2022 archive
The Blank Check 0
Today’s Republican Party and its dupes, symps, and fellow travelers, along with evangelical they-call-themselves Christians, have issued blank checks for bigotry.
This fellow tried to cash his.
Freedom of Screech 0
At AL.com, Kyle Whitmire argues forcefully that unfettered freedom of speech, of the sort espoused by Elon Musk and others of his ilk, can quickly become corrosive. He makes a comparison to a bar owner of his acquaintance, who did not hesitate to eject troublemakers. Here’s a bit of the article; follow the link for the whole delightful article (emphasis added).
Only now they’re giving up.
At Twitter, King Troll has opened the gates of hell, letting back in all the riffraff the previous owners kicked out.
At Facebook, the platform seems to have decided the easiest way to suppress fake news is to suppress news altogether.*
This isn’t a free speech crisis. It’s a crisis of mutual civility. And without it, real speech dies.
And, remember, “social” media isn’t.
And it’s becoming less so.
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*Given that I spend about five minutes a month on the Zuckerborg, I don’t know what he’s talking about, but this may provide some context.
The Toadie Pool 0
Mike Littwin marvels at how major Republican figures seem to fear cutting ties with Trump, even as he proceeds from one outrageous deed to another. He refers to Trump’s dinner with “the nation’s most prominent antisemite of the moment as well as with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist” inner and to Republicans’ lukewarm reaction. A snippet:
The Lake Effect 0
Aside:
For some fool reason, I got a fund-raising letter from Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s outfit. It included a postage-paid reply envelope. I was tempted to reply . . . .
Clearly, they don’t do research good.
Vaccine Nation 0
An anti-VAXX twit tweets his or her* way into a bit of mess with his employer.
Aside:
I really don’t get these fools who claim vaccines don’t work. I can’t decide whether they are willfully blind or just plain stupid. Or maybe just plain willfully stupid.
They deny four centuries of history because what happened conflicts with what they want to believe.
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*Based on the description of the tweets, I’d give two to one on “his.”
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Florida Governor DeSantis is against state censorship, except for when he favors it.
The Commodification of Education 0
Be sure to listen to the quotation that starts at the 7:19 moment, which begins “We are in danger of creating an educated proletariat . . . .”
An educated proletariat is what they fear.
Aside:
If I had the money, I’d get a Lamborghini. Ever since I read that review in Motor Trend all those many years ago, I’ve wanted one. They don’t look like much, but I’d take one over a Ferrari any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I don’t have the money, oh, well, but I do have a Mustang convertible.
I wouldn’t call it the poor man’s Lamborghini by any stretch, but it is fun to drive.