Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Books are my comfort food!

When I was faster i was always behind.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Monday Night Open Thread: Maybe It’s Time to Bring Back Blogging?

Monday Night Open Thread: Maybe It’s Time to Bring Back Blogging?

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Ed Zitron (whose very entertaining substack is absolutely free!):

… What most people really want is to be liked and accepted — to be validated as a person and to be treated with interest and respect. We all love the feeling of being admired and having our views shared, but if it doesn’t feel like anyone actually likes or cares about us, it all feels a little bit hollow.

The internet has massively increased the number of places one can find acceptance — both in niche communities like subreddits and, of course, Twitter. As I’ve written before, Twitter is unique in its ability to create a global hangout space — an eternal dive bar where, if you’re willing to search, you can find a community (or communities) of people who accept who you are, even if you tweet about being a Smiling Man.

As I’ve also written before, Twitter creates a particular madness when someone directly connects their self-worth to how many likes and retweets they get:

The problem is that the attention that you feel on Twitter is extremely addictive. The feeling of having someone — or potentially hundreds of thousands of people —hang on your every word can be deeply intoxicating. One can attribute a great deal of meaning to likes and retweets — that you’re intelligent, important, or “right” on an existential level — and conversely one can attribute so much more to the negative feedback one gets. Twitter can create an incredible sense of both intellectual invincibility and vulnerability that can drive someone quite mad. Many people are desperate to be liked by everybody, and many more people are desperate to be respected by everybody.

Thanks to the nature of its (very) public replies, Twitter adds another layer of popularity: who cool/important/notable people actually respond to. As a result, there’s a desperation to be seen at the top of someone’s replies — to have a response that gets you the attention either of the original poster or the engagement of those replying. Getting no response to a reply is a gutting experience for some. It probably feels like a digital recreation of trying to sit down at the popular kids’ table and everybody turning their lunch trays away.

The intelligent response is, of course, to consider whether what you said was funny or interesting, or question whether you added anything to the conversation.

The alternative path is to assume a cruel algorithm is deliberately throttling your reach, or that an unfair system is stopping your beautiful posts from being seen by people that would — given the chance — engage with them in an instant…

Thing about writing, or even faithfully commenting on, a particular blog: You get the chance to create your own social-media village, a community where you’re popular enough that others are genuinely interested in your daily life and worry if you’re absent for a while. Back in the golden age (like, five or ten years ago), being a Popular Enough blogger could get you paying gigs at professional outlets (c.f. Digby). Commenting on a blog is still, IMO, a good way to hone one’s writing skills for more widely read ‘bite size’ social media platforms — DougJ went from blogging / commenting here, via twitter, to getting quoted by President Biden at the WHCD. But, if we’re being honest, most people don’t really feel the need to be ‘popular’ with more than a few hundred or a few thousand people, and that’s why long-form amateur social media like blogging took off so explosively.

Of course, there’s Substack. As I understand it, Substack is (was?) promoting a short-form ‘notes’ function that looked very much like twitter, explicitly as a way to lure professional media people to switch over to Substack to promote their paid material. But I don’t know how starting an amateur ‘substack’ compares, cost-wise or effort-wise, to using WordPress for the same blog — or even if that’s possible. (Does Substack have an application process?)

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  2. 2.

    CaseyL

    I think that people who are very good at stuff make it look easy, and so people who have never gotten to that level on anything assume it can’t be that hard,

    This is true of a lot of things, not just social media.

    Cf: Obama, as President.  The GOP could never come to grips with the knowledge that a Black man was a good President, and “made it look easy,” and they went insane rather than change their worldview to accept that.

    (Not to mention the GOP has pushed forward the most miserable collection of sadists, ignoramuses, and corrupt nitwits we’ve ever seen in public office – kind of an Affirmative Action for Incredibly Awful White People.)

  3. 3.

    SpaceUnit

    It’s like we’re living on Easter Island but social media apps are the new moai.

  4. 4.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    $11 for Twitter Blue?! What happened to the $8/mo? Things most be pretty desperate at Twitter HQ

  5. 5.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    The Journal reported that months later, according to the calendar, Epstein scheduled a flight with Chomsky and his wife for a planned dinner with movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, who is also the adopted daughter of his ex-partner, Mia Farrow.

    “If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,” Chomsky told the Journal. “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”

    Chomsky said he discussed politics and academics in his meetings with Epstein. Epstein donated at least $850,000 between 2002 and 2017 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Chomsky taught for decades.

