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
To be clear, it's not that the Supreme Court is weighing ending migrants' protected status but rather weighing whether the president can.
SCOTUS itself doesn't have a say in the decision here. It's only saying whether the president can legally make the decision either way.
The thing is, one person one vote brings up so many OTHER problems, which is why we don't do it in the US.
It's a case where no option is perfect, all have tradeoffs, and we've decided the benefits of district voting outweigh the benefits of one-person-one-vote.
That's especially because we want to hold powerful officials to account, and district voting better addresses that goal.
If anything, we should be expanding the number of districts, really leaning into it.
That article gets so much stuff wrong, starting with what the SCOTUS ruling actually said and running through the history of the VRA as spelled out in the ruling and briefs in the case, and how the VRA has actually worked.
I don't know who wrote it, but they're not a reliable source.
Here's the ruling from a reliable source:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_21o3.pdf
@Thumper1964 a lot of people get this backwards (a lot of reporting gets it backwards, so that's understandable).
SCOTUS didn't really say corporations are people. It often said the opposite in its rulings.
BUT
Confusion (and political rhetoric) comes out of a legislative shorthand, a term of art ONLY in the context of drafting legislation, where legislators say when we use the term "people" in a statute we normally include corporations just so we don't have to keep repeating it.
That's the long and short of it. People are told this shorthand is meaningful, but it's really not.
I think you can see Trump's weakness coming and going, both in theory and practice.
In theory the guy's support should be eroding as he engages in unpopular endless wars, makes unhinged pronouncements, offends religious folk, and sets public policy that impacts all Americans negatively with high costs for gas.
In practice we see the Republican majority in the House erode and the loss of candidates that Trump supports, along with a genera acceptance that his support is so small that Republicans will lose the House.
That's not to mention that Trump probably only had enough support to win reelection against a lousy Democratic candidate anyway. He didn't start from very far ahead, and he's slipping from that level.
This is the mindset of the children that drove #Trump into office and continue to support him even now.
They don't understand anything past the most superficial, "He spends time with me so he must like me!" level. And they apply this to international foreign policy.
They believe flattery must be honest, and this example shows that they think that way.
#BrianKilmeade: King Charles visited Trump and they had a great time. The king was charmed by Trump and by the end of the meeting the king asked f...
Always remember that these administration officials are mainly preaching to their choirs in appearances like this. And it's an increasingly small choir.
They say a lot of things that don't make sense unless you realize that they're talking to the folks that already believe what they're saying.
It highlights the folly in putting so much stake in what some government writes on its own piece of paper.
If the government wants to write down on its little piece of paper that one is a meat popsicle, well, a rose by any other name...
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.
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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