Brilliant. Censorship and self censorship deepen delusions. That is why free speech and open debate are so important. Will the 8 percenters learn their lesson? Can you reason with a demoralized person?
Thanks for these good points. I think we will be lucky if the blob behind the curtain is merely feckless and hoist by their own petard. There is surely a layer of folks who thrived on the petty power plays of the lockdown years, who no longer have any guts or ability to cope at all in a world of actual risk and uncertainties. I was in the office today with people wearing paper masks. All day. They've committed to a mentally debilitating spiral out of which they cannot break themselves. Some of the wreckers in DC are these people, no doubt.
When all the crazy breaks in one direction, though, every time, empirical data are trying to tell us something else. My blind spot is that I'm never quite able to believe people are as bad as they continually prove themselves to be, but a darker possibility is that whoever has been running the show since the 2020 basement campaign (it has never been that thuggish dolt) is content if not pleased with the cascade of catastrophes.
[Wrt the pledge button: If you put your own buttons in, and edit, it might not auto add the buttons it will otherwise select for you.]
I kind of found that hilarious and encouraging, although I'm sure that's not how Nate Silver meant it. Hilarity because NS thinks there is a rational cabal, who might listen to him, when (a) clearly, rational policy goals haven't been in play since at least 2015, and (b) they loathe this pseudo middle of the road facade much more than they hate or fear senility in the Oval Office. Encouraging because there /are/ a few paths out of this mess that might give them just enough space to pull yet another fast one over on the American people. The more we have prominent semi-reasonable people trying to get them to see that, the more they are driven to cover their ears and sing la la la to drown out the heretics.
I think it's interesting that in the last half of the year of our Lord 2024, an ostensibly evidence-based pundit can write about Trump's unpopularity while President as if that verdict had fallen gently from the heavens as an objective and meaningful fact. Without mentioning - not even to dismiss - that the relentless full court press against him from the first campaign through today, perpetrated by the same people covering for Biden now, was almost entirely deliberate, wicked, lies and fabrications, amplified and broadcast by every means possible precisely in order to fool just enough of the people just long enough (they thought). But again, the more insular and deluded the echo chamber, the greater our window to boulverser their schemes and return to rule of law. Or at least a recognizable facsimile of sanity. That would be nice.
Very well said! "I think it's interesting that in the last half of the year of our Lord 2024, an ostensibly evidence-based pundit can write about Trump's unpopularity while President as if that verdict had fallen gently from the heavens as an objective and meaningful fact. Without mentioning - not even to dismiss - that the relentless full court press against him from the first campaign through today, perpetrated by the same people covering for Biden now, was almost entirely deliberate, wicked, lies and fabrications, amplified and broadcast by every means possible precisely in order to fool just enough of the people just long enough (they thought)."
Brilliant. Censorship and self censorship deepen delusions. That is why free speech and open debate are so important. Will the 8 percenters learn their lesson? Can you reason with a demoralized person?
Ha -- great questions. I think there's about a zero percent chance that the Eight Percenters will actually learn from this.
It should be so obvious really, that if you refuse to engage with considering dissenting views the skill to develop critcal thinking will be stunted
Yeah, good point. Their stubbornness or myopia is often putting themselves at risk.
Thanks for these good points. I think we will be lucky if the blob behind the curtain is merely feckless and hoist by their own petard. There is surely a layer of folks who thrived on the petty power plays of the lockdown years, who no longer have any guts or ability to cope at all in a world of actual risk and uncertainties. I was in the office today with people wearing paper masks. All day. They've committed to a mentally debilitating spiral out of which they cannot break themselves. Some of the wreckers in DC are these people, no doubt.
When all the crazy breaks in one direction, though, every time, empirical data are trying to tell us something else. My blind spot is that I'm never quite able to believe people are as bad as they continually prove themselves to be, but a darker possibility is that whoever has been running the show since the 2020 basement campaign (it has never been that thuggish dolt) is content if not pleased with the cascade of catastrophes.
[Wrt the pledge button: If you put your own buttons in, and edit, it might not auto add the buttons it will otherwise select for you.]
Yeah, we're in quite a spot when feckless is our best option. Thanks for the pledge button suggestion, and I've seen the mask people emerging too!
https://substack.com/@dave227829/note/c-61466679?r=7ftfa&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I kind of found that hilarious and encouraging, although I'm sure that's not how Nate Silver meant it. Hilarity because NS thinks there is a rational cabal, who might listen to him, when (a) clearly, rational policy goals haven't been in play since at least 2015, and (b) they loathe this pseudo middle of the road facade much more than they hate or fear senility in the Oval Office. Encouraging because there /are/ a few paths out of this mess that might give them just enough space to pull yet another fast one over on the American people. The more we have prominent semi-reasonable people trying to get them to see that, the more they are driven to cover their ears and sing la la la to drown out the heretics.
I think it's interesting that in the last half of the year of our Lord 2024, an ostensibly evidence-based pundit can write about Trump's unpopularity while President as if that verdict had fallen gently from the heavens as an objective and meaningful fact. Without mentioning - not even to dismiss - that the relentless full court press against him from the first campaign through today, perpetrated by the same people covering for Biden now, was almost entirely deliberate, wicked, lies and fabrications, amplified and broadcast by every means possible precisely in order to fool just enough of the people just long enough (they thought). But again, the more insular and deluded the echo chamber, the greater our window to boulverser their schemes and return to rule of law. Or at least a recognizable facsimile of sanity. That would be nice.
Very well said! "I think it's interesting that in the last half of the year of our Lord 2024, an ostensibly evidence-based pundit can write about Trump's unpopularity while President as if that verdict had fallen gently from the heavens as an objective and meaningful fact. Without mentioning - not even to dismiss - that the relentless full court press against him from the first campaign through today, perpetrated by the same people covering for Biden now, was almost entirely deliberate, wicked, lies and fabrications, amplified and broadcast by every means possible precisely in order to fool just enough of the people just long enough (they thought)."