As somebody who is Very Online™, I find it helpful to sometimes take a step back from the outrage du jour and remember what most people actually think. So, I was excited to see that Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy have a piece in The Upshot today outlining the difference between ‘online’ Democrats and ‘non-online’ Democrats.
Today’s Democratic Party is increasingly perceived as dominated by its “woke” left wing. But the views of Democrats on social media often bear little resemblance to those of the wider Democratic electorate.
The outspoken group of Democratic-leaning voters on social media is outnumbered, roughly 2 to 1, by the more moderate, more diverse and less educated group of Democrats who typically don’t post political content online, according to data from the Hidden Tribes Project.
For example:
Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia was pummeled on social media after [the yearbook pictures came out], and virtually every Democratic presidential candidate demanded his resignation.
Yet the majority of ordinary Democrats in Virginia said Mr. Northam should remain in office, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll a week later. And black Democrats were likelier than white ones to say Mr. Northam should remain.
I know that we’re all familiar with these facts, but they’re worth repeating:
The rest of the party is easy to miss. Not only is it less active on social media, but it is also under-represented in the well-educated, urban enclaves where journalists roam. It is under-represented in the Northern blue states and districts where most Democratic politicians win elections.
Many in this group are party stalwarts: people who are Democrats because of identity and self-interest — a union worker, an African-American — more than their policy views. Their votes are concentrated in the South, where Democratic politicians rarely win.
There are lots of good figures in the article, as well as links to source data for those so inclined. Below the fold here, you’ll find screenshots of the topline demographic differences between meatspace and the Internet.
The fine print says that these are using a likely voter screen. (For what it’s worth, I test as a Traditional Liberal. You can take the quiz here if you’d like. It says it takes eight minutes.)
Kraux Pas
What’s a Twitter? Like chirps?
NotMax
Twitter is for twits.
Ignoring it has become one of the small pleasures of life online.
zhena gogolia
I’m a Traditional Liberal too. That was kind of fun.
This reflects my experience among people who are mostly Ph.D.s but get almost all their news from CNN and NPR. They say all those things we make fun of here. In 2016 it was “But her e-mails,” now it’s “Bernie Sanders is saying things that need to be said!” and “Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite!” It’s kind of disturbing. I don’t think of myself as cutting-edge tech-savvy (quite the opposite), but I get all my news from BJ and selected Twitter feeds (Rangappa, Griffin, Mrs. Betty Bowers, Jon Zal, etc.), and I have a very different view of the world. This is what worries me about 2020.
Kylroy
“Many in this group are party stalwarts: people who are Democrats because of identity and self-interest — a union worker, an African-American — more than their policy views.”
The ugly truth of democracy. Effective branding tends to matter a lot more than actually governing effectively.
Dorothy A. Winsor
That test says I’m a progressive activist. Who knew?
bobbo
Progressive activist! Interesting common trait is an awareness of one’s own privilege while at the same time feeling the deck is stacked against most others.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Real… life? What is… real… life?
Actually I don’t do the social media. Not on the tweety unless somebody links one, and my one and only Facebook picture is 5-10 yrs old. Don’t remember the last time I was on.
Doesn’t mean I know what RL is though. I spend a lot of time on BJ and various Internet forums (mostly science /math).
Major Major Major Major
I have taken the test several times and gotten both activist and liberal, actually, but today I was a traditional liberal.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: I think the best example of this is on the “political correctness” question, which is a bullshit question since it doesn’t define the nebulous term it’s asking you to opine on. As a result, people opine in what they think the media means by “political correctness”—which is of course determined by their consumption habits.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Hmmm, I didn’t get a question about political correctness.
Jon Marcus
I haven’t clicked through to the study, and I probably should’ve before commenting. But it sounds to me like this is saying these Democrats not only don’t have much impact online, but they don’t have much impact on elections. In that case, at the risk of sounding callous: Why do I care about them? I mean, I’m sure they’re fine people, and I might want to get a beer with them. But if they have little to no electoral influence, why do I care about their political opinions?
(Perhaps they have no influence because they’re gerrymandered out of power. That’s a reason to fight gerrymandering, but I don’t think it undercuts my point.)
Adam L Silverman
There is a major flaw in this article, which is it’s reliance on the Hidden Tribes study. Copied and pasted below is a quick breakdown I did of it for someone working in American politics as a campaign professional who asked me, as a specialist in “tribes” because of my cultural intel and ops work for the Army and DOD, what I thought of the study. One additional point: the only reason the Hidden Tribes study got any press in the US is because, as I reference below, Harvard’s Yasha Mouk wrote about it for The Atlantic. The problem here is that Mouk did not disclose that he served as an outside consultant for the study.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Progressive activist is what I got. The picture of the pink “pussy” hat that appears on the page is pretty cute
NotMax
Some of the questions are obviously slanted, including using buzzwords. Be that as it may, came out as progressive activist.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I must have gotten slanted rightwards because I said I donated to my church.
Kraux Pas
I gave up on that quiz when a lot of the binary questions they posed early on had answers which weren’t mutually exclusive
zhena gogolia
@Kraux Pas:
Yes!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
I noticed that too. I also didn’t like how binary the choices were:
Do you agree that children should respect authority? Yes or no?
