Jonathan Stray

Study: Most Americans Do Not Support Partisan Violence | Dartmouth

This data probably greatly overstates the case. Most surveys on this topic do, due to inattentive responding and poorly worded questions.
More careful research

home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/02...

You Gotta Hand It To The Mormons Not left but neither quite right, and recently morally courageous - BCB #167

The Mormons seem to be actually following the biblical conflict advice about loving your enemies. They could be an important “third side” in American politics.

www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/you-gotta-...

We will literally have a newsletter next week! Stay tuned...

Honestly the thing I love about today's WAFFLES discourse is how utterly, hilariously, terminally online it is. If you know what I'm talking about you also spend way too much time on the internet. Also, I've been doing that longer than you and yes, it's always been this way.

‘War-ravaged’ cities don’t typically have artisanal kombucha on every corner.

Ready to die on the hill of "social media doesn't have to suck"

Had an impromptu epic whiteboard sesh about deep theory with a student this afternoon and I’m like hell yeah, living the academic dream. So much of the rest of it is actually email.

I definitely favor algorithmic choice (and I'm building ATproto infra to bring it to the masses) but the defaults have to be right too... and there are common pitfalls for designers to avoid.

The Case for Downranking Fear Speech There's more of it than hate speech, and it's linked to violence - BCB #166

I think many of us felt that social media algorithms made things worse following the violence a couple weeks ago. Here's what I think went wrong and what to do about it.
www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/the-case-f...

I was experimenting with images illustrating how social media distorts our perceptions, amplifying rage.

(actual post in replies)

YouTube video by Bluetech - Topic Enter The Lovely (2020 Remastered)

Today's writing music: Sines and Singularities by Bluetech. This album got me through grad school (the second time around, when I studied journalism in Hong Kong). It still gets me focussed when I need to lock in.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8S...

I'm still savoring this one work email from a few months ago.
Either it was a typo or Rick is a fucking legend.

Musk just announced that you'll soon be able to control your Twitter feed by telling Grok what you want to see.

Guess what.

WE'RE ALREADY BUILDING THAT FOR BLUESKY

Join us.

Why Build Bridges when Democracy is Burning? The only way to win is for "us" to ally with some of "them" - BCB #165

I've been hearing recently from both libs and cons that the other side is such a threat that it must be crushed. I think this makes dialog all the more urgent, precisely to preserve our ability to disagree and have it matter. Am I naive or enlightened?
www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/why-build-...

YouTube video by mau5trap deadmau5 - 4ware

Today's coding music: deadmau5, but no words
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOD-...

As to who *supports* political violence (not commits) it:
tl;dr

- most surveys greatly overestimate, real numbers are low
2.1% Dem, 1.8% Rep

- but ~45% of each side THINKS the other side is in favor, which is a huge problem! escalation waiting to happen

home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/02...

2/2

Lots of arguing about whether left or right supports political violence more.

tl;dr:
- right has done more in recent decades
www.congress.gov/116/meeting/...
- left did way more in 1970s
www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_I...

1/2

Very interesting. Source?

Here. Though re-reading it, many of these tech problems are much better solved today

news.techmeme.com/081203/autom...

Because people are too quick to assume what others think, which alienates potential allies. You could, for example, read anything else I’ve written, rather than making hair-based assumptions.

The site now has a reputation for hostility, and honestly I think it’s deserved.

An exceptionally shrewd operator.

Also: the insanity of a society that makes this front page news fora week, whereas the far more transparently political assassination of the Minnesota House speaker was just a blip.

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

I mean... demographically speaking, this is the bubble. Twitter is much more representative of the US population along pretty much every axis.

How Many People Actually Approve of Kirk's Murder? The worst posts are cherry-picked anecdotes, so I collected data instead - BCB #164

I've been doing my part to try to chill things out with good information.
betterconflictbulletin.substack.com/p/how-many-p...

Hey now, at least take me out to dinner before you call me sweet names.

You know this is why BlueSky’s user base is shrinking, right?

Fair, but the RW counter argument is that the left cancelled people for stupid shit like making an “ok” sign or using the wrong word. As opposed to voicing support for murder, which seems much worse.

I don’t think anyone can say with certainty whether the shooter was “right” or “left” at this point. There are arguments either way. Better media refrained from speculation. And really — why are we all so eager to assign group blame?

Amazing. Their 2007 post about why purely algorithmic feeds just don’t work remains a banger. I used to teach it in my class.