    “What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence,” Chomsky told the Journal about his meetings. “According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”

    “A great artist’

    You can’t make this shit up.

    Yes, Chomsky, he was convicted of a crime. He pimped out minors for prostitution and had to register as a sex offender. Him serving out his sentence does not wipe that slate clean

  6. 6.

    Poe Larity

    I just got my BJ Diamond Membership renewal card and am wondering why I don’t have a Blue Check.

  8. 8.

    Scout211

    Blue Sky Social  is the new kid in the block.  They just keep coming. I’m glad I’m not on these platforms because now there are too many to choose from.

    Blue Sky Social is very pretty, though.

    Bluesky is the internet’s buzziest social media platform — but you need an invite to get a look at it.
    The decentralized Twitter clone is in beta, and invites are scarce. Twitter is full of people asking others for Bluesky access codes to avoid being put on a waitlist.
    It’s become the latest platform to be described as a potential Twitter replacement for some following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media app.

    You can sign up get on a wait list to sign up here:

    Blue Sky Social wait list.

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Saying “none of your business” when asked about your meetings with a (to borrow a phrase from the philosopher John Oliver about another shithead) sophisticated Manhattan sex monster is QUITE A CHOICE TO MAKE. Fuck off, Noam.

    Also, of fucking course Megyn got that stupid hat from Posie Parker. Two bigoted peas in a pod.

  10. 10.

    Anne Laurie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): $11 for Twitter Blue?! What happened to the $8/mo?

    Apparently it’s $11 a month through the Apple iPhone app, because ‘$3 service charge‘.  Word is that Musk just hates the corporate Apple people and wanted to discourage people from ‘buying’ Twitter through them (although, of course, he himself uses Apple products).

  12. 12.

    Kay

    I think blogging was/is good for Democrats. Our own little homegrown, bootstrappy response to Fox News and conventional media.

  14. 14.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Anne Laurie:

    Oh wow, I forgot about the Apple thing. That tracks. I think Musk talked about a “$3 service charge” on top of the normal $8, but thought Apple and Musk had worked things out. What an unbelievably petty loser Musk is lol

  15. 15.

    TriassicSands

    Yesterday, driving home from an appointment, I heard an interview/piece on NPR that illustrated why, if we lose, we will have lost. The tale was about a woman who said, more or less — I wasn’t really paying any attention to the abortion bills, since I figured they didn’t affect me. — (paraphrased).

    She was taking birth control, but she and her husband had an “Eh, whatever,” attitude toward another pregnancy. And she got pregnant. But things didn’t work out and she developed a non-viable pregnancy that eventually threatened her life. Of course, the new laws in Texas (and elsewhere) prevented doctors from practicing medicine and doing a D&C. I think, at one point, doctors told her to wait in her car in the hospital parking lot and if “X” happened to come back in and they would proceed.

    The problem here, to me anyway, is that this woman only cared when it affected her directly. And only when that threatened her life. But all of this affects everyone. If my neighbor or a complete stranger dies because religion or politics is determining medical treatment, it affects me, because I live in this country and i expect everyone to get the best possible medical care (even though, given the state of our extraordinarily dysfunctional health care system, that isn’t even probable).

    The woman in question was totally self-centered. Others can take care of themselves. But then when the tables were turned and she was in the sights of Alito, Thomas, Barrett, et al. and Abbott, DeSantis, McCarthy, et al. she was shocked at the way they treated her. Oh, and initially, she had to be transferred from her original hospital, which was Catholic, to another facility that wouldn’t simply let her die once she qualified for “allowable” third rate treatment.

    Given the state of our electorate and the qualities instilled in so many Americans from an early age, I don’t see how we turn this around. It’s an open question whether the woman in that story will, now that she has experienced first hand what countless women across the country are suffering, start caring about anyone but herself. She survived. It’s not likely to happen to her again. So, why pay attention? Why care?

  17. 17.

    randy khan

    I put a pretty serious amount of effort into my social media, particularly political stuff.  I do it because I enjoy it, because I hope I can open a bit of a window for people who aren’t as engaged as me, and because I also hope to get people more involved.  But it’s actual work to do it right – you can’t just splat something out and think it will be any good.  (And on social media I wouldn’t say “splat something out,” but would spend some effort to come up with something more elegant.*)

     

    *Not that this joint ain’t elegant.

  18. 18.