Me: Well, it’s more complicated than a simple yes or no answer. Authority should only be respected as much as it has earned that respect and kids should be taught…
Survey: YES OR NO!?!?!?
Me: Fine, no!
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Just randomly perusing the report, appendix 2.1 subsections 3+ lists the questions.
The FAQ page has a paragraph explaining their decision on political correctness, which I agree is bogus and is unfortunately the part of the survey that got blasted around the media the most. I don’t think that’s a reason to disregard the entire YouGov poll.
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: @Kraux Pas: I could be wrong, but I believe most political polls present binary options. Most of the ones I’ve seen do, at any rate. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a field-wide flaw.
ETA: Just spitballing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, when presented with a non-binary “middle” option, most people picked that, and the pollsters find it hard to get a good signal that way.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Because all churches are exactly alike, right? //
(And forget about synagogues, mosques or temples.)
Cheryl Rofer
Yascha Mouk ???
I consort with anthropologists, and they have taken to bad language when confronted with this use of the word “tribes.” So that would be a warning for some of us right off the top. Sloppy thinking, tinged with racism/colonialism.
I have tried to conceptualize ways to classify people in terms of attitudes. The problem is that each of us is a bundle of attitudes, some contradictory. In the aggregate, there is some reason to try to figure out who’s going to vote which way, or who’s likely to support various social initiatives, but except for those brainwashed by Fox or their left-equivalent, we’re all mixtures. And you can even find the occasional Fox grandpa who is against caging children.
I’m involved with a group of people from the Democratic Party on nuclear issues. None of them is on Twitter to any significant degree. It has been quite an education for me.
Twitter can be an incredible source of news and informed commentary. B-J does a good job of getting information to its readers.
But I have no idea of how to judge the rest of the world.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks. There were things about this study that did not seem above board to me. I am glad that I am not the only one. Also, after Cambridge Analytica I am deeply suspicious of such “quizzes”.
ChrisH
Weird. I took the test but it just redirected to a picture of Gritty.
Major Major Major Major
@Cheryl Rofer: Mouk is involved with neither the report nor this Upshot article, as far as I can tell.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You and me, Sister!
Now I have to go see my attorney about my Will. Blech.
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: He has been heavily promoted by Atlantic, and NYT. His writings don’t sit well with me either Good to know that I was not the only one.
Cheryl Rofer
@schrodingers_cat: I haven’t paid a lot attention to him until recently. I vaguely recalled thinking what he wrote was okay, but suddenly it wasn’t. So I just ignore him now.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: You don’t have to take the quiz! At any rate, the underlying data is from an 8,000-respondent YouGov poll, which is a quality source. They drew some circles around clusters of results and called them “tribes,” an unfortunate wording which they seem happy to stick with for some reason.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Major Major Major Major:
I prefer the 5 option answers where you can say how much you agree/disagree with a statement by degree (moderately, slightly, etc)
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Then they revised it since the original release. Because they weren’t there in the original release, which they caught a lot of public flack for from actual political scientists that focus on American politics.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Mounk is a consultant for the group that did the study.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I guess I was just looking at the author list, which would seem to be what matters when evaluating the report they wrote. Obviously I don’t know his involvement though.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: He’s a political theorist. In political science this type of theorist is normative, not empirical. Meaning he is a philosopher of politics and has rudimentary, if any, training in research design and methodology.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: As they should have! I wonder if the full poll breakdown is available anywhere.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: You’re being obtuse again. If you’re involved with the group doing the project, as he is, and you then decide to use your platform to promote the project, failure to disclose one’s connection is unethical and unprofessional.
To be blunt, as someone who works on empirical issues of identity and who has taught research design, qualitative, and quantitative methodology to political science undergrad and grad students, the study is hot garbage designed to generate social media excitement and clicks.
FlipYrWhig
I still don’t get why “left” Twitter, despite skewing white and highly educated and, AFAICT, middle-class and up in background if not in current cashflow terms, has this fantasy that the less educated white working class is, or should be, or must be underneath it all, totally in agreement with them.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Regarding Barr and the Mueller Report:
Nielson and others in the Trump admin have gotten publicly harassed and apparently fear of that harassment (at least perhaps in part) made Nielson defy her boss when he wanted her to officially reinstate the family separation policy. Maybe the same could be done to Barr. Make him so miserable that he either gives in and releases the full report to Congress or he quits.
Not as many people were so politically active/aware during Iran-Contra, to the point of shaming odious slime like Barr
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Not that I’ve ever been able to find.
raven
I joined a Vets for Mayor Pete Facebook group just for the hell of it. There are not many folks in the group but they are intertesting.
NotMax
@raven
Just going wild while the better half’s away, huh?
;)
Mandalay
Well said. I was as disgusted as anyone here by Biden’s dismissive reaction to the brouhaha about his physical behavior towards girls and women, but I am clearly in the minority. Reader comments on a NYT hit piece on Biden’s conduct the other day overwhelmingly showed readers rallying to his defense, and (misogynist) Bill Maher was cheerleading Biden’s refusal to apologize.
I was also surprised to see in a recent poll that the most important characteristic of the Democratic candidate was “Has decades of political experience”, and the least important characteristic was “A political outsider”. Who would know that by following the news?
cintibud
Oldster rant:
When I was young, there was no such word as “Political Correctness”!!!
