Dan Ancona

If there was only one tub of that left post apocalypse, I would fight you in an ugly way for it

Oh, god. It’s going to turn all this nice fluffy stuff into sierra cement though. We have palisades reservations next weekend… sob.

It’s a small thing and I do not fly that often, but I have been opting out of biometrics at TSA checkpoints for the past two years. It’s weirdly easy and every single TSA officer (literally, 100%) has been super cool and professional about it, even when it’s busy. Strongly recommend.

We should do everything we can to help Democratic politicians leave Twitter behind. Help the AG out!

Berlin, Germany, March 27, 1936
An enormous banner of Hitler with the words "Freedom-Peace" on the front of the Berlin railway station

Washington, DC, February 19, 2026
An enormous banner of Trump with the words "Make America Safe Again" on the front of the DOJ

He's not even pretending anymore

Left and Dem groups not mounting a stronger response is a direct consequence of quant brain mistakes. Ad effects do decay. The right has interpreted this to mean "shit, we should run ads constantly," Dems as "only run ads in Oct..." and the left has no budget bc Dem donors blame them for losses. fun

worth a try, but I'm mostly mad our groups aren't mounting a stronger response

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There's still SO much center stage effect happening in the Dem electorate. The more moderate person is more electable, better, blah blah. But if we keep doing this we are going to wind up with candidates that don't know what time it is, or know where the clock is, or even how to tell time.

Focusing this so heavily on the stupid DNC return to office kerfuffle is such a fucking tell. who seriously cares. There's been no reckoning?? They're averting their gaze? Even by the absymal standards of DC hack jobs this is weakly slanderous drivel.

Was watching Morning Joe to see what Leibovich says about his hit piece on the Dems and came across this...yes, it's a pro-ICE ad on MSNOW and yes, we are thoroughly cooked. Group is "American Soverignity," spend is $470k so far, mostly in Senate battlegrounds.

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With New Momentum, Republican States Push Broader Limits for Trans Americans In states that once focused mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors, debates now revolve around the validity of transgender identity.

The subheadline on this NYT piece is going to turn me into the Joker.

Like... this... is exactly what trans people have been saying was going to happen for years.

I specifically tell reporters on ridealongs that I’m not the story, that I’m bringing them along so they can see what’s happening in Minneapolis. Including this reporter. She said she also wanted to interview me, about why I’m doing it. I would not have agreed if I’d known it would be about ME ONLY

The magic even comes across in stills!

yep. it's all pretty simple really!

🧵➡️"The core of the problem is that right wing arguments are so burrowed into so many people's OODA loops that they think asking a facially neutral question about 'policy' like a bathroom bill represents genuine neutrality. The problem is just by asking this, you're already on right wing terrain."

This is the correct approach!!! Excellent work!!

You all should get Alysa Liu to come talk at this. only half joking. Maybe a quarter joking!

Also I'm not claiming this is the most strategic approach here. (Way is working on other more strategic/bigger effort things) This stuff gave me a rage aneurysm this week and I had to channel it into something, hopefully somewhat/vaguely productive. At least trying to work the problem.

This a real problem, because whatever quibbles I have, I'm going to mostly totally agree with what the Prospect says. The Argument stuff is designed to go right into the stupid group chats and get into the Dem strategy bloodstream. Feel like I have to fight it even with toothpicks and spitballs.

YES. My kiddo is nationally competitive in one of his sports and me saying "this is fun, we're doing this for fun, it's about fun, if it's not fun you can quit" 50000x was one micro sliver as powerful as her LIVING THAT, in front of all of us. It's had a lingering impact on me too!!

Back to politics and research nerding, but it actually connects back to figure skating at the end!

I feel a degree of despair that nothing will change because it has to start with people doing inner work and examining their own biases and discomforts. But maybe the culture racing so far ahead of the political curve the Dems are stuck on will do it eventually. God bless the figure skaters.
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Their other dodge was they are "just asking questions," that they were just innocent truth tellers. But doing the right's job for them is a deeply irresponsible use of the power people who do this work have to shape the national conversation - and real people's lives.

Real truths: Every question is built from frames of some kind; nothing is truly neutral. And because social signals are the singlemost powerful tool in the persuasion toolbox, every poll both measures and influences public opinion. Polling is tremendously powerful.

Many people said (angrily, even) "these questions are biased."

So, ok. A question measuring that yes, years and hundreds of millions of dollars of nearly entirely unopposed right wing arguments has been effective is neutral.

But questions pointing at how we get out of this mess? Biased.

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There's no shortage of data showing how to get out of this. The issue is 60+/29 on the baseline, even 39% of conservatives agree. It's 86/20 (!!) if you frame it something politicians shouldn't be trying to divide people with! And an elected who opposes trans attacks is +62 Dem/+9 indies.

everyone is performing gender correctly enough to enter the bathroom of their choice? Will they be doing genital checks, too? On kids? Or maybe there will be a nice Palantir Potty Surveillance App you can use to check in. The whole thing is ridiculous, insanity. But they polled it like it's serious.

Bathroom bills sound reasonable only because the right has argued for them at great effort and expense. But: *there's no possible way they could be enforced that isn't a stark raging dystopian nightmare.* Like, what: are we going to have masked Bathroom Monitor Agents in tactical vests ensuring

The core of the problem is that right wing arguments are so burrowed into so many people's OODA loops that they think asking a facially neutral question about "policy" like a bathroom bill represents genuine neutrality. The problem is just by asking this, you're already on right wing terrain.

Couple hopefully final reflections on the Argument anti-trans poll from earlier this week, because I think this goes to what's gone sideways in the information environment and raises some process questions about how we fix it. GEM's substantive, measured response is very good here.