    PaulB

    I get where these wannabe Twitter stars are coming from, since I have also occasionally wondered if I could ever have something go viral, if I could build an online following eager for the pearls of wisdom that I would let drop every day.

    The difference is that I think about this in much the same way that I think about being a rock star, or being a famous actor, or being a sports icon — as an amusing fantasy that has no connection to the real world. Because the reality is that I’m really not good at the kind of writing that would lend itself to that goal, just as I don’t have what it takes to be a rock star, an actor, or a sports icon.

    It’s called growing up. Rather than focusing on, and pining over, the skills I do not have, the kind of person I will never be, I would very much prefer to focus on the skills that I do have, making the most of the person that I am. The alternative is that I turn into Elon Musk, desperately trying to be the cool kid and instead coming across as needy and pathetic.

  19. 19.

    lowtechcyclist

    Blogging, hell. I’m ready to see message boards make a comeback.

  20. 20.

    randy khan

    @TriassicSands:

    That story sounds like the woman who testified before a Senate committee last week.  And for the reason you talk about, one of the things I’ve been doing since Dobbs is amplifying stories like hers on social media to make the point that these laws effectively prioritize everything else over a woman’s health.

  21. 21.

    randy khan

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Heck, bring back The Fray at Slate!

    (I was a serious sports message board person for a while, mostly women’s college basketball.  It was fun.)

  22. 22.

    Eolirin

    @Anne Laurie: It’s because Apple takes a 30% cut for purchases made via apps on their store. He’s making sure he gets his full $8 despite that policy.

    Twitter isn’t the only company that does this.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    This just enrages me. These were purely political prosecutions. There has to be come kind of civil rights claim these people can make. They were targeted and prosecuted for no other reason than Republicans in Florida believed it would help them politically. It’s fucking outrageous.

    ORLANDO — The fallout came fast when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s new election police unit charged Peter Washington with voter fraud last summer as part of a crackdown against felons who’d allegedly broken the law by casting a ballot. The Orlando resident lost his job supervising irrigation projects, and along with it, his family’s health insurance. His wife dropped her virtual classes at Florida International University to help pay their rent. Future plans went out the window.“It knocked me to my knees, if you want to know the truth,” he said. But not long after, the case against Washington began falling apart. A judge from Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit ruled the statewide prosecutor who filed the charges didn’t have jurisdiction to do so. Washington’s attorney noted that he had received an official voter identification card in the mail after registering. The case was dismissed in February.

  24. 24.

    Anne Laurie

    @Scout211: Confession time — I’m one of the luzers on the BlueSky waitlist.   Never actually joined Twitter, but if BlueSky can attract enough of the news media / smart twitter-quippers that I lurk to read, it looks like a good place for my needs.

    (Mastodon, sorry guys, does not work with my particular OCD/ADD brain.  I did sign up for Post, but so far, it’s not been useful to me — plenty of earnest professional-media ‘fiber’, but nothing interesting I haven’t seen elsewhere first.)

  25. 25.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Still waiting for the return of AOL chatrooms and Usenet

  28. 28.

    bbleh

    @TriassicSands: But all of this affects everyone.

    “Everything is connected to everything else.” But that’s not the point.  The point is whether you care.  And “caring” is an aspect of morality (MFT fan here) that is much more characteristic of “liberals” than of “conservatives,” per polling / research responses.

    A large chunk of our electorate don’t care about “others.”  They “look after our own,” and the less like “our own” someone is — culturally, racially, socioeconomically, whatever — the less they care.

    That ain’t gonna change, at least not for a long while.  The question is how to deal with it.  But one thing is for sure: you don’t stop caring.

  29. 29.

    BellyCat

    At least social media has managed to do away with threaded forums. Who would ever want to engage in a thoughtful extended conversation longer than a several hour window? //

  30. 30.

    Jim Appleton

    Please chatbotgpt, write me a comment like BJ Baud, but a lot better, then ask for money.

  31. 31.

    E.

    @bbleh: the more frightened of the world you are, the more tribal you become. It’s why I think the endpoint of Fox News is violent social disintegration. But when I am feeling more charitable I acknowledge that Fox News itself is merely a highly predictable result of capitalism.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    kinda blows my mind that people don’t understand the difference between a famous person who is on Twitter and a person who is famous on Twitter.

  34. 34.

    bbleh

    @E.: concur that fear is the root of a lot of it, and that Fox is mostly a symptom, a wildly lucrative response to an existing market opportunity.  I think the same is true of TFG btw.  But in both cases there is a feedback effect: they validate, and thereby encourage, both the fear and the responses to it, and they grow their audience thereby.  That is to say: they are symbiotic parasites.

