Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, October 10, 2024
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29 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
Milton is off Florida’s eastern shore now heading out to sea. We’re fine here in Palm Beach County. No power loss.
@Bill Jempty: Good to hear.
I noticed Monala referenced Threads yesterday, which made me realize just how rare that is compared to links to Twitter. Considering everything bad I hear about Musk’s platform, it seems that the heat death of Twitter is a long way off. Anyone think I’m simply missing the trend? I should point out that I haven’t used Twitter or anything else like it since the very early days, so I don’t have a metric of my own to measure by.
@Bill Jempty: South Sarasota county power is out. Headlines are saying me and 3 million other people. WAPO says the storm has left the state, headed into the Atlantic still a hurricane. Generator’s running, A/C’s on. No wifi but 2 bars on the phone. Haven’t found much news from Sarasota yet.
@gVOR10: Good luck
@gVOR10: Good luck.
This guy was Trump’s National Security Advisor! If only for a short time. These are the people Trump will bring back in if he wins. And if Trump wins, we are so screwed.
Confluence of Epic Hurricanes, Election Ensnare Military in Misinformation Deluge
@Scott:
As the saying often attributed to Mark Twain goes, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”
@Moosebreath: In the past couple of years I’ve been increasingly thinking of conspiracy as something that someone can become addicted to, as bad as many drugs, or sex. It becomes all consuming, and you need bigger and bigger hits to maintain the same level. It can ruin your life, destroy relationships, lead you to financial ruin.
@Scott: Biden called out Marge by name in his presser yesterday, actually said she was stupid and crazy. He would not be wrong, of course.
He also reiterated how unprecedented and Un-American it is to try and sabotage resource and recovery efforts for political gain. He called out Trump by name. Again, he would not be wrong.
There is no low, no bottom for shameless people which makes them dangerous, unbound from any moral or ethical constraints.
@MarkedMan:
I agree with the first two but it seems as though conspiracies are a money making operation these days.
@MarkedMan:
Roughly a Google years.
@Scott:
I think they’ve always been a money maker, but not for the conspiracy junkies. They are the marks, whether it is survivalists buying up “gold bars” with $20 worth of gold in them for $200, or putting all their money in crypto, just to name two of many. The organizers of these scams may well get rich, but I suspect very few of them believe what they are selling.
@MarkedMan:
Threads is too linked to Instagram, too much of a data mining operation to really take off IMO, so IMO going nowhere.
I find the Mastodon interface ugly and difficult to use so IMO another loser.
Post has already gone tits up.
Bluesky seems to be getting a lot more action lately from political people moving to it, many people I follow on Twitter are now on Bluesky also, so good for political stuff. I have high hopes for Bluesky eventually supplanting Twitter, so Musk can go pork himself.
But some political people are still mostly Twitter which still gets more action. And Twitter, plus Reddit a bit, are the main places for other stuff like hurricanes, other special topics.
ETA: I don’t see much right wing original stuff on twitter because I am careful who I follow and who I block. But it’s often useless to view the replys to political tweets because infested by trolling bots encouraged by Lone Skum and his algorithms. So I look forward to being able to abandon Skum’s toy.
@MarkedMan:
Absolutely. There are a ton of stories of people’s relationship with family and friends, even livelihoods, being ripped apart by their devotion to these beliefs. Not everyone who believes in conspiracy theories has a diagnosable mental-health condition, but people with such conditions are highly vulnerable to falling down this rabbit hole.
It’s closely related to cults. I recently read Will Sommers’ book about QAnon, and he describes certain portions of the movement which start to resemble traditional cults, rather than the more elusive, insidious variety that has sprung up in the age of social media. There was one figure who had a compound where his band of followers moved in and were pouring their life’s savings into supporting him, until the authorities cracked down. It was hell for family members of the followers. This is where it’s useful to learn about strategies for dealing with cults and how to deprogram those who fall into them—which isn’t easy.
Just another reminder that those who proclaim the loudest are usually phonies. Republican he-men have long derided liberals as candy-asses. But in the end it was the Republicans who ended up looking at their shuffling feet, publicly backing Trump while privately whimpering to sympathetic reporters off the record, hoping he loses and goes away, because they fear Trump’s followers. Meanwhile, Dems stay in the game, despite literally getting shot at.
@MarkedMan:
As my wife says-
An empty can is noisy.
For some reason OTB won’t load at work. I can access it on my phone, but I can’t post much this way. Hopefully it will work later.
I was thinking about the election this morning and I realized what a poor judge of character I am. Many years ago I had a girlfriend who said I had a very strange combination of naivete and cynicism. She said I truly hope for people to do the right thing, but know deep down a lot of them won’t. This election is like none in my lifetime. We have one candidate who by any reasonable objective standard is unfit to hold any office who is basically in a dead heat with a competent candidate with good qualifications. I really believed a strong majority of people would see through his lies and scare tactics, and would focus on his complete lack of morality and his disconnect from reality. But the crazier he talks the better his polling is.
Based on current trends I wouldn’t be surprised if he is ahead in the polls soon. My big hope is that the internal polls, which tend to capture small demographic cells better, are more favorable to Harris. If Trump wins Elon Musk and a few other uber-rich really will be running things. Musk is pretty much paying for votes right now with his $47 for each potential Trump voter scheme (I really thought this was a joke).
Ethel Kennedy, 96, has died. RIP.
Well, it must be later, because it’s loading now.
I’ve been wanting to rant about stupid penalties in NFL games. Specifically penalties that are costly, and do not benefit the team committing them. Mostly late hits, which are penalized as unnecessary roughness. But also pass interference, illegal contact, defensive holding, and so on.
I can make exceptions for pass interference if it happens in the end zone, or even within five yards of it. A costly penalty is still better than a touchdown.
I click on CNN website maybe once a day, maybe not. Today was the first time I got a message that an item was for subscribers only. Could be that this is not new but it’s the first time that I have seen it. I am not interested getting Unlimited Access for Less Than $1/Week. I guess I will have to forego learning about: Trump’s team blows past presidential transition deadlines. That could have national security ramifications.
I hope I make it through the day.
Just seen on the BBC News about the damage Hurricane Milton inflicted in Florida.
Looks pretty bad, even if they are saying it could have been worse still.
I recall several persons often on this forum are from Florida; hope you are all safe and well.
@JohnSF:
There’s only so much you can do with forewarning of a hurricane. The main thing is to evacuate people from the areas most likely to be affected. this saves countless lives and spares lots of injuries.
All the rest, wind and water damage, flooding, etc. depend a lot on the quality of construction and infrastructure.
@JohnSF:
My sister and b-i-l were two of those who had to evacuate. They went to stay with an old friend in Atlanta.
One reason I seldom respond to trolls is because it would be very rude to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
@Scott:
Indeed. The craziest get the press and it’s been said there’s no such thing as bad press in show business. I recall when Michele Bachman was the craziest R and the top earner for the GOP. Creatures like MTG don’t even have to be aware of this, as they get positive reinforcement when the money pours in after they spout outrageous BS.
Ready for bed aboard the QM2, listening to Obama in Philadelphia. Damn he’s good.
Apparently Xlon at Texla has a big announcement later today.
If there’s one thing to criticize the late Steve Jobs over, is the big unveiling events he popularized. There’s a lot of anticipation among the faithful and those interested in tech, and countless articles speculating on what The Next Big Thing will be. Besides, just about everyone does them now.
Me, I don’t care what Xlon wants to unveil. But I wonder, can a Texla plug-in hybrid be very far off? Or maybe a straight up internal combustion gas engine? I mean, aren’t electric cars a manifestation of the woke mind virus he made up?