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
It's unfortunate, but so many people with STRONG opinions on and reactions to the SCOTUS ruling on districting aren't familiar with either the background of the case or what the ruling actually said.
That's understandable as so many influencers are writing completely false stories on background and analysis.
Start with the background. LA drew a map but was ordered by a lower court to draw a new one. So it did. And then a different lower court said it could not draw a new one. It both could and could not act based on the exact same legal reasoning.
THIS is the mess the SCOTUS needed to clean up. VRA was already unworkable long before this case.
If you read the actual ruling, and not the sensational nonsense so many put out to score political points and clicks, it said the opposite.
To personalize this at the feet of the Chief Justice is naive.
Don't like a ruling? Fine, though I think it shows that you probably misunderstand the ruling. But either way, the ruling comes after a whole army of judges and experts have looked at the question and decided it in this direction.
It's just foolish to frame it as the personal choice of an individual who played only a minor role in the whole thing.
The thing so many miss is that we vote for these people. We elected these people, and they stand to be judged by the people, and we generally approve of them and reelect them.
The problem isn't money and oligarchs. It's not that there aren't checks and balances. There absolutely are!
The problem is us. We voters vote for this stuff. WE choose it.
The big argument surrounding Temporary Protected Status is that the home countries remain as dangerous as before and so the administration can't legally send folks back to it.
In making this admission these major #MAGA commentators give up the game. They immediately lose the case.
And here they feel so smug about how they're obviously in the right.
They have no idea how any of this government stuff actually works.
#ClayAndBuck, not realizing they made an important admission:The agreement is that Temporary Protected Status, topic of the SCOTUS argument, provi...
No. No he did not.
No. No he did not.
The issue at this point is that the general public doesn't believe these stories about democracy dieing and such because it's not what they experience or see for themselves in the court rulings.
Yes, that may have a lot of clout in certain groups, but it's a claim that's generally refuted by the record going around mainstream outlets.
The general public won't be in favor of such actions against the Court because they don't find these claims against the Court to hold water against the record.
Well that's not true.
The voices of racial minorities have not been silenced. Quite the opposite. In reinforcing the anti-discriminatory safeguards required of US systems of voting those voices have been buttressed.
Democracy didn't die; it was exulted and proudly put on a pedestal ahead of political mechanisms that sought to undermine it.
Unfortunately there's an awful lot of misinformation out there, and it sounds like you've been fed a false tale that runs counter to the SCOTUS ruling, that's been manipulating you into rage.
So often the influential #MAGA outfits come THIS CLOSE to facing the contradictions in their perspectives...
Intellectual maturity would have them reconsider their assumptions when faced with unexepected outcomes.
Well, that's idiocracy for you.
#BrianKilmeade:After these other countries have gotten over their feelings being hurt, they're still ripping us [the US]?And the Secretary General...
So often the influential #MAGA outfits come THIS CLOSE to facing the contradictions in their perspectives...
Intellectual maturity would have them reconsider their assumptions when faced with unexepected outcomes.
Well, that's idiocracy for you.
#BrianKilmeade:After these other countries have gotten over their feelings being hurt, they're still ripping us [the US]?And the Secretary General...
It's like Kagan hasn't read Section 2 of the VRA, and that echos the oral arguments where others on both sides of the issue seemed to try to correct her misunderstandings of the statute.
Kagan is wrong on what the law says. People have been citing specific language of the law to try to inform her, but she doesn't seem to care.
It's as if she's just playing the role of a politician unconcerned with reality as she attempts to score political points.
No, it's the exact opposite.
The ruling is clear that this decision reinforces democracy, emphasizing the limits that politicians have to put their fingers on the scales against the democratic processes.
This piece gets it exactly backwards.
I'd say it's a little different now as previously the US at least engaged with other countries to shift global norms, even if the shifts might have been... substantial.
Today, though, it's a complete disregard for the norms, a childish rebellion, not engagement.
At least before there was a second set of eyes on a proposal, a moderating factor even if we would have liked it to be even more moderated. Now that's gone.
No, it's not aiding Putin to fail to aid.
I imagine they're trolling the opposition.
And the opposition will fall for it, playing into their hands.
I find it sad or a clear symbol of how pathetic the opposition to Trump is.
By stereotype, the American left/Democrats are supposed to have the creatives, the marketing type, and with all of the stuff Trump has put on the table for criticism, that's the best marketing they could come up with?
It's awful branding that Trump supporters were eating up.
But it's all choir preaching at this point.
It's almost as if No Kings activists don't actually care about external support--they're just chanting a slogan within their existing membership and having a party.
I mean, they turned it that way.
The Americans' intentional and active undermining of well-established norms, that were established for good reason, did turn so much upside down.
The rest of the world is having to clean up the mess.
Trump has no choice but to just make stuff up again.
His brain is mush. He is completely disconnected from reality at this point, so he couldn't engage substantially if he tried.
...which he has no reason to do anyway.
Trump has no choice but to just make stuff up again.
His brain is mush. He is completely disconnected from reality at this point, so he couldn't engage substantially if he tried.
...which he has no reason to do anyway.
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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