  35. 35.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @different-church-lady:

    What, are you going to tell me that there’s a difference between catturd2 and Stephen King?

    The fact that there was a “catturd” or a “catturd1” that was already taken on Twitter gives me a chuckle

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    @E.: All of modern capitalism is now leveraging emotional manipulation for profit. The only thing that differs from industry to industry is the particular methods of manipulation.

  41. 41.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I NEVER post anything on twitter but I do read it daily for different content.  I have been trolling our local weatherman a bit recently by responding to his posts.  He is a right wing puke funnel of information. Gotta love a racist weatherman who thinks climate change is a hoax, anyone who has solar panels is wasting their money, teenagers need to imprisoned for every offense, etc….

  48. 48.

    Layer8Problem

    Blogging, yeah, let’s bring that back.  Anybody know any good blogs?

    Seriously, I would like to see more thoughtful long-form sites.

    I never spent any time on Twitter, and after the Musk purchase I had even less interest.  Jack Dorsey strikes me as a rich, untrustworthy dingbat so I won’t go to Bluesky no matter how cool or inevitable it is.  I find Mastodon pleasant enough, although people regularly assure everyone in earshot that it’s missing that certain something that made Twitter the bomb.  For instance Mastodon has no search, which I can understand is an annoyance, or a clunky interface, which I guess I’m not seeing as a problem having had no experience of Twitter’s outstanding user experience.

  49. 49.

    Betsy

    I’d go further than Ed Zitron; I’d say that it’s a natural outcome of the American myths of meritocracy and prosperity on earth being a mark of a Puritan God’s favor.

    What we have right now are millions of people who are at the middle to bottom of the social and economic heap, and they’re resentful because they’re white, dammit, and they have been told that it’s a sign of God‘s favor to do well in the world. They’ve also been told that America is a meritocracy. So if they’re at the bottom (or, even just lower than they think they deserve), even though they’re white and proud, someone must’ve “took” something from them. Translates straight into a bunch of casual to dedicated right-wingers on Twitter doing what they’re doing now (bitching).

  50. 50.

    Splitting Image

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    BREAKING: Gordon Lightfoot has died. Canada’s troubadour was 84.

    Damn. Another person Henry Kissinger has outlived.

    Lightfoot was a helluva songwriter. One of those folks you don’t really appreciate until you go through your collection and realize how many different bands have covered his songs.

  53. 53.

    Betsy

    @TriassicSands: yes, I heard that story! And I was extremely sympathetic right up until the end, when the stupid woman said she was pro-life, but the government shouldn’t get between her and her doctor.

    And I just thought, oh you selfish, selfish dipshit.

    As always with pro-lifers:  “the only good abortion is MY abortion.”

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    if you've been waiting on bluesky and really feel like you're missing out, let me tell you this: the place is losing it's fucking mind for jake tapper. jake tapper is trying to shitpost and everyone is cooing over him. i am not medicated enough for that shit.

    — Sen. Lemon Gogurt (I – Podcastia) (@Ugarles) May 1, 2023

    FWIW.

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    HHS is finally  getting involved.

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is investigating two hospitals that “did not offer necessary stabilizing care to an individual experiencing an emergency medical condition, in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA),” according to a letter from US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

    Under EMTALA, health care professionals are required to “offer treatment, including abortion care, that the provider reasonably determines is necessary to stabilize the patient’s emergency medical condition,” Becerra said Monday in his letter to national hospital and provider associations.

    . . .

    Passed in 1986, EMTALA requires that hospitals provide stabilizing treatment to patients who have emergency medical conditions, or transfer them to facilities where such care will be provided, regardless of any conflicting state laws or mandates.

    . . .

    Hospitals found to be in violation of EMTALA could lose their Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements and could face civil penalties. An individual physician could also face civil penalties if they are found to be in violation.

    HHS may impose a $119,942 fine per violation for hospitals with more than 100 beds and $59,973 for hospitals with fewer than 100 beds. A physician could face a $119,942 fine per violation.

    The National Women’s Law Center says the new actions are the first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned that EMTALA has been enforced against a hospital that denied emergency abortion care.

  57. 57.

