kooks might vote against anybody, then they might as well stick with the guy who they think has the skillset to do the job well.
That's not how the House of Representatives works, though.
The Rules of the House govern particularly what rank and file like these holdouts can do, which is part of why they're fighting so hard right now.
They know that once a Speaker is elected, they've lost a ton of their influence in the chamber, as the Rules kick in to restrain them.
Oh, in cases like these I don't spend too much time trying to track down the bug.
I just make the developers aware of the bug, and hopefully one of them will just know where the problem is without needing to look too hard.
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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