1 wrote:Why did it have to be so long? I could barely stomach the first half.

thephan wrote:Seems to be some opinion pieces out there about a Kanye Presidential run. I kind of laughed it off, it seems that people have some amount of concern about splitting the vote. My initial reaction was he would vote for Kanye West, and then I remembered that we have President Trump.

To be clear, I think that people still know reason, that the sky is blue and 2+2=4. But increasingly they are denying these things in public, out of fear that the mob will get them and destroy their reputations, livelihoods, and safety. There is an assault on professors, scientists, and journalists right now for publishing or stating any scientific fact that upsets the mob of woke social media users: thousands of people being “canceled” for a tweet they made 10 years ago, or stating that men are different in certain key evolutionary ways than women. People are not only afraid to post what they think, but even to like other people’s statements, or follow them.
...
...
Headlines that raise your blood pressure make money. If you’re shocked by what you read, you’re more likely to click, engage, and share. Journalists want to shock you, but they don’t want you to hate them; they’re just the messengers. So they research what public sentiment seems to be on an issue, then spit that same sentiment back into the void of the Internet so readers feel safe and validated. E.g., journalists tested the toxic waters of twitter to gauge public sentiment about JK Rowling’s tweets, and they saw mostly angry people frothing hatred that she’s wildly transphobic. So the journalists wrote stories also condemning her, and people ate it up. The shock is a mix of validation and righteous indignation (“I knew JK Rowling was transphobic; look at this article saying so!”) along with horrified confusion (“Why is everyone saying JK Rowling is a bigot when she didn’t seem to say anything radical?”). Meanwhile, there is a silent majority of us growing increasingly alienated from what we’re seeing in most mainstream press.
...
...
Increasingly there are only two types of people on the Internet: 1, those who can have a nuanced discussion about complex issues, and 2, those who can’t. And those I’m seeing in group 2 are mostly, shockingly, on the left. They are the group I used to identify with. Somehow because they believe they’re fighting for the underrepresented or disenfranchised, they are imbued with utter confidence, utter conviction, that they are 100% right and can use any tactics necessary. If you’re doing something because of peer pressure despite your gut telling you it’s wrong, or you haven’t thought through the logic or the consequences, stop.

It takes a lot work to live in the gray area. Being skeptical and questioning everything you see takes more cognitive overhead. But I promise you: it’s worth it. It makes you stronger. You become a free agent, an independent mind uninhibited by the shrieking all around you. You can still accept facts, principles, and stereotypes, but only once you’re satisfied that you’ve verified them enough to internalize them. You’ll start to see that issues are rarely black and white, and that you’ll often find yourself aligning in one direction on some, and another direction on others. You can pick and choose what you believe, like ordering a la carte off a menu of ideas. Your current stance on an issue does not define who you are, but being a critical thinker does.

JUburton wrote:she could just disengage instead of writing that 10000 word veiled right wing screed.

td11 wrote:

JUburton wrote:she could just disengage instead of writing that 10000 word veiled right wing screed.

Lol the list of people to follow at the end. Just awful

pacino wrote:The Supreme Court is really taking its sweet ass time doling out these rulings

The Trump and Biden presidential campaigns now see the coronavirus response as the preeminent force shaping the results of November’s election, prompting both camps to try to refocus their campaigns more heavily on the pandemic, according to officials and advisers of both campaigns.

Advisers to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden see the covid-19 crisis as perhaps the clearest way yet to contrast the former vice president with President Trump, using the stumbling response and renewed surge in cases as ways to paint Trump as uninformed, incapable of empathy and concerned only about his own political standing.

Trump’s advisers, by contrast, are seeking ways to reframe his response to the coronavirus — even as the president himself largely seeks to avoid the topic because he views it as a political loser. They are sending health officials to swing states, putting doctors on TV in regional markets where the virus is surging, crafting messages on an economic recovery and writing talking points for allies to deliver to potential voters.

The goal is to convince Americans that they can live with the virus — that schools should reopen, professional sports should return, a vaccine is likely to arrive by the end of the year and the economy will continue to improve.

White House officials also hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day, according to three people familiar with the White House’s thinking, who requested anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Americans will “live with the virus being a threat,” in the words of one of those people, a senior administration official.

momadance wrote:

The Trump and Biden presidential campaigns now see the coronavirus response as the preeminent force shaping the results of November’s election, prompting both camps to try to refocus their campaigns more heavily on the pandemic, according to officials and advisers of both campaigns.

Advisers to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden see the covid-19 crisis as perhaps the clearest way yet to contrast the former vice president with President Trump, using the stumbling response and renewed surge in cases as ways to paint Trump as uninformed, incapable of empathy and concerned only about his own political standing.

Trump’s advisers, by contrast, are seeking ways to reframe his response to the coronavirus — even as the president himself largely seeks to avoid the topic because he views it as a political loser. They are sending health officials to swing states, putting doctors on TV in regional markets where the virus is surging, crafting messages on an economic recovery and writing talking points for allies to deliver to potential voters.

The goal is to convince Americans that they can live with the virus — that schools should reopen, professional sports should return, a vaccine is likely to arrive by the end of the year and the economy will continue to improve.

White House officials also hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day, according to three people familiar with the White House’s thinking, who requested anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Americans will “live with the virus being a threat,” in the words of one of those people, a senior administration official.

Good lord.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html