    West of the Rockies

    My kid went to elementary school with a girl who  now gets 25-75K views on her TikTok for doing nothing more than lip-synching and posing sexually (but clothed).  She was one of the super vain mean girls who insulted pretty much everyone.   She remains vapid and unpleasant, but courtesy of genetic bingo has achieved minor fame pretending to have talent and making goo-goo eyes at a camera.

    Success is not always based on merit or sterling character.  Who is that dreadful young conservative blonde woman (25ish) who is mean, spiteful, but conventionally attractive?  Yuck.

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    I swear to God I am not making this headline up:

    A ‘full body orgasm’ at the L.A. Phil? Witnesses offer conflicting accounts

    Molly Grant was enjoying the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony on Friday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall when she heard what she described as a “scream/moan” erupt from the balcony.

    “Everyone kind of turned to see what was happening,” Grant, who was seated near the person who allegedly made the noise, told The Times on Sunday in a phone interview.

    “I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she … had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing, and her partner was smiling and looking at her — like in an effort to not shame her,” said Grant, who works for a jewelry company and lives in Los Feliz. “It was quite beautiful.”

  60. 60.

    Nelle

    Just a little report on my ongoing project (I call it Old Woman Project Phase 2).  When I taught, I spent time crafting good questions, questions I didn’t have a firm answer to, questions to provoke thoughtful response, no quick reactions.  In the classroom, the students had to write responses before discussion would start, and they needed to engage each other on the responses.

    Phase 2 of my project is to seek out people of the approximate ages that I used to teach (18-22) and, after I ask if they are willing to talk to me for a few minutes (to which everyone has said yes), I ask them where they get their news (or information, since a number even hate the idea of “news).  Then I ask various questions (ideally, similar to ones I developed when teaching) such as what they wish people my age understood, or what, if I as an older person had the power to change, what they would want me to change to benefit them.

    I’m on week three and having these conversations with about five people a week.  Some stretch out to as much as 45 minutes.  I’m buoyed by listening to them.  One today (a foundation repair guy) said, “I really like that question but I’m going to need to think carefully about it.”  Later – “Is there a way we can begin to hear each other over the din of arguing and taking positions that we won’t move from?”  But he said he would like to talk more about it when he comes back to do some more work.

    Other responses have been about health care, getting control of one’s future by not going to college (avoiding college debt), reproductive health care, and, almost always, guns.

    My sisters tell me that I will go up and talk to anyone.  I’m trying to channel that.  Oh, and so far, not one that I have talked to is registered to vote.  You can see where I’m going to be going with that one.

  63. 63.

    Betsy

    @Kay:

    Sounds to me like a Section 1983 action (for deprivation of rights under color of law) may be available.

    Makes the official  personally liable for damages, too.

  64. 64.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’m not super into sports, but it’s always great when the scrappy underdogs defy expectations. At least the 76ers gave the Celtics a run for their money, at home to boot

  67. 67.

    Tony G

    Does anyone remember laughter?  and blogging?  (Time for a 20 minute guitar solo now.)

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Betsy:

    These are people who are convicted felons who almost miraculously made it back far enough to register to vote. So really the most rehabilitated felons- the top of the class. Until Ron DeSantis and the Republicans in Florida decided they would just start arresting them as part of a political game. They all lost their jobs as a result of the arrest although most of the cases are now being dismissed because they were complete bullshit. Don’t they deserve some kind of compensation? 50k each sounds reasonable to me.

  71. 71.

    The Moar You Know

    I hate everyone, so blogging was always the only acceptable “social media” option.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Mastodon is making it easier for newcomers to create an account on the platform. On Monday, the decentralized network announced that it will start directing new users to create an account on mastodon.social instead of prompting them to choose from one of the thousands of other servers on the platform.

    This update doesn’t mean that Mastodon’s taking away the ability for new users to sign up for an account in a specific community, though. It will simply present two separate options on its signup page: “Join mastodon.social” or “Pick my own server.” The service’s flagship mastodon.social server is the platform’s largest, but the network notes that users can swap instances at any time.

    Prior to this change, creating a Mastodon account wasn’t as simple as just entering your email and making a password. Mastodon originally had users choose which instance, or community, they’d like their account to live on. For those new to the platform, this step is a bit intimidating, especially now that Mastodon now has over 12,000 instances users can join.… Source

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    I remember reading that Gordon Lightfoot never took a penny of the royalties from The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, that he gave it all to the families of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s crew. I have a great deal of respect for that.

  77. 77.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: I personally think that was his best. I saw him perform it live twice, and he made a large theater feel like an intimate club both times. Such a beautiful ballad.

