Jacob Boenzi

Elon leaves with reputation in tatters As Musk's time in the White House comes to an end, let's be clear about his legacy.

"Musk is a greedy kleptocrat whose life’s work boils down to stealing from the poor to pad his own bottom line. That’s his legacy. He could’ve changed the world for the better; he had every resource available to him to do so. Instead, he made it markedly worse."

when i was a child, my family took CHIP and food stamps. this shaped my entire orientation toward government programs (positive) in a way most pundits don't have access to. and also, not to brag, but i think my siblings and i are proof that the ROI on feeding children is very high

The Right built a powerful, partisan, & participatory media environment to support its messaging, which offers a compelling "deep story" for its participants. The Left relied upon rigid, self-preserving institutional media and its "story" is little more than a defense of imperfect institutions.

May not be a perfect analogy but Elon is like a kid who just got new superpowers and now thinks he's entitled to use them however he pleases, frequently using his newfound power irresponsibly.

Voters are mostly partisans who rationalize, swing voters are often ignorant and voters project their views onto their candidates. But this has always been true! The media was better once, but there was no golden age. Most of their grandparents did not read Walter Lippmann's column.

Maybe Trump tries again in 2020, but he wouldn't had have the same influence over voters, who'd more likely see him a loser.

Democrats often pointed to inflation and overall economic conditions being worse in other countries but I've come to realize how out of touch that comes across to a lot of people. If voters think things are too costly here, they aren't going to care if it's 10x more expensive elsewhere.

It also normalized a lot of behaviors and changed the political parties. If Trump lost in 2016, the Republican establishment would have tried to take back control of the party from its base ("You had your chance and the country said no").

The big question is whether Blue Sky's recent growth is sustainable or if it's just a fad that will wear off soon.

It reminds me of when I started Twitter several years ago. It's simple and easy to navigate.

I've had a Blue Sky account for several months but never used it daily until the past week. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll post here full-time but I appreciate having another social media site free of bots and politically biased ads.