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
#ClayAndBuck: We were really hoping the administration would announce some sort of plan for what comes next for #Iran, but I guess there just isn'...
One of the biggest conservative megaphones, shaping US policy, rejects things like polling of public opinion and ignores losses in elections because the frat boys they see at football games cheer for #Trump.
With their biases confirmed, anyone they hear not supporting the guy's actions are clearly dishonestly playing politics.
So why should they change course?
#ClayAndBuck: Social media is a mirage! It doesn't represent the whole population! Don't believe it! Now, a group of people tailgating outside a f...
With geniuses like this setting US policy is there any surprise it's such a mess?
#BrianKilmeade: If you queue up Trump's remarks on #Iran you'll see the plan and goal are completely clear. Anyone who doesn't know that isn't pay...
What does a quote post of a quote post do? Well, we'll see.
Well, this aged. Less than a week ago Kilmeade was yelling at an administration official who dared say that #Iran still had a nuclear program: "Everyone knows #Trump destroyed that!"
Now he's embracing the existance of the program as [one] justification for the attack on the country.
These idiots don't know what they're doing.
It’s just an example of how #Trump is not the leader that folks hold him up to be. His supporters pick and choose what they believed from him, and ...
I repost these to really illustrate how incredibly stupid the people driving public policy in the US are these days.
People with such superficial, black and white thinking that they can't even imagine that there might be something in between all or nothing.
I honestly think these people with such influence on US policy don't have the intellectual resources to do any better.
No Grand conspiracies, no deep strategies, just really really dumb people at the helm.
#SeanHannity: How do you compromise with mandatory voter ID vs no ID?#USPolitics
It's just an example of how #Trump is not the leader that folks hold him up to be. His supporters pick and choose what they believed from him, and he follows what he sees from them on Fox News.
He's the effect, not the cause.
#BrianKilmeade: What are you talking about, Iran nuclear program? Everybody knows Trump destroyed that! There is no program, everybody knows that!...
Mainstream republicans actually believed that the tariffs would be GOOD for the economy and for business.
To the point where they were surprised that the stock market reacted positively to the Court ruling against them.
Not that this will have them question their assumptions... but it should!
#LarryKudlow: Thank goodness the stock market didn't tank after that awful SCOTUS ruling on tariffs...#USPolitics #SCOTUS #tariffs
Mainstream Republican response to the tariff ruling about as expected...
Confirmation bias on display from some folks who used to know better. I think a lot of that echo chamber are just aging out along with #Trump.
#LarryKudlow: That darned anti-Trump #SCOTUS wrongly ruled against #Trump on his tariffs because of the mere technicality that the law he cited di...
It's sad-funny how both the left and the right think that #SCOTUS is corruptly ruling for the other side.
Republicans are saying that the Supreme Court ruled against Trump on the tariffs because they are playing politics so they can rule in his favor on other things.
#ClayAndBuck: Well if the #SCOTUS ruled against #Trump on tariffs, what ARE they going to rule for him on?!John Roberts is obviously politicized w...
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.
volkris
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volkris
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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...
volkris
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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
volkris
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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
volkris
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#ClayAndBuck: these gender communists are using jargon against us #USPolitics #SCOTUS
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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