  79. 79.

    CaseyL

    @Nelle: That is an amazing project you have going!  Your background as a teacher (and a damn fine one, going by what your methods were) really helps with that.

    Knowing how to coax out honest communication, get people to delve into their responses, is an honest-to-god gift.

    I do see where you’re going with it, and hope you succeed beyond your wildest dreams – like, not only register the ones you’re talking to, but also get them to convince their friends to register, too!

  80. 80.

    satby

    This probably explains why there’s so much toxic narcissism online, and certainly not just on Twitter:

    The problem is that the attention that you feel on Twitter is extremely addictive. The feeling of having someone — or potentially hundreds of thousands of people —hang on your every word can be deeply intoxicating. One can attribute a great deal of meaning to likes and retweets — that you’re intelligent, important, or “right” on an existential level — and conversely one can attribute so much more to the negative feedback one gets.

  81. 81.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    Class act

    @NotMax:

    Such a shame Hollywood doesn’t make musicals like that anymore. I remember seeing It’s Always Fair Weather with Gene Kelly in it a few years back. Guy was super talented. Only he could tap dance in skates of all things

  90. 90.

    Ken

    Regarding the tweet shown above,

    Even with “2x prioritized” impressions are still down at least -50% since January 13th.

    That’s because Musk is giving you a bigger slice of the pie, but making the pie so much smaller that you get less pie in absolute terms.

    This is the opposite from the usual economic idea of making the pie bigger so everyone gets more without fiddling with the distribution, but that is because regular economists are not geniuses of the caliber of Musk.

  92. 92.

    eversor

    Musk thinks he knows shit posting, but QuakeNet was a thing before twitter, and better at it.  I’m still on IRC!

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @Scout211: HHS may impose a $119,942 fine per violation for hospitals with more than 100 beds and $59,973 for hospitals with fewer than 100 beds.

    How bizarre. I can only guess these numbers started at $100,000 and $50,000, and have been adjusted for inflation each year, or some such thing.

    I find them reminiscent of some mathematical conjectures, where properties are shown to hold for curiously exact numbers. Like, a certain property holds for all graphs with at least N nodes, and there’s a proof that N is no more than 683,447,225,968.  Then a few years later someone finds a different proof method and tightens the bound to 682,700,426,840.

  97. 97.

    Dan B

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Early Morning Rain just tears me up.  You know what he’s talking about and he never tells you it’s through the implied feelings.  It narrated my feelings as a young gayling not knowing if there was anyone like me and how deep the loneliness was.

  101. 101.

    JCJ

    @Amir Khalid:  Another thing I read about Gordon Lightfoot is that he was offered money for rights to the song for a parody based on Edmund Fitzgerald, but he refused.  The song was to note the decline of the NHL team that no longer had Wayne Gretzky – The Wreck of the Edmonton Oilers.

  104. 104.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’ll sit back and watch Blue Sky since it’s Jack’s baby and l know how great Jack’s decisions are…lol. I read that he wants to monetize likes with payment via crypto. Choosing to hype it with limited scarcity, I mean access is pure advertising genius that will get the attention of those who like bright shiny baubles to drape around their necks and show off.

    Fuck that static…

  105. 105.

    James E Powell

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The 76ers gave them more than a run for their money, they beat them.

    Although they were not favored and will not be without Joel Embiid, no one considers the 76ers scrappy underdogs. The scrappy underdogs in this year’s playoffs are the Miami Heat.

  107. 107.

    prostratedragon

    @JCJ:  Truly and thankfully a man of taste and discretion [shudder]. I must look up more of his songs, as that’s the only one that came to my mind.

  108. 108.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Speaking of Twitter, word is DougJ sold out to Big Liberalism at the White House Correspondence Dinner.

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @CaseyL:

    Not to mention the GOP has pushed forward the most miserable collection of sadists, ignoramuses, and corrupt nitwits we’ve ever seen in public office – kind of an Affirmative Action for Incredibly Awful White People.

    This needs to be widely quoted. Mainly because it’s very, very true.

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    @PaulB:

    I think for most humans just being an actual real human being and not trying to be something you aren’t, something that few really are, or someone who everyone thinks is the most amazing total human being ever, is the best plan. Because no matter how good we are at something, we are human and likely suck donkey balls in some way or another – or in many, many ways even. Lowering the donkey ball sucking quotient seems like a far more useful concept of humanity to me. Actually not being a homophobe, a racist, a sexual predator, thief, douchebag, etc really can separate one from a lot of humanity. A better normalcy can be a good thing…

  113. 113.

