Post AkyK4jVrO1r3dFvaSW by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #AkyHIhSBXXMfRAB2v2 by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:15:56Z
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I think an understated change in US politics is how completely Trump won the war over process and civility. Maybe “won the war” isn’t the right characterization, maybe defected and so pushed us all towards a defect/defect equilibrium rather then cooperate/cooperate in a stag-hunt style game. 1/
(DIR) Post #AkyHyyS8j9gGK1JWEa by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:23:34Z
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Democratic partisans, when pushed for policy specifics or unscripted, skeptical interviews call the press self-interested and untrustworthy.¹It’s more polite than dismissing traditional press as “fake news”, but it’s substantively quite similar.(I’m stealing @marick’s footnoting style!) 2/¹ https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/08/it-is-good-for-candidates-to-try-to-win-the-election
(DIR) Post #AkyILGNeklFqIJqS7E by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:27:36Z
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@marick The “when they go low we go high” rhetoric is just gone. Instead of clutching pearls when the other campaign insults, Democrats are reveling in being mean, even a bit dishonestly mean (cf Vance and the couch) to people who thoroughly deserve it. It feels liberatory to stop apologizing, to even go for mean. 3/https://itself.blog/2024/08/12/weird-conservatives-and-the-end-of-whiny-self-righteousness/
(DIR) Post #AkyIcfCHjsHWBVp6h6 by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:30:45Z
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@marick I have no view as to whether this is good or bad. I tend to be a bit of a pearl-clutcher myself, but that might just speak poorly of me. But I do think it interesting, it’s quite a vibe shift, and I think it’s fair to say that we’ve reset our norms (or our normlessness) around practices of Trump and his partisans that once we criticized. 4/
(DIR) Post #AkyIgTcKjbLRQdpF3o by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:31:26Z
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@marick I’m not accusing anyone of hypocrisy!In a fight, I’d criticize you if you reached for a knife, but once you had one in your hand and were lunging with it at me, I’d pick one up too! /fin
(DIR) Post #AkyJeaqMzo5hDS3ZsO by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
2024-08-14T22:42:16Z
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@interfluidity I think Trump simply intuited and then proved beyond doubt that policy issues aren’t important drivers of editorial prioritization. (They probably hadn’t actually been so for a long time.) Once that became clear to Democrats, trying to sell policies through the press became like public financing of campaigns: meritorious but pointless.
(DIR) Post #AkyJumf4pDcIVAUjfE by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:45:14Z
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@Jonathanglick Would it be better to have a more regulated “big media”, like we de facto did during the pre-cable, network television era, such that some nonpartisan definition of meritorious would translate to coverage?(Putting aside questions of whether / how such a regime could survive Constitutional challenge.)
(DIR) Post #AkyK4jVrO1r3dFvaSW by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
2024-08-14T22:46:58Z
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@interfluidity If it were magically possible, yes, it would be better. But like so many things that grew out of post-ww2 elite consensus, the conditions to enable it no longer exist.
(DIR) Post #AkyKInvBnCF7MKU80G by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:49:34Z
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@Jonathanglick (I haven’t thought it out enough to be sure that I agree. I’m certainly not sure I disagree! Even when conditions aren’t propitious, I think it useful to keep track of what we want. Conditions change, and we might have some influence when we change them.)
(DIR) Post #AkyKVHYxPcMAlW2IoC by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
2024-08-14T22:51:49Z
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@interfluidity I can’t disagree with that. What I am certain of is that, when Harris does have a press conference, a) the questions will be about ‘scandals’ and ‘gaffes,’ not policy and b) the press will be dissatisfied with her answers.
(DIR) Post #AkyKpOkmO3l6rI9qrY by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T22:55:26Z
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@Jonathanglick The press has gotten (I know, sounding like a Trumpist again) very bad. They've twisted they role of holding accountable political figures to mean ginning up any kind of scandal. Embarrassing the politician or candidate stands in for "asking the tough question", regardless how unimportant from a public-interest perspective the source of embarrassment might be.