We called it “not being an asshole”
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I’m not being obtuse, I’m at work and couldn’t easily find the information, so I said that I didn’t know what it was. He isn’t listed as a contributor to the report, though his name does appear under “special thanks” along with a bunch of other people.
stinger
Not on Facebook and curious as to what it’s like? Take the Hidden Tribes quiz! FB is chock-full of silly, shallow quizzes just like it. What kind of dog are you? Which Beatle are you? Which ’80s rock hit are you?
For the record, I appear to be a “Progressive Activist” — today, at least. I’d never call myself that. I’m a Situational Ethicist, really, so these binary options are alien to me. If they offered “It depends” as an option, I’d probably choose that every time.
RAVEN
@NotMax: She got back yesterday. She’s wandering around in a daze looking at all her flowers!
RAVEN
@Adam L Silverman: So when a Kennesaw State University study concluded that borrowers who take out a long string of payday loans fare better than those who don’t, industry advocates used it to fight off the planned crackdown. A Washington, D.C., lobbyist hand-delivered the report to a key administrator with the federal agency days before its public release, recently-released KSU emails show.This was no ordinary academic study. The Consumer Credit Research Foundation, a group run by a payday loan industry backer, gave KSU $30,000 for the research, payable upon completion of the paper, according to a consulting agreement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Roger Moore
@Kylroy:
You need to live up to your brand if you want to keep it. The Democrats can’t keep those voters just by clever branding; they have to represent their concrete interests. I suspect that a lot of the people in the “Politically Disengaged” category wind up there because they don’t buy the branding and don’t think the party has their back.
catclub
@RAVEN: payable on completion of the paper. wow.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: I just assume that the “politically disengaged” care modestly who the president is and apart from that pay no attention to politics, policy, or elections. IMHO Obama did really well with these types because he made it feel like it would be cool to do literally the least they could do to be part of something special: vote and have the first black president! But they didn’t pay much attention to what happened after that, as long as they still had jobs and the world wasn’t literally on fire.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@cintibud:
Heh, I tried that line on an off duty deputy sheriff doing some private security gig where I used to work once (PC is called “not being an asshole”) and you know what he said? “I guess I’m an asshole.” Amazing
BruceFromOhio
“Oh look, it says my Star Wars character is Jabba The Hut!” I fervently despise Facebook, Twitter and online quizzes. Blue-blooded, pro-union, dyed-in-the-wool progressive Democrat until I shuffle off this mortal coil, and do not require confirmation of this bias. And get off my lawn!
catclub
@FlipYrWhig:
It could also be argued that he was only elected because they did not have jobs, and the world nearly was on fire, Mccain had no clue on the economy, and the GOP was toxic at the time. So let the black guy fix it, we’ll give him 18 months.
kindness
Honestly some times when I hear people refer to themselves &/or their peeps as ‘woke’, it makes me think they think they are superior to others. And I honestly think they are saying this stuff using their outside voice rather than the inside voice they should be using. Pride can be a terrible thing.
MisterForkbeard
Apparently I’m a Progressive Activist. Okay.
Then again, I felt that some of the questions were badly formed, but they’re trying to get you to make a decision so I’ll just handwave it.
As noted by others, the “Political Correctness” question is bullshit, as are a few others. Some of them “Do you think it’s skill and effort or luck and circumstances that primarily leads to success” is WAY too binary. It’s both. You need more effort the worse your circumstances are. Some people (Like Jared, Ivanka, Trump etc.) are so well off and protected that even constant fuckups means they’re likely to be fine, if not ‘succeed’. Others are in such a bad place that while it’s possible they can get out with a supreme effort it’s going to very unlikely and can be derailed easily. But given the choice I had to go with “circumstances” and obviate the “effort” selection.
Major Major Major Major
@BruceFromOhio: Again, the underlying data in the report is from a large reputable poll. The quiz is in case you, the reader, are curious how you would have been categorized had you been a respondent.
WaterGirl
@RAVEN: This makes me want to bang my head against the wall.
MisterForkbeard
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Yep. Some people are happy to be called assholes, especially by liberals. It makes them feel superior – they don’t have a cultural value on being nice to people they disagree with.
The right answer there (so long as it’s not going to get you beaten or fired or whatever) is to just agree with them and stop the conversation without any anger or disbelief. “Yeah, I can see that you’re an asshole. Have fun with that and have a good day.”
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: I’m not surprised that there are issues with it.
Progressive Activist here, according to the survey. I don’t really think I fit, there (as hardly anyone I meet would know my politics).
But as with the INTJ/ENFP stuff, it all seems so arbitrary and dependent on one’s frame of mind at the moment. Nobody should take these brief surveys seriously, especially not to figure out social policy.
E.g. Looking at the next 5 years, I’m hopeful about some things and angry about others…
One should look at things like the NORC GSS if one really wants to know what people think, and even that survey has problems (but is useful for seeing how things change over time).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
kindness
Seems I’m a Progressive Activist. Meh. Like all of these ‘quizzes’, some of the answers should have allowed me to check more than 1 box. Damn liberals!
Cheryl Rofer
I WAS GOING OUT TO FILL THE BIRD BATHS AND NEARLY WALKED INTO THE BOBCAT
Immanentize
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow. Never a dull moment on BJ!