    Jager

    @prostratedragon:

    Gordon was requested to write a song for the Canadian Centennial in 1957, the result Canadian Railroad Trilogy.

    There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

    When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

    Long before the white man and long before the wheel

    When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

  114. 114.

    karen marie

    @Betsy: One of the sisters of that gross pedophile in Arkansas – from the family that was on TV with – what, 21 kids? – had an abortion but she claims it wasn’t abortion because it was “necessary.”

    It makes one want to break things.

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    @E.:

    But when I am feeling more charitable I acknowledge that Fox News itself is merely a highly predictable result of capitalism.

    It is a result of OUR capitalism, the way it is run, the people it profits most. Faux news is a capitalistic version of Russia. Constant bullshit, hiding reality under a layer of shitty reporting and makeup, trying their damnest to program people to be subjective to said bullshit and makeup.

  117. 117.

    Jinchi

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think Musk talked about a “$3 service charge” on top of the normal $8, but thought Apple and Musk had worked things out.

    I know that Apple places a surcharge on apps bought through their App Store, but why would that include a monthly charge to a subscription service?

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    @Ken:

    regular economists are not geniuses of the caliber of Musk.

    A caliber connotes a measurable breadth, substance, and in this instance I believe that measurable is doing a rather significant amount of work for such a minimal breadth or substance.

  124. 124.

    Sebastian

    @Nelle:

    God bless you, Nelle. Would you be so kind and share your questions with us? I believe your approach is immensely useful.

  126. 126.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    It looks like the book ban craze is trying to infect our library here in Brookings, OR. Three of the five positions are up in the May 16th election and the incumbents all have challengers. When I see yard signs for the library I know that shit is up. It turns out that the three incumbents (women) are for not banning books and the three men who are running against them are. One race has another woman running in it but I am not even looking at her as I’m voting for the incumbents and telling all that I can around here to do the same.

    Unfortunately, if I had to bet I would put my money on the nutjobs winning because rural Oregon.

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    @Ruckus:

    BTW the last job I worked on – (got paid for!) was making 6 hardened steel 5/8 diameter pins slightly smaller with a tolerance of +/-35 millionths of an inch. And that’s damn small so when I say measurement I do know what I’m talking about.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    Listening to Gorden Lightfoot sing “In the Lee of Christian Island” and remembering the sailboat I used to own. A hell of a lot of work but sailing was relaxing, stressful, beautiful and fun. Once went on a friends 36 foot catamaran and I sailed it back from Catalina to Ventura in 1 1/2 hrs. A hell of a lot more fun than being in the Navy.

  130. 130.

    Chris T.

    @dmsilev:

    the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony …

    Now, where can I get a recording of that performance? 🎻🤭

  131. 131.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Thanks for the info and correction. I’ll wait, still. I’ve never been good at following herds, preferring to sit back and watch how things develop.

    Jack in anything that deals with the public isn’t good for anybody but Jack.

  132. 132.

    Nelle

    @Sebastian: Thank you for your kind words.

    I usually begin a conversation by saying something to the effect that I spent decades teaching young people and am realizing how much I miss that age.  Would they be willing bring me up to date on how they now get information or news?  Depending on what they say, I go from there.  The two biggest ones are – What do you wish people my age knew or understood about what it is like to be young now?  If people my age could change something that would make life better for people like you, what might that be?  Then onwards from there, depending on what is mentioned.

    Several times, someone has said, “No one has ever asked me what I think before.”  That saddens me immensely.  But for almost every person, something shifts with the question.  The person slows down, gets thoughtful.  One said she just wasn’t used to thinking about anything in those terms.  Would I share what others had said?  Sure, I responded and we went on to have a conversation about guns and safety (she lived on a farm down an isolated road).

    I talk to baristas, beauticians, HVAC techs, and yesterday, a very  young Highway Patrolman, on duty at the Iowa Legislature.  I ask if they have a little time to talk to an old woman and I’ve not had a negative reply yet.  I think I  come across very grandmotherly but mostly as someone who is genuinely interested, because I am.

    I was writing up some teaching anecdotes about the ways that my students taught and changed me and how I approached teaching.  That is what got me going on this.  I spend most of my time around people my age and my grandchildren, whom I care for at least 20 hours a week.  They are 10 months, 4, and 5.  All of them have something to reveal, to teach me, but I really do miss those who are on the cusp of adulthood.

