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
Remember, #Democrats in the #House have nearly a majority of votes in the chamber.
The math says that if they wanted to, they could partner with even a few moderate #Republicans to take control of the chamber outright or at least move their preferred legislation ahead.
The ONLY way a few #GOP hardliners get their way is if Democrats vote with those Republican extremists, supporting their cause.
We shouldn't let politicians point fingers at others, scoring points in this us-vs-them mentality, when they themselves have the tools to make things better.
If the #US government shuts down it will be because Democrats refused to break with Republican extremists and vote to pass funding.
Dems have the votes. Hold them accountable for using them.
@RememberUsAlways NASA is buying from SpaceX!
Yep, we have NASA, and NASA says they need SpaceX.
What the article describes isn't cleaning up the history of the country, and it was an effort undertaken deep into the last administration.
You know, under that Nazi regime known by Biden/Harris.
No, they were tailoring some public displays to better match the intended audience. The history is still there, untouched, but the displays were set in a way that they considered to be more accessible.
This clutching of pearls is unwarranted.
Far too many people overlook that when the US writes a check to #SpaceX they're getting something in return. They're buying from the company. It's not mere support or charity or relief.
People can disagree about whether the US should be buying the things they buy, whether those services are worth purchasing, but it's not comparable to things like hurricane relief.
It's an argument I see way too often, and it's clearly faulty, comes across as a stretch just to bash #Musk by association.
@FantasticalEconomics that over simplifies what's going on.
The congresspeople are looking after their own individual political interests, horse trading among themselves, engaging in PR with the public, etc.
Musk is just riding that for his own benefit, and you're taking the bait.
If our elected representatives thought they'd score more political points passing legislation with the public, then they would, but currently that's just not how we, as a society, have set the table.
We reward them for gridlock, so gridlock is what we get. Has nothing to do with Musk.
I'd go a step farther than maybe people are more comfortable with the twitter clone and say maybe people simply prefer it.
A lot of it might come down to the user interface. BlueSky was surprisingly slow to roll out, but maybe they simply took more time to polish the UI and/or understood better what their future users would be wanting.
@Hippasus500 there are no disenfranchised states. They're all represented in the EC.
@JuanWild@newsie.social the EC doesn't disenfranchise any Americans, and it's really not helpful for politicians to trot such claims out.
We should be celebrating the EC as being extremely relevant even today, especially because through the EC we were able to tell Trump's people, in no uncertain terms, that he lost in 2020. We had every EC vote counted without question, so there was no room to argue with the result.
So no, the EC doesn't disenfranchise anyone, and it provides great value to this day.
@toadly1.bsky.social if you pull up the ruling, that's not what the Supreme Court ruling said.
@Nonilex well, the law provides for that...
@mhjohnson no, Democrats are still running the same playbook of pretending like they have no role in government, escaping accountability by pointing fingers at the other side and pretending to be powerless.
But... we let them get away with it.
@copiedcopies@octodon.social The protocol that mastodon is based on does not support DMs, so no.
And it's really important that people realize that in the federated world that kind of privacy kind of doesn't exist. People need to realize they don't really have privacy here.
@realTuckFrumper from this report it sounds like Cheney doesn't have the high ground here, deflecting from the allegations against her, and so herself being the one taking part in a "cowardly assault on the truth."
If she's in the right she could have just answered the allegations head on.
@mark I mean not really though.
That's how federation works, the different instances get to choose who they want to deal with. That is both a positive and a negative to the structure of federation.
Allowing instances to choose for their users who to federate with is not my flavor, but it is what it is.
@realcaseyrollins frankly, I don't think it's her ideology, I think it's her personality. It just really doesn't connect with people, it comes across as aloof and out of touch.
I think she lost largely because she seemed like a non-serious person, a joke.
And the position called for someone who would be taken more seriously.
@breedlov Trump may try to do a lot of things, but let's be clear, there's a whole lot of things he can't do, so he'll be as big a failure in trying to do them as he was the last time he tried to do them.
Also let's be clear that not many people fully like the USPS. It's a constant source of derision in this country.
But regardless, Trump can't privatize the USPS no matter what he or anyone else thinks of it. It's not going to happen. He doesn't have the authority to do it.
@kctipton pretty much anyone with the ability to engage with the public and stand on a coherent platform while calling Trump out could have run away with the election.
Harris has a long track record of failing to do exactly those basic things, and after she was nominated, she failed to do exactly those basic things.
If you name almost any high profile, successful Democrat, they probably would have won if not one by a landslide. The Harris loss was just so predictable though.
@QasimRashid Trump was not convicted of rape, which is the entire point of the settlement.
We should be highlighting that this is not the cowardice of legacy media, but rather legacy media being called out for misleading the public.
Yeah, independent voices are more critical than ever, and ABC's misleading reporting here emphasizes that.
@Cotopaxi that argument is not new, though. It's the exact same argument that's been made for hundreds of years, and even as the buggy whip manufacturers laid off employees, people are still buying things.
So it's not a very realistic argument.
Ai isn't going to replace all the human workers, but it will lower the costs of production so that the huge swaths of remaining human workers will be able to afford more.
Just as always.
@tokensane as I recall, the jury specifically found that the charges of rape were not convincing.
So it's a little more than just a narrow definition. It's an active choice by the ones judging him.
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