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: Which one of you was more frightened?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Ted Lieu rocks. So forgive a twitter post:
Cheryl Rofer
@Gin & Tonic: I think we both were. Fortunately.
Brachiator
Let’s see. The total percentage of the most conservative folks adds up to 25 percent. Close to the deplorable 27 percent.
Took the quiz and came out as Progressive Activist. Took it again and came out Traditional Liberal. A few of the questions were forced, and I picked what was close to my views, but were not quite a good match. Overall, I guess I can accept the result.
I think by the terms of the questions, I strongly disagree with “conservative values” with respect to how children should be raised. Respect elders or authority? Fuck that. The question choices here and my answers closely matched what I have always believed.
Fun quiz. Not definitive, but fun. I downloaded the reports and hope to be able to look them over in more detail later.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Cue Denis Leary.
catclub
@Brachiator:
Finding out what authoritarian followers really believe (The book The Authroitarians) is depressing. and it is even worse.
Brachiator
@kindness:
Some woke people need to go back to sleep. Some self-described lefty types I have known over the years always like to brag about being “more evolved” than other folks. But most others were neither humble nor braggart and just wanted to get on with their lives.
I remember the catch phrase of an old talk radio host, when asked how he compared himself to others. “Better than most, not as good as some.” Works for me, too.
Being “superior” and a dime used to get you a cup of coffee. Otherwise, it don’t much matter.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: Comedian Jim Jeffers always ends his TV show by saying, “I think we can all do better.” That seems right to me.
trollhattan
@Cheryl Rofer:
How do you know its name? :-P
Your neighborhood is not like my neighborhood. I did have to scoop up half a bird and a big catshit pile in front of my livingroom window the other day. Blech.
J R in WV
The poll, disguised as a “quiz” was pretty unsatisfactory to me. They always are, even when a real professional does it. We belong to Consumer Reports, and they have lots of polls they want members to complete, which is how they get owner satisfaction data, for one example.
But what if on a given question I have no opinion that matches their choices? I can’t continue without picking something, because I guess a blank question spoils their methodology for assessing their results? Sometimes I quit and write them a note about inadequate polling techniques. Sometimes I just pick one.
Having taken stats classes in my BSCS degree program, I’m every glad I never had a job which required me to attempt to build, administer, and evaluate such a poll / quiz.
Cheryl, OMG!!!! Keep your eyes open, woman!! Situational awareness!!!!
But then bobcats are so cute!! Glad you got to be up close and personal there in greater Santa Fe. Perhaps carry a baseball bat when you walk the cats? Or go out for whatever?
stinger
@Cheryl Rofer: Yikes!
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: Did you pet it? Bobcats look so floofy.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I really don’t want to know who Candace Owens is, do I?
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Yes, they are. They just don’t like being called on it. The benefit of the article was pointing out what a pale & uppercrust type of liberalism is on social media. But I had a lot of issues with the general questions.
Kraux Pas
@Cheryl Rofer:
Animal or machine?
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: mother superior jumped the gun. . .
Kraux Pas
@trollhattan: I guess she works for Turning Point USA. I think I’ve seen her pop up on Faux News, the original fake news.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He does rock. I love the look on the Congressman’s face. He came with receipts!
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
Should have mentioned, I’m a Progressive Activist in this mostly meaningless poll, and FYWP wouldn’t let me edit, as it wasn’t my comment… say whut?
rikyrah
@trollhattan:
No. She’s a slave catcher.
J R in WV
@Kraux Pas:
Best answer yet!!! Laugh out loud, just as I did for Cheryl’s comment, which made me inhale pickle juice which I was eating with lunch’s ham&swiss sandwich.
And S’s_Cat, they do look floofy, but also so very prickly!! Do Not Pet signs needed!!
catclub
@schrodingers_cat: I remember the recent video of a young bobcat and a park ranger/animal control guy.
That cute bobcat was mad as hell and not taking it any more. And that was while it was being released!
trollhattan
@Kraux Pas: @rikyrah:
That’s all I needed–merci!
Too much negativity to ingest as it is.
Major Major Major Major
For another example of how we all participate in the Very Online discourse*: only half of the Democrats polled even had an opinion on Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.
*Many Balloon-Juice front-pagers are Very Online. This means that you, dear reader who gets your news here but isn’t Very Online, nonetheless are a participant.
Roger Moore
@J R in WV:
I think the bobcats are fine at putting up their own do not pet signs. That’s what the prickle are for.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan: Among other things, today she declared before a congress hearing on white nationalism that the Southern Strategy is a “myth” that “never happened.” It’s like cloud cuckoo land out there.
Ivan X
I came out belonging to “progressive activists” and lol’ed. I’m a bourgeois NYC liberal who is left-skeptical (though sympathetic) and who even sometimes has rightish thoughts that trouble me and I try not to let creep into my political decisions or alliances because I think they’re immoral. Also, can’t children be both well behaved and creative? My nieces and nephew are.
rikyrah
The media’s romanticizing of Beto and Buttigieg completely overlooks the five veteran female lawmakers running for the Dem presidential nomination. It’s the sexist gatekeeping of 2016 all over again. https://t.co/5N4xQjy1lb
— DAME Magazine (@damemagazine) April 8, 2019
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I guess it’s a
gooddecent idea to get these folks to say the awkward things out loud for the cameras, but always fear that the publicity in sum does more harm than good.trollhattan
Hey everyone, Cole got a birb house!