  135. 135.

    Nelle

    I deliberately leave out mention of political parties.  I’m there for what they want to say.  One asked me what motivated me, though.  I said, “Children.  I want them to grow up in safety and without fear.  I want to have a society where they can thrive.”  Nothing about parties, even though I am the get-out-the-vote person for my neighborhood and now, the next one too.  Parties necessarily have agendas.  I want people to know what their priorities are first and foremost, not their tribal, or party, identities.  I guess I’m pretty confident that if people are clear on their positive priorities, they will see that one party is for people like them to thrive.  But all that is down the road.

    I am thinking, though, that I should be carrying voter registration forms, envelopes, and stamps, just in case.  Just have to think about how to transition to that.  It almost needs a second conversation before I go from listening to asking them to take an action, even if I make that action easier.

  136. 136.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Betsy:

    The English Revolution in the 17th century has been thought by many historians to have been the result of the decline in prosperity and prospects of the English gentry. Note, not the much ballyhooed middle class, but the class that had expectations of both riches and social deference. In those days there was a middle class, often very rich but social deference was reserved for those who got to claim it by birth.

    I think the decline in social status is more toxic to the layers effected than a decline in money income per se, although impoverishment is a factor that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

    In the Anglo sphere there is a two fold movement. Tertiary educated young people, often, but not always, the children of the postwar middle class, who are finding stable jobs, housing and debt repayment an increasing impossibility. And the ‘old middle class layers’ in regional areas that have declined in both status and prosperity over the last twenty years.

    Both groups are sources of political movement. One towards more radical politics, and the other towards revanchism.

    This is not confined to the US. It is evident in Australia and in the UK.

    Presumably it might also effect other polities. But the post war ‘great middle class’ based on wealth accumulation via tertiary degrees and housing ownership looks like coming to an end. The first political movement that successfully engages with that will win.

  137. 137.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Aussie Sheila:

    And to be clear, I believe that the younger layers of an increasingly stretched urban middle and working class are the layers that a progressive politics should reach out to and organise. That doesn’t mean neglecting the rural and regional working class, but it does mean devising strategies that reach out to dynamic layers that are experiencing their own political awakening, while not milqutoasting messages to reach layers that are in the process of decomposing politically.

    It also means redoubling efforts to reorganise the traditional working class wherever it works and lives.

  138. 138.

    Another Scott

    @Nelle: That’s wonderful.  Thank you for what you are doing.  It matters, and thanks for telling us about it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    catclub

    @Kay: ​ 

    There has to be come kind of civil rights claim these people can make.

    Yeah, right. Good luck with that. How many district attorneys get the tables turned on them and get prosecuted for malicious prosecution? I am guessing negative 1000.​

  142. 142.

    Chris Johnson

    @Wyatt Salamanca: I could have predicted Chomsky simply on the basis of him simping for Russia and being extensively, openly anti-Ukraine.

    A quick google search of ‘noam chomsky on ukraine’ brings up all the Russian talking points.

    Given the possibility that people like Trump and Epstein were all part of an elaborate Russian operation to compromise people of all political leanings, why shouldn’t we look into whether Noam Chomsky allowed Jeffery Epstein to indulge him with illegal sexual treats? Chomsky would not be the only one compromised.

    It really seems like Ukraine is the litmus test, and it’s shocking how many people fail that test.

  143. 143.

    WaterGirl

    @Nelle: once you have talked to a bunch of people, it sounds like you will likely be writing something up to put your thoughts together.

    If you want to share that on Balloon Juice, I would be happy to put up a guest post.

    As for voter registration, I think if you pull out those materials in the first conversation, they might fell used, or like you aren’t genuinely interested… that you are using the questions just as an entry to get them registered.  Second conversation?  I think it’s fair game then.  Just my two cents in case you are interested.

  144. 144.

    Sloegin

    In a way, I do like the toxic blue checks all floating to the top of a thread, it makes it so much easier to block them.  Like skimming scum off the top of a soup.

  145. 145.

    Ruckus

    @Chris Johnson:

    Given current day politics in the US, I’m not actually all that shocked. For some “unknown” reason there are a lot of people today who are against anything that even remotely sounds like of what many of us believe this country stands for, what it was founded for. A lot of the right side of the aisle today seems to be motivated by anything that is diametrically opposed to the concepts of what this country was supposedly founded upon.

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