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
@courtcan I mean, chilling is how a lot of these students came to be in the first place!
@Jgmeadows I know you are, but that's not really the story here, and that's my point.
The GOP is largely unified. 90% of the members are on the same page, as evidenced by the voting roles and their ease of selecting a majority leader.
The problem is that electing a Speaker isn't up to the GOP. It's up to the entire House. So if you're focusing on GOP infighting when talking about electing the speaker, you might as well be talking about your infighting with the guys at the bar.
It's really not core to the process, and focusing on it lets other officials off the hook for their responsibility to get it done.
Every single member of the house needs to be held responsible for their votes that shut down the House and keep it closed for legislative business.
@neekerbreeker@mastodon.green the issue is that regardless of what you and I think of it, these two were not doing their jobs as representatives since they weren't representing the positions of their constituents.
So I wouldn't be so quick to praise them for doing the right thing when by doing the wrong thing, in terms of the democratic process, they undermined their positions and gave ammunition to their detractors.
In the broader picture they came across as just out of touch.
@Jgmeadows It really needs to be emphasized that the #Speaker is elected by the whole house, not just the majority party.
Folks misunderstanding that is a large reason why we're in this mess in the first place.
@argumento Exactly, so let's focus on what's happening today and maybe try to prevent more suffering today.
Oftentimes it's counterproductive to start trying to get people to talk about what happened generations ago because then you end up arguing about all of that stuff while today's problems just get worse.
And yes, you can argue that today's problems arose out of what happened in the past, but again, going down that road is often a distraction, no matter how theoretically sound the argument may be.
@argumento but at the same time we can't let the past prevent us from moving forward.
@tristansnell never forget the option that whatever Trump is doing or saying, he's doing it purely because he feeds off of attention and he believes doing or saying the thing will get him attention.
As this has.
I honestly don't think he is sufficiently in touch with reality to freak out. I think he wants to stay in headlines and keep getting mentioned on social media, and here we are.
It plays into his game to post about him.
@MattFerrel Yeah, I agree that is most likely, but it's a chaotic system so it's hard to predict with certainty at this point.
Small changes may have big impacts.
@pbump The real test will come with the first primaries.
Given the structure of the US election system, everything changes once the field is narrowed down.
So we'll see what happens. Trump is extremely vulnerable, but it's hard to predict how that vulnerability will play out once there's someone in a position to really take advantage of it.
@squig@mastodon-uk.net goes to show the danger of ignoring populations who might be susceptible to such an offer.
Remember, these people are symptoms of underlying causes.
@CarolineMalaCorbin It seems like the ruling might be overstating the breadth of religious exemption requirements.
We'll see if it holds.
@squig@mastodon-uk.net Well I think it's mainly that Trump's whole deal is getting attention and getting mentioned, and hey you're mentioning him, so it looks like his strategy is working.
@NanoBookReview I'm definitely against those laws, but let's not devalue Jim Crow by equating it to repercussions for behaviors like these.
Jim Crow laws attacked people for what they were. These laws, stupid as they may be, respond to choices people make.
@alexf24 I mean this is exactly the sort of attention that the guy feeds off of.
@jackiegardina people who think they have the gotcha when Trump makes statements like this underestimate just how mealy mouthed the guy is.
He'll just say the opposite as it suits him, or he'll say whatever garbage manages to flow out of his brain at any particular point, that is barely coherent English.
It's like Calvinball. You can't expect him to abide by any particular standards outside of the ones a system will impose on him.
@ssnewbery If Joe Biden is running on democracy, he sure has a funny way of doing it, what with his thumbing, his nose at the elected congress and the laws passed through our democratic processes.
But that's not the metric that a court should be judged by.
The court is emphatically not a democratic institution and is in fact set up to be a check on the power of public consensus.
That the court doesn't match public consensus is the entire point.
@seachanger who's waving off these examples as irrelevant?
Not me.
Fact I would hold them up as examples where the people involved really need to consider whether their actions are harming their own causes.
I think they might be relevant for the wrong reasons.
But sure, mute away. That's how social media works.
@lazyb0y but it's not though.
Once you bend over your money to someone else, it's not your money anymore, it's theirs.
That's the whole point.
Anyway, whatever, my point still stands: If you are overpaying CEOs you should stop. That's really up to you.
I would say that you are probably not paying CEOs at all, but again, if you are paying CEOs too much money, stop it.
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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