Suzanne
@FlipYrWhig:
Leftist policies would probably improve conditions for the less educated WWC, at least absolutely, but not relative to others—and therein lies the source of the confusion. The Left keeps forgetting that liberal/left policies are popular but liberals/lefties themselves are not.
IME, most of the people we’re discussing really liked when society was engineered nearly exclusively for their benefit. It allowed them to lie to themselves that they were getting ahead due to their work ethic.
A good time to remember that most people do not vote based on policy preferences.
rikyrah
I don’t want or need the Barr Report. We must demand the Mueller Report.
— meta (@metaquest) April 9, 2019
R-Jud
@Cheryl Rofer: My brother-in-law watched one stalking something in his yard from his kitchen window the other morning and narrated the whole thing for my sister over the phone. “My God,” he said, “There’s a bobcat on our property! How amazing! Look, it’s killed a chicken! How amaz–shit, that’s one of OUR chickens!”
He let the bobcat have the chicken, then went out and reinforced the wire in the chicken run.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
It’s clear Trump hates it when other people don’t break laws on his behalf. You got to wonder about the people he is not firing. Are they breaking laws for him? https://t.co/hgm0MKJrhj
— Ferik (@On_Politike) April 9, 2019
Ivan X
Petri kills it again: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/09/there-are-good-reasons-you-cant-see-mueller-report-yet-so-please-stop-asking/
I have to say I’m fond of her taking an amusing idea and running with it for 3 or 4 times longer than necessary. It speaks of obsession, in a good way.
catclub
@Ivan X:
I am right there with you. sounds like a conscience.
Mikeindublin
Always online, always avoided twitter.
It’s just annoying imho.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Isn’t it a mafia technique to make the new recruit to do something high stakes and illegal to show his/her loyalty.
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yikes! I think I’ve told the tale here of turning around on a footbridge and realizing that a bobcat was casually taking the same route.
She wagged her tail at me, so I kept walking (while looking over my shoulder) until I got far enough off the bridge that she felt it was safe to bolt off the end of the bridge and into the underbrush.
Scared the heck out of both of us — me and the bobcat!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Looks like Cole needs a 12-step for his bird house addiction.
Betty Cracker
If you had “Sanders is hiding tax returns because he’s a millionayuh” in the pool, step up and collect your prize!
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What in the Sam Hill is wrong with people like Candace Owens?
Some sportsball news: Liverpool lead Porto 2-0 at halftime in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal. (Porto are very much the underdogs here. Last year, they lost at 5-0 at home to Liverpool in the same tournament.) Meanwhile the Tottenham Hotspur-Manchester City quarterfinal is still scoreless, Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris having saved a Cuty penalty.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Man you must be old if you think a dime will get you a cup of coffee.
Yes I know it’s an old saying, I am an old.
SiubhanDuinne
@R-Jud:
Your brother-in-law is clearly a man of altruism and generosity!
Woodrow/Asim
@Betty Cracker: …you know who else became a millionaire from book sales, yet released his taxes?
Barack Hussein Obama.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Big catshit pile in front of the window could well have been a bobcat. Despite the best efforts of the Gilded Age hunters to eliminate them, we have a pretty decent-sized bobcat population in CA, and they’re almost as good at adapting to urban life as coyotes are.
@schrodingers_cat:
They are floofy but have big pointy teeth and claws. Do Not Pet.
We’re still waiting to hear about our kitty Annie’s test results, but she’s eating really well now that we’re giving her wet food at every meal. I may get some pet-safe gravy or broth just so the dry food doesn’t totally go to waste.
Kay
@Mikeindublin:
I love Twitter. I don’t have an account but I read..it. Not all of it, obviously. It’s very egalitarian.
Betty Cracker can harangue Mike Huckabee on Twitter.
I like when famous or notorious people engage with the rabble to their regret :)
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Mom, I had the right answer! What do I win?
rikyrah
Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) Tweeted:
Is Stephen Miller racist?
Miller’s classmates: Yes
•MAGAs: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Miller’s Rabbi: Yes
•MAGAs: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Miller’s Uncle: Yes
•MAGAs: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rep Ilhan Omer: Yes
•MAGAs:?HOW DARE YOU?!
? https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1115612585217462272?s=17
jl
@Betty Cracker: Let’s see if it happens. For me, BS has been assigned a political time-out from even being considered as long as this ridiculous tax return foolery has been going on this cycle. But I did give the ‘BS too rich’ theory some consideration. If that is it, maybe I get my 2 cents back?
But, even if he does release them, I’m still supporting and contributing to Warren. I think she would be a far better president.
Redshift
@Mikeindublin:
Twitter is fine as long as you get that it is a social network, and not a website where you have little choice but to see everything that goes by. There are lots of interesting people posting great stuff – scientists, writers, humorists, and so on. There are also argumentative jerks, but no one is forcing you to read them.
rikyrah
Uh huh ????
Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) Tweeted:
When AG Barr just said he will not even attempt to seek permission of the Chief Judge of the DC Federal Court to disclose to Congress the grand jury information in Mueller’s report – that was the moment transparency died. https://twitter.com/glennkirschner2/status/1115638107448184833?s=17
Woodrow/Asim
@Amir Khalid:
As someone who watched his own African-American Mom dive into the cesspool of GOP-ness (her switch was literally in the local paper!), it’s so very easy to buy into this mindset.
If you’re someone who craves not just attention, but validation, above all else? The GOP/Right-wing way of thinking can be amazingly compelling, even if you grew up in spaces/groups that should know better. And growing up in Jim Crow isn’t 100% resistance to the post-Civil Rights ways they have to pull you in.
This is exactly why facts and science and thoughtfulness are so very important; it was the only way to get thru to my Mom, and that was well before the Internet validated social media attacks that we face today. I remember having to fight every person with a half-baked conspiracy or pyramid scheme from grabbing at her, until the day she passed.
And at that funeral, none of those bloodsuckers — including the GOP wankers who used her as a political prop — could be bothered to attend.
I don’t hate ’em hard, believe it or not. Snake don’t know they a snake, I’ve found over time. But I sure as hell know their play, and will call out that people like Ownes validate their scheming, in the eyes of too many.
CliosFanBoy
was expecting traditional liberal. Got Progressive Activist. OK
Dorothy A. Winsor
@jl: At the start of the 2016 cycle, I was Bernie-curious, because I liked the goals he named–universal health care, affordable college, etc. But after a while, it became clear to me that he had no real plan for how to achieve them. That still says to me that he’d be terrible at governing if he were elected.
And of course that leaves out things that have annoyed me about him that I won’t get into because you already know them. So yes, Warren would be a much better president.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
That was Mr. Murderbritches, immortalized on video by the rangers who released him back into the wild:
https://mobile.twitter.com/CenterForBioDiv/status/1070451281033093122
Dan B
@Cheryl Rofer: Did the kitty thank you for refilling the buffet?
Still sorta envy your wildlife abundance. We’ve git gimp legged rats and multiple outdoor housecats. Of course it’s not far to Tiger Mountain and Cougar Mountain and thousands of square miles of bear and wolf country.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: as the article notes, his post-2016 senate financial disclosure forms already showed him with seven figures of income. It’s weird that he’s being this cagey about it if that’s all it is. But then, he’s a weird and stubborn guy.
Gin & Tonic
@jl: If Bernie Sanders manages somehow to take the Democratic nomination, Trump will win 2020 in a landslide.
CliosFanBoy
@Brachiator: I picked “yes” on respect for authority, but did NOT pick it when I was given the two choices, such as “respect for Authority or creativity>” I think it’s important, but NOT over other traits. Basically I was thinking of the lack of respect for expertise that led to things like the anti-vaccination movement.
CliosFanBoy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: same here. was strongly leaning Bernie, but the more I saw of him, the less I liked him…
kindness
re: bobcats. Back in the late 70’s/early 80’s my then SO was friends with a couple who had licenses for wild critters. They had an indoor bobcat and 2 outdoor caged mountain lions. I refused to go near the mountain lions. They did end up getting rid of them as one of them attacked the wife once. The bobcat on the other hand was an adorable huge cat. Very sweet. Loved attention and was a bundle of energy. I was impressed. Still, this was a domesticated one. I would probably not attempt to pet a wild one.
Major Major Major Major
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was also Bernie-curious early in the 2016 cycle. By the end of the primary it was spectacularly obvious that he would not make as good a president as Hillary, (which was merely mostly obvious at the beginning). But I was happy that there was somebody there to “drive the conversation leftwards.” Then Hillary adroitly moved leftwards, to a level I liked no less, and we were left with a race between an elder stateswoman and somebody who couldn’t make it through a NYDN interview about his key policies without looking unprepared.
KSinMA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Agreed.
Steeplejack
Progressive activist here.
Some of the questions felt like coaxing a square peg into a round hole, but bqhatevwr. (Remember when that was a thing? Ages ago.)
Another Scott
@Brachiator:
Even that doesn’t mean in practice what the words denote.
Obama had lots and lots of authority by virtue of his office, yet, somehow, people on the Right didn’t respect him. For lots of rationalized reasons. And that’s just one example.
“Respect for Authority” in practice means “Respect for the Authority of People / Tribes (heh) That I Agree With”.
Cheers,
Scott.
JR
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Technically you do social media, since I would argue that a bulletin board (which this is) is an early form of social media, albeit a not-very-commercial one.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: I think for a lot of people the NYDN interview and the NY campaign were turning points. Sanders showed his ignorance in the former and his nastiness in the latter. I guess most New Yorkers felt that way too. The primary in NY was not even close.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
We need the #MuellerGenuineDraft not #MuellerLite
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Huh, I didn’t get a “political correctness” question. I wonder if they change up the survey.
Dan B
@rikyrah: A big part of the MSM coverage of the “B” boys is fir Buttegieg he’s got several easy storylines: gay pres candidate, young, midwest (not coastal). Beto’s storylines seem to be: charismatic, Texas liberal. What’s weird is woman candidate and POC candidate don’t seem to be “stories” anymore, like Obama and Hillary were the only times these stories were “news” as in new news.
