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 just pretty funny, asking for evidence and then stomping off when it's provided.
You asked to play the game! It was your game!
@volkris @JazzyKindaFella @politics @law @womensvoices @democracy I'm not playing this stupid game.
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A huge Australian study of tweens and teens finds best mental health among moderate social media users — not total abstainers reason.com/2026/02/09/a...
A 'Goldilocks' effect for onli...
Siiiiiigh
Mainstream conservatives are so out of touch that they don't even see themselves pulling the "I have a black friend!" stereotype
#ClayAndBuck: Hey we already had Latin American performances at the Super Bowl. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. They performed in English. So we're no...
It's important to realize this is a mainstream #GOP approach to the legal situation surrounding #ICE actions, and responses to it.
Confirmation bias is running rampant in the #Republican party that has lost all intellectual rigor, and that is now lead by sportscasters and other shallow thinkers.
#BrianKilmeade: How could #ICE arrest all of the people it wants to if it had to get a warrants? Why, that would stop them from conducting a lot o...
This has long-been the depth of argument in mainstream #GOP thought with a few outright calling to start a war because, well, they're saying mean things.
They really are children.
And reference to the article, The President Who Never Grew Up
#BrianKilmeade:We cannot let these Iranian mullahs keep saying bad things about our leaders, and that's why #Trump needs to attack the country. #U...
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#ClayAndBuck (this one is a little interpretive): #Trump is so awesome that obviously the people of #Greenland are going to want to join the US and it's only the Europeans standing in their way! #USPolitics
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@abesamma Blocking a whole network because we don't like one account seems a bit weird to me though. I don't want to be cynical but I get the feeling some people were itching for a reason to block Bluesky and ICE provided that.
I dislike ICE heavily (and this is an understatement), but if nothing else them being on a common network that is *not* X provides many of us an opportunity to tell them they should reconsider their alignment, rot in hell or whatever else we want to communicate.
It's important to realize that Trump's people blindly believe they are on the right side too winning bigly, no matter how many signs there are that they are pretty weak if not already underwater, and they will continue to act like a giant movement for as long as they are legally in power.
A group that realizes that it's failing will alter course. Trump's base is out of touch, though, so they are forging ahead.
As usual we should be emphasizing what losers they are to pierce their echo chambers. No easy task, to be sure, but can be done. Unfortunately, too many of us run around as if the opposite is true, though.
And so we feed their egos.
#PJMedia headline: Democrats Are So Screwed and a Former Obama Advisor Just Proved It(the headline itself is a message, of course)#USPolitics
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#ClayAndBuck: these gender communists are using jargon against us #USPolitics #SCOTUS
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#ClayAndBuck: I don't know how there could be a hundred or a thousand protesters against #Trump. Obviously it must be a conspiracy. Obviously somebody is paying these people to oppose him. What other explanation could there be? #USPolitics
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#ClayAndBuck on the lady shot by ICE: She was honking her horn, you see. #USPolitics #ICE
Oh.
It's always funny how #Trump's biggest supporters laud him as a great communicator and then in their next breath rush to clarify what he just said, at least, as best as they can tell.
#BrianKilmeade: and we're going to make it clear that the United States isn't going to run #Venezula#USPolitics
With analytical brains like this setting US government policy, What could go wrong?
#SeanHannity:I know my show is big in Iran because that time I had a famous Iranian on my show it got big viewership there.#USPolitics
Mainstream #MAGA media today:
"We need to emphasize that #Venezuela isn't going to be like the war in Iraq!"
And then they go on to lay out how they're exactly the same.
These folks don't know their history, not even from a couple of decades ago, so they can't judge the present.
They are making major decisions based on factual inaccuracies, and that's why it's so important to recognize that.
volkris
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Forget your gay apparel; let's pass the mead!
How ‘Deck the Halls’ lost its ...
This kind of thing is worth calling out because it emphasizes how many of these influencers are just mindlessly parroting rhetoric.
I actually think a lot of them are in mental decline at this point, and yet they are setting policy for the country.
At least some of them used to be able to make coherent arguments, even if they might not have been particularly compelling. But at this point, they have more trouble putting sentences together, and they make more mistakes like this.
#LarryKudlow, among others, misspeaking often in the last week:#Affordability is coming down!Recent commentary on the right is missing that afford...
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In the past month I have received separate complaints that I have been posting too much about politics and cats. So today's Low Quality Ad is for this "Enemy of the State" cat pin. Keep the complaints coming guys.
https://collabs.shop/f0qstf
Sometimes these major #GOP Influencers just jump the shark of crazy.
#ClayAndBuck:Should parents control their kids' access to social media? Well, we don't ask parents to keep kids from driving, now do we? We don't...
Siiiigh
#ClayAndBuck:You see, there are good immigrants, and there are bad immigrants. The good ones were raised in western countries with knowledge of we...
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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