(DIR) Post #AkyLKWNS5ls5Tq5TSC by Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
2024-08-14T23:01:04Z
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@interfluidity I’m not sure how much ‘blame’ we can wield. These are for-profit divisions that are mostly not very profitable, no longer supported as public interest investments by an oligopolistic media that could easily afford it.
(DIR) Post #AkyLfKRHfnQqXHnkWW by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-14T23:04:51Z
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@Jonathanglick Suggests some avenues for reform! Perhaps they can be for-profit divisions or oligopolistic, but not both. Perhaps big in media must, as in pretty much every other sphere, imply some degree of public control.(“Regulation” is, after all, a usurpation of control rights despite notional private ownership, creating hybrid ownership from a control perspective.)
(DIR) Post #AkydNlbdj6KIktQ9EO by curtosis@mastodon.social
2024-08-15T02:23:21Z
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@interfluidity @marick I think this gets at the (a) really important thing happening: by finally taking the “fuck your feelings” crowd at their word - even in the comparatively mild way they have so far - it feels like the Dems have held a mirror up to the less-cultish GOP and significantly raised the discomfort of passively supporting the party.
(DIR) Post #AkyipMqZsC6pqUO7xw by Arianity@mastodon.social
2024-08-15T03:24:21Z
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@interfluidity @marick While there has definitely been a shift in rhetoric, I don't really see how it's linked to the "woke" (or politically correct) part of the party. The "when they go low we go high" was the sort of thing normie Dems loved.At least in my little bubble, I don't even know if I'd call them related. I'm in a younger generation that is pretty "woke" but never would've had problem with something like the couch thing
(DIR) Post #Al0NR2hhP6qVhXiNu4 by marick@mstdn.social
2024-08-15T22:34:04Z
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@interfluidity I do the same thing. Version 23 of the Marick Mastodon Style Guide will lay out clearer rules for inline links vs. footnote links. Your patience is appreciated.
(DIR) Post #Al0YAX2YSZUyMQndjc by eyesquash@mastodon.world
2024-08-16T00:34:20Z
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@interfluidity @marick "But her emails!" I believe that was press. It would be in the interest of a Democratic candidate to get the best interview possible - exemplary interviews - and that might influence more major outfits like the New York Times to do better.
(DIR) Post #Al0YPR9wbgQySvMaXI by eyesquash@mastodon.world
2024-08-16T00:37:03Z
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@interfluidity @marick Pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is not mean.
(DIR) Post #Al0ejyh4EiY5zF2BUG by curtosis@mastodon.social
2024-08-15T02:26:07Z
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@interfluidity @marick And that applies doubly to the press; it raises the cost significantly of criticizing the Dems (for what remains a much less nasty and personal level of attack) while downplaying the hateful things the GOP leaders say.
(DIR) Post #Al0ejzvzci59pp1cOG by marick@mstdn.social
2024-08-15T22:41:31Z
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@curtosis @interfluidity I sort of suspect that we’re about to spend 90 days in a power contest between the campaign and the press about who gets to pick the campaign’s agenda.
(DIR) Post #Al6it2Z4mKCRMddI6C by marick@mstdn.social
2024-08-18T22:59:00Z
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@eyesquash @interfluidity Well, I rather doubt that the NY Times is institutionally capable of taking seriously lesser news organizations of their own type. [See, for example, how often they fail to credit Podunk News for scoops. They’re notorious for that.] The master cannot learn from the pupil.(Though they have a weird fetish for taking their cues from organizations, like Fox News, that reject the entire system the NY Times grew up in.)
(DIR) Post #Al6it3CmOhxVLmCzz6 by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-19T00:02:42Z
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@marick @eyesquash they certainly seem capable of taking cues from Elon Musk’s X/Twitter.