Bret Wolfe

And if nothing can be trusted, then people can just pick their own favorite kooks and quacks who tell them whatever they want to hear. And soon they are living in a fully formed misinformation bubble of their own making.

We should talk about the small percentage of assumptions or conventional wisdom in any given field that are open to question, and yes it is interesting. But the massive amount of online information focused on those cases is leading some people to the conclusion that nothing can be trusted.

The entire online information ecosystem rewards contrarianism and off the wall kooks and quacks. The fact of the matter is 95%+ of the information in mainstream history books, newspapers, medical journals, etc. is accurate and uncontroversial. But who wants to listen to a podcast telling you that?

We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions.
#ScienceUnderSiege

He does not “allege” anything. He is discussing something privately with Maxwell that they both clearly *know.*

This headline is journalistic malpractice. This isn't Epstein "alleging" that Trump knew. This is Epstein and Maxwell discussing - in 2011, long before Trump had political salience - how the FACT that Trump knew might play out

Both of them took as a given that this was a fact in a private email

Dems should learn from Trump. Everything, that means EVERYTHING, that is suboptimal in the entire world is the President’s and his party’s fault. Dems need to say so every day, in every media appearance and every speech in congress. Those are the rules now.

OH. MY. GOD.

Joe Biden, an elderly white man in a blue suit, with his head hung down in sadness.

Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night

I would modify this slightly and say, go on Fox but have a prepared 45-60 sec preamble about how the network is a propaganda machine that routinely launders Republican lies and pays out hundreds of millions in defamation cases etc. — every single time. And if they don’t allow that, then don’t go on.

Rural/suburban conservatives definitely have a weird psychological relationship with the idea of crime in big cities. For cope, as you mentioned. But it’s obviously also racism. They fantasize about the idea of the state clamping down on minorities—that’s what Trump is giving to his voters.

vast majority of immigrants came out of desperation with noble motives to keep their families safe and work the hardest jobs for the lowest pay to build a better future is because MAGA has no empathy for the immigrants because they are racist. There’s no other way to explain the embrace of cruelty.

I say all of that to make the point: Saying simply that “they shouldn’t have come here illegally then” when justifying this kind of cruelty from ICE is a toddler-level response to a moral dilemma. But the people saying that aren’t toddlers. The reason they don’t grapple with the fact that the /4

Did the man do the right thing? Young children can’t understand the dilemma. They say simple things like “mom says stealing is bad”. But moral reasoning develops later and people start to understand things like life is more important than profit, etc. /3

the drug. He’s able to raise only half the cost (which would still give the pharmacist a 500% profit) and offers to pay the rest later. But the pharmacist still refuses to sell the drug. In desperation, the man breaks into the pharmacy at night, steals the drug, and saves his wife’s life. /2

The Heinz Dilemma is a hypothetical moral dilemma used to measure moral development from childhood to adulthood. The hypothetical is, in short, that a man’s wife is on her deathbed and one pharmacist recently invented the only drug that can save her. The man tries everything, but can’t afford /1

All of this nonsense is clearly about identifying and weeding out senior officers who the Trump administration thinks might refuse unlawful orders when the time comes.

They clearly want to weed out anyone who they think might refuse to follow unlawful orders when the time comes.

Or it may be there’s pent up demand for that dense, walkable, amenity-rich housing so the values are bid up more than construction cost would warrant.

A 3 bedroom apartment should absolutely be cheaper than a 3 bedroom SFH based on cost of construction alone. The rest is demand—need more supply.

The Democrats’ losses in 2016 and 2024 have virtually nothing to do with the actual issues and everything to do with who the candidates were. Swing voters will say they voted on X of Y issue, but it seems clear to me most are reasoning backwards from just viscerally not liking Hillary and Kamala.

Right. Also I don’t see anyone with a platform making the obvious and straightforward point that no one needs to be told by Democrats, the media, or “leftists” that MAGA is a dangerous proto-fascist movement made up of loathsome bigots — anyone can conclude that by listening to MAGA themselves.

This has to violate the settlement agreements with ABC and CBS — and, pathetically, they probably won’t do anything about it.

This must violate the previous settlement agreements. Let’s see if they have the balls to enforce them.

Tangential point, but I haven’t seen anyone with a platform make the obvious point that no one needs to be told my Democrats, the media, or “leftists” that MAGA is a dangerous proto-fascist movement. Literally anyone can conclude that on their own by just listening to and watching MAGA themselves.

This one too

You’re about 30 TIMES more likely to be killed on the average American road than on the New York City subway.

Let’s say the killer turns out to be a mentally ill “school shooter” type who really has no coherent ideology… that wouldn’t change the right wing discourse one iota.

The actual Republican platform: “We want women back in the kitchen, gays back in the closet, and minorities back in their place.” That’s the entire driving force of their electorate.

This still doesn’t quite capture it. It’s that Trump spent the campaign falsely telling his supporters that crime was out of control, and he understands his supporters’ psychological fixation on crime and race, so he’s providing them with the performative abuse of minorities they want.

People confuse bail and sentencing — and the media and police encourage the misunderstanding. The truth is that literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON affected by any bail reform law could have been released immediately anyway, if they could come up with some money.