volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@cpoliticditto@mas.to your excerpt says otherwise

@Neidfyre I would be happy to tell him that!

But in reality I think he's a smart enough person to know it already.

Yes, that's how the nomination process was designed to work. Presidents are required by law to work with the Senate to propose nominees that the senators we elect would be interested in confirming. Garland was the wrong choice, and ended up being a political stunt by Obama, and we really haven't held Obama responsible for that stunt.

We really should hold these powerful people more accountable for their abuse of the republic.

But even so, the country continues.

Even with abuse of office like that the country goes on.

@ewdocparris

@LaNaehForaday That's not how legal processes work, though.

You're basically promoting a conspiracy theory above a simple question of law and respect for democracy.

Yeah, it stinks that there are other people around that don't agree with you, but that's how democracy works. We let these people vote as a way of expressing themselves instead of engaging in violent activities.

Take away the ability to vote and, well, the risks increase.

@JesseStone I mean people who aren't xenophobic won't be particularly alarmed about this.

@dyckron I think a lot of Catholics would disagree with you, pointing out that it's leaving a leadership vacuum for the Pope to be putting out these statements.

It's not leadership when a whole lot of people are becoming increasingly disaffected and questioning of the leadership.

@mookie@troublemaker.social John Oliver doesn't slay Elon Musk, he just shows himself as not knowing what he's talking about.

I really wish comedians like Oliver stuck to comedy. They used to be really funny, but now they keep blabbering on about areas outside their expertise.

@cpoliticditto@mas.to that is a misrepresentation of the statement that you shared.

Your own excerpt debunks your claim.

@SonofaGeorge That's quite a conspiracy theory that just really isn't supported by the evidence.

@bigheadtales so I said it sounded like you were in an echo chamber, and you said you don't know what story I'm talking about, and well there you go.

That's pretty much the whole thing about being in an echo chamber.

No, you don't know what's happening in the outside world because the whole thing about an echo chamber is that the outside world doesn't pierce the chamber.

@maxbsawicky the threat of a Biden victory is exactly why another Republican nominee would likely prevail, according to polling.

People really hate both of these guys. The first alternative to either of them is probably going to win.

So that's the strategic side, kicking Trump off the ticket would promote a different nominee that people don't hate as much, so that nominee would pretty much trounce Biden according to polling.

@JoshuaHolland indeed!

And that's why it's so frustrating to read things like these that are so disconnected.

@Binder or maybe they are the experts and they know what they're doing.

@maxbsawicky Well there are a few reasons.

Philosophically, there's that democracy thing that we want to support. Don't keep Trump off the ballot as we want to allow voters to vote for whoever they want to on the ballot.

Strategically, keeping Trump off the ballot encourages Republicans to vote for someone who has a better chance of winning the election. Maybe that's not actually a direction one wants to go.

Legally, it makes a mess of the legal system to try to jump through the hoops to justify the exclusion.

I could go on.

@JoshuaHolland Yeah but we can see for ourselves that they are wrong

@Neidfyre I mean that's just not true.

That's not how the US government functions.

All of these hysterical articles are just not realistic.

@ewdocparris

@ryan what policy?

@tante I think the key is empowering users rather than managing them

@knittingknots2 I mean because it doesn't.

Misinterpreting something and then being surprised when the misinterpretation doesn't work out the way you think should be a pretty big clue that the person should stop misinterpreting things, should stop and reconsider their world view.

But making clickbait is just that much more important, I guess.

@realTuckFrumper it's so funny that they would promote that headline while quoting the guy saying the headline was pretty questionable.

Well maybe not so much funny as antisocial and sad for us all.

Raw Story is divisive clickbait.

@DemDifference The problem is that reasonable people instantly ignore this clear propaganda, so it doesn't really get any additional supporters, it just preaches to the choir.

Which is only bad for society, standing in the way of consensus building that we really need.

It's pretty toxic.