Will Stancil

While I do admire the Poasting, I think a huge chunk of the political disputes here come down to whether or not you think we should treat this reticence as an obstacle, or a constraint.

There was wall-to-wall coverage of January 6th, and it basically moved the moved and persuaded the persuaded.

Everyone’s fave funny, mean socialist accounts are basically responsible for getting us to this place and the reason we can’t fix it is that no one wants to be the killjoy who says “what if the funny, mean socialists are Bad, Actually”

Again, it’s precisely analogous to the dynamic on Twitter, where centrists generally won’t directly yuk it up with Nazis, but feel completely comfortable yukking it up with a lot of large and influential accounts who are clearly totally fine with the Nazis. They’re pulled that way by social gravity

Yeah, today, because something bad happened. But 95% of the time the same group of lunatics is basically treated as the coolest kids in the room, which is why we get to a place where this can happen.

It's very symmetric! Just like how the centrists on Twitter get pulled to the far right because they don't want to risk their social standing by denouncing it, a lot of progressives here get pulled the other direction because they don't want to risk their social standing criticizing the left

Obviously the Nazis are far worse, substantively. But the social dynamics aren't all that dissimilar. People want to accommodate themselves to the social environment and avoid conflict, so some pretty extreme or questionable (or just false or absurd) views find their way into the consensus

Everyone on here intuitively understands that hanging out with a bunch of Nazis on Twitter creates a powerful social pressure to accommodate yourself to far-right views, but then refuses to acknowledge that largely the same dynamic also exists on here with regard to some pretty nutty fringe leftists

Crisis (a Democrat is president): grocery prices rise 2% annually

Not a crisis (a Republican is president): the president ignores the Constitution to destroy half the federal government, deploys troops to US cities, surrenders Ukraine to Russia, and then calls for the mass execution of Democrats

living through the previously-absurd scenario of an out-of-control president looting the nation, ignoring the law, inciting violence, pardoning criminals, working with our enemies, but instead of some titanic political struggle most of society is just trying really hard to avoid mentioning it

this used to be the kind of thing you’d see in a Grand Theft Auto game as an over-the-top parody of America

@gregsargent.bsky.social’s conversation with Rep Houlahan is required listening. I agree with Greg: if Piggy’s threats against MOCs aren’t an impeachable offense, what are? Where are the Republican denunciations? They all took the oath to defend the constitution too!

CNN: If a sailor in the Caribbean is given an order they think possibly could be illegal, what are they to do?

HOULAHAN: If you receive an order you're not sure of, you have a duty to question your commander, the person next in your chain of command. You have a duty to go up the chain of command

fuck all these people being awful to starfish

(and also, this is an opportunity to block a whole bunch of this website’s most brain-dead tankies)

The Big Drama on here today just the latest reminder that there’s a pretty bad element on this site, and it’s also pretty bad that the ethos of the site’s tastemakers is “no enemies to the left,” which results in this element running rampant and pulling the discourse to insane places.

that’s clearly untrue even in recent history, but also, I think the meme exudes a clear contempt for the idea that liberal inclusion and tolerance are important values. you have to steelman that right out of the meme to make it harmless

may as well draw some fire. I’m the tank

“do we protect, include, and tolerate people from all backgrounds” is the beating heart and solemn promise of liberalism and I’m convinced people who trivialize it have not reflected on a world without it

she’s right

This is also me lol

“The things you’re saying don’t seem to be true”

“Oh looks like we’ve got some kind of DEBATE PERVERT here”

Remember, it’s very important to the Trump administration that no one give false statements under oath, which is why Jim Comey must go to jail for it

Okay so I just don’t find this persuasive. Falling a foot isn’t the same as falling a mile, even if you fall the same speed

Again, I don’t think housing markets are wonderful and perfect, but it seems clear that many common claims about housing are somewhere between incomplete and flat wrong, which makes me wonder what’s happening

The responses have the vibe of "we know crime is going up, it's obvious!!"

I’m very confused by what you’ve done here

Just to be clear this is your argument?

It happens!

That’s just wrong, your numbers are wrong

Sorry when was it 68%