That and a pinch of racism and misogyny and voila! The other “B” boys, Biden and Wilmer seem to be viewed as “serious” candidates. As much as I’d live to have Abrams in the senate I believe she might have a better chance of penetrating the MSM (mostly straight males?) fog – wall of denseness.
And there’s the board room doesn’t want a woman in the White House except to pick out china. I’m hoping Kamala breaks through but not sure how if she’s being ignored now. Horrible for us.
J R in WV
@CliosFanBoy:
Senator Sanders (I-Russia) is Not a Democrat! He has never been a Democrat, he will never be a Democrat. So I’m never going to vote for him, as I only vote for Democrats. So Simple!
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Was it like this? (0:34)
Cheers,
Scott.
suezboo
I think the first question should have been “Are you an American voter?” because I just got tribalized as a Progressive Activist which may be true but, hey, very different context.
Jay
Candace Owens is a YuTube “edgelord” personality.
She puts out “I’m just asking questions” vids online with streams of faux intellectual verbage. She’s basically a fluffer for the Nazis and racists. Faith Goldy in blackface.
The Nazi Christchurch mass murderer credited her video’s for starting him down the online radicalization path from conservative to Nazi mass murderer.
She makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by selling racism, hate, Nazism and ignorance on line and YuTube makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by providing her a platform, linkage, and income to do it.
rikyrah
@Woodrow/Asim:
They are the SPECIAL NEGRO…
Not, common like the rest of us deluded sheep.
Uh huh
Uh huh
JR
Opinion polls are largely useless but this one does the trick if your only aim is to broadly show that frequent internet users are not representative of the general population.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
Truth is, she’s nothing but a phucking grifter. She’s not even a true believer. She’s a coon on the pole for a buck.
cain
@Woodrow/Asim:
Yes, the right wing stuff is really just like the dark side in star wars. There is something deeply attractive about it because of the validation. As you say, these people never bothered to show up to her funeral. Assholes.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: they may have removed it after they got chastened, or it was only ever in the underlying YouGov poll maybe. It’s a bad question, or perhaps I should say it’s not answering the question they think they’re posing.
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
This is on point.
Clap Clap Clap
Miss Bianca
God, this stuff is good to remember! Thanks, M4!
Dan B
@Betty Cracker: Yuck! or as is customary hereabouts, Blech!
Wilmer, not everything is about white working class economic anxiety.
Ohio Mom
@Cheryl Rofer: I thought bobcats were nocturnal?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: That snowflake blocked me! ❄️
ETA: I don’t blame him, really. I probably block more people than I follow. That’s my favorite thing about Twitter, the blocking feature. To paraphrase The Wire guy, my block list contains the largest collection of unsuffered fools in Christendom!
Steeplejack
I thought the “binary” questions were phrased as “Which of these two statements do you agree with more?” Which would seem to avoid the “not mutually exclusive” trap.
Not going back to check.
Major Major Major Major
@Dan B: Maybe he’s rolling out his new jobs plan: free writing classes for all!
Miss Bianca
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hey, me too!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A fundamental truth that should be universally bold-ed
(with the somewhat lesser chance that it could also lead to a Kasich or Bloomberg presidency)
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Nope. They hunt and move according to prey cycles, Dawn, High Noon, Dusk, Night.
Steeplejack
@BruceFromOhio:
Maybe you mean “true blue” rather than “blue-blooded”? Unless we should start addressing you as “milord.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I assume it’s unpossible that blacks are more leery of lynch mobs than whites?
Dan B
@Woodrow/Asim: As a white guy who spent a year as a kid in Jim Crow Arkansas I know the unthinking mindset. I don’t know how your mother would fall for the KKK and John Birch Society propaganda. What we got was: lazy, shiftless, no morals, and more. It’s crazy hard to break through. It’s nearly impossible for white people to get through to white relatives. We have family who won’t visit because we live in a 10% white neighborhood.
Cacti
@zhena gogolia:
Illustration of the difference between the online world and everywhere else:
Online: Joe Biden is an old has been who makes everyone cringe and has no chance to win.
Everywhere else: Joe Biden leads most primary polls.
rikyrah
@Cacti:
All the non-Online Black women that I work with like Joe Biden and are waiting for him to step into the race.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: Close down the internets for the day, Roger won.
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: I would’ve guessed they were crepuscular.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
I think he means he’s like Tommy Lasorda, except he his blue is for the Democrats rather than the Dodgers.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I heard another take on this; Nielson was doing all what Trump wanted, but the problem was doing what Trump wants is making Trump look bad, because you know, child abuse is pure evil, so Trump fired her for doing the evil things he ordered her to do. Trump can never fail, he can only be failed if you will.
So doubltess it’s only a matter of time fore Barr is tossed under the bus too by Trump.
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
wait, you’re telling me that you don’t post at BJ for a living? what the hell?
JR
@Cacti: for most, Biden is the continuation of Obama. He enjoys a massive incumbency advantage there, especially given how much Trump has fucked up
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
yeah, sure. ten bucks says the tax docs will be barr-level redacted, making it look like writing a book is what made him rich.
seriously, if writing a book is what made him money and that’s all, he would have released them already.
rikyrah
in m-o-d-e-r-a-t-i-o-n.
please help
Kathleen
@Kay: I love Twitter too and I love to tweet.
chopper
@Roger Moore:
that’s some cask-strength win right there.
Roger Moore
@chopper:
IMO, tax documents that are redacted beyond blanking out address and SSN are at least as suspect as no tax documents at all. After all, refusing to release tax documents at all could be laziness, disorganization, or standing up for some bizarre principle, but redacting meaningful information is a sure sign of intent to deceive.
Kraux Pas
@Steeplejack:
They were sloppy and so non-exclusive of each other that one could easily agree with both equally simultaneously.
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @chopper:
I only wish I could claim the credit. I saw somebody else trying to push the hashtags on Twitter.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
They tend to be seen at dawn and dusk, but that’s just because in the low light conditions, they didn’t get to see you first. We often see them around noon, moving between hunting areas, as they cross the range roads and fire breaks.
Funny thing is, as they cross, you can clearly see and identify them from easily a hundred yards away, but in the grass, brush or timber, you have a hard time seeing them from a few yards.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: fix’t
rikyrah
This is a ready made movie ??
https://twitter.com/hradzka/status/1115282390258073600
PJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Anyone who lets the bobcat keep the chicken is clearly a “progressive activist.” (That bobcat had no respect for authority and was just exercising its creativity.)
PJ
@rikyrah: You should have a warning – the guy you linked to seems to be a serious right wing nutjob.
Cheryl Rofer
@Ohio Mom: So did I. I had no idea it would be out there in the early afternoon. There is a little cave in my back yard, and it may have been resting there until I came stomping over the deck just above. It rested for a while on a flat rock in my front yard, in the shade, before it sensed that I had a camera, and then it took off.
Paula
Started to take the quiz but got irritated at the “either/or” nature of the questions and bailed out.
Miss Bianca
I didn’t get a political correctness question. I would have givem up on it if I had.
rikyrah
Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) Tweeted:
This is going to be two years of Dems chasing a mythical “working-class white man” who is capable of a 180-degree ideological turn on socialism but will stay home if there’s even a chance his vote helps black people or gays https://twitter.com/sadydoyle/status/1115418307547607042?s=17
Jay
@PJ:
He started off as a RWNJ at Red State and has got full batshit insane. He’s also a goatfucker and has only gotten dumber with age.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Erick_Erickson
MoCA Ace
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
And they say there are no self aware cops!
rikyrah
@PJ:
He might be a nut job, but the story is straight out of
Truth is stranger than fiction
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Wasn’t even a dime when I was a kid. I just wanted to use an old saying.
@Another Scott:
When I was a kid, some relatives and adults thought that kids should always defer to any adult, especially an adult relative. Fortunately, my mother thought this was bullshit. Respect must be earned. Especially true in the political realm. Neither title nor position automatically merits respect as an authority. And even in your example, Obama demonstrated that he deserved respect.
wkwv
I am the most passive, hermit-like person I know. Nevertheless, I am a progressive activist.
MoCA Ace
@J R in WV:
Completely unnecessary. They are typically very secretive and just want to be left alone. I say typically because I have a female bobcat who has a denning site close to my home. I have a trail camera out year-round for a wildlife study and she (and kittens) grace me with pictures several times per year. Every year while deer hunting I see her and the kids out and about. Last year she had three kittens and they stalked by within 20 feet of me!! Too cute! if only they could be tamed and housebroken.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Gerber’s baby food, chicken or turkey. It’s slightly goopier than pudding and can be mixed with dry food to make them think they’re getting a “treat” beyond the regular dry.
Jay
@MoCA Ace:
They can be tamed and housebroken, so can Lynx.
There are some bobcats and lynx rescues that couldn’t be returned to the wild, and became pets.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lKJkKnaImic
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Agree 100%. I don’t have a Twitter account but have found that I am reading Twitter a lot. Certain accounts are reliable go-to’s, and, as you said, it’s a marvelously egalitarian platform where celebrities “engage with the rabble to their regret.”
I’ve also found that it can be a great source of real-time fact-checking on the news and on political pronouncements, because every topic under the sun has a cadre of well-informed obsessives who are always ready to engage.
paul robinson
@zhena gogolia:
Well, you must understand that there are moments when things are so wrong we must all stand up and clutch our pearls in protest.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
I’m OK with your opinion about this woman, who appears to be nothing but a cheating, money-hungry, grifting bitch to me. Just look at her expression after Congressman Lieu finished his recording of her statement!
But I’m an old white guy, and so have learned not to use that nomenclature any more…
But you’re allowed, and so I firmly say, go for it!!! Right on, Sistah!
J R in WV
@MoCA Ace:
I know and agree. Joke.
I was once stalked by a mountain lion in SE AZ… they were forced out of the nearby mountain range by a large forest fire. It gave me a new perspective on feline behavior in the wilderness. Now I carry a .45 in the mountains when I’m out. But not for bobcats, which are not much larger than the maine coons.
Joke. really…
RobNYNY
Meshuggeneh = crazy person.
Meshuga = crazy.
Meshugas = craziness.
Spellings in English vary.
DonL140
We should ask Mistermix to come back more often. Always has good info.
Myself being a certain age, the online progressive activist is very recognizable. Fifty years ago they were burning draft cards. Trump is their Vietnam, and Bernie is flower power.