I disagree strongly with TFC's (general) view on the TikTok bill.
But you know what? Reasonable people can disagree!
And they can do so without intentionally misrepresenting the views on the other side.
Of course, some people have decided to take a very different approach to disagreeing, instead opting for using ambiguous language intended to distort the opinions of the opposing "side."
We need one of those social justice yard signs but change the text to something like:
"In this house, we believe in steel-manning the arguments of those we disagree with, in order to sharpen our thinking, and make better arguments in the future."
More than anything, I really, really wish Glen Loury hadn't been cowed by Balko's original piece. Because of his "un-endorsement" people get to say things like Balko "thoroughly debunked Hughes and the film" Balko did nothing of the sort - yeah, the film is biased EVERY documentary is. It's quaility is sometime amatuerish, but even in the 30,000 words Balko vomited out he concentrated on 3 things, while ignoring or dismissing vast swaths of the films critique - the actions of the police and city hall brass leading to the abandoment of a police station, the immediate acceptance of one narrative gleaned by one amatuer video and not the much more relevant body camera footage, and completely ignoring Georg Floyds' role in his own death, leading to massive national and international pressure to render a guilty verdict.
Balko spent 10,000 words using parsing sophistry that the MRT technique Chauvin was using was not taught to MPLS police, when it obviously was, but Chauvin was technically doing it wrong. Balko basically admits the technique had been used many time before (even by Chauvin) so how could could Chauvin be convicted of murder instead of manslaugther?
He spent 10,000 words going over minutuae about fentanyl overdoses, while barley mentioning Floyd's already terrible health and the fact he was also high on meth as well as fentanyl at that time, dismissing that these factors has ANY effect on his death.
Derek Chauvin caused the death of George Floyds through his cruelty and negligence. But he should be serving a 5 year sentence for manslaughter., not 20 years for 2nd degree murder. The fact that the other cops with him are serving long jail sentences as well is mob justice at it's finest.
More and more I think the output of certain people are not the result of ideological politics rotting their minds. Rather, there is an erosion of good faith and friendliness that exposes their true temperament, or an over indulgence of bad comportment that is really a part of these individual's identity. I do think we can change and work on these flaws (we all have them) but Radley and Shiki seem to be doing the opposite. For me, it's not the disagreement in outlook, but the gross way they engage. And that isn't politics as much as it is being a fucking jerk-off.
I'll look forward to reports of the Haidt Reason interview from the bowels of rural flyover country! At any rate, so many other great podcasts (Unspeakable, BARpod, Smoke 'em) have been interviewing Lee Stein about MFA programs (which she feels are MLMs). I'm finishing my MFA this spring (old....went back for something fun and to try and write the PhD out of my voice)....BUT one thing that really made me sad was how so many of the students had internalized self-censorship and wore it as a badge of honor. In one class, we read a few artistic manifestos--including the Futurists--who even Moynihan would agree were proud fascists--and then produced or own. One young poetess (she might object to the gendering but I love that particular word) had as her MAIN ARTISTIC TENET "ARTISTS SHOULD CENSOR THEMSELVES SO NO ONE ELSE HAS TO!" How heartbreaking. There was no other dissent to this perspective in the classroom.
Hey Matt, (relevant to nothing) do you know this collaboration between Dennis Wilson, Taylor Hawkins, and the Queen boys? Gave me chills. It's on my Holy Week playlist now.
A lot of the tension over TikTok comes down to whether the CCP is ordering ByteDance to manipulate the algorithm in anti-US ways, or use it as a surveillance asset. I was surprised than none of the Fif' boys mentioned TikTok was already used to spy on journalists that report on TikTok. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists Isn't that relevant to the debate? Interesting that TikTok swore it COULD NOT be used to spy on users this way-that it lacked the capability-before being forced to admit that it could, and it did. Just like they swore nobody in China will be able to access US user data. Believe that one? If so, why? We know, and nobody can deny with a straight face, that any company whose corporate parent falls under CCP control can be ordered to toe-the-line by the CCP, and also ordered to lie about it. The CCP has banned all US social media there-and also the version of TikTok available in America. CCP said it is disinterested in TikTok and its just anti-Chinese bias that Americans are alarmed about it and swear TikTok is merely a commercial venture and not a strategic influence platform at all. It has also said it will forbid sale of TikTok's US operations to a US company.
IDK why we keep handing the most reprehensible regimes on earth a stick to beat us.
It may be true that historically ignorant young whippersnappers prefer Russia over Ukraine or Hamas' narrative over Israel's. Ignorant kids are easy to lead down the garden path. But they come to believe particularly dumb things more quickly and fervently when their media buffet is, unbeknownst to naive TikTok consumers, restricted to a diet pro-CCP, pro Russia, and pro Hamas. Just because a pernicious sentiment preexisted various forms of social media doesn't mean we should give TikTok a pass for making something 10 times worse. If a match is lit, yes, you have a fire going. It can burn you. And if someone tosses that match into a pool of gasoline they poured at your front door, the "preexisting" fire is going to have an effect scales of magnitude different than the lit match by itself. The strategic planning documents of both Russia and China openly state in their asymmetric warfare strategy against the US is to sow division in the US. Yet when people on both the right (in the case of Russia) and the left (in the case of China) are confronted with social media enabling that strategy, its called alarmist, or a threat to free speech, or anything but people noticing what is going on right in front of our eyes. If anybody'd recognize a technological fifth column, you'd think it would be The Fifth Column!
An excellent, insightful conversation between Nancy and Noam on Live From the Table, which, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the best podcasts for open, honest dialogue. Another great thing to which TFC led me.
I know this in unpopular sentiment here and almost everywhere else in media, but I love "populism". I wanna be dumb and informed/ilinformed on my own terms. Maybe I fail to understand the terminology in its present context. Most of America doesn't follow either orthodoxy - "left" or "right" yet it's so hard not to get sucked into one camp or the other depending on the minutiae of ones political beliefs.
Maybe I am completely wrong and things really have shifted away from moderation, but I still believe most Americans want to be able to stand on a corner shouting whatever the hell they want with the ability to shoot a mother fucker in the face if they come along and try to assault your rights or physical well-being. Damnit do I hate authoritarians!
“It is about as intellectually rigorous as you’d expect.”
*mic drop*
I disagree strongly with TFC's (general) view on the TikTok bill.
But you know what? Reasonable people can disagree!
And they can do so without intentionally misrepresenting the views on the other side.
Of course, some people have decided to take a very different approach to disagreeing, instead opting for using ambiguous language intended to distort the opinions of the opposing "side."
We need one of those social justice yard signs but change the text to something like:
"In this house, we believe in steel-manning the arguments of those we disagree with, in order to sharpen our thinking, and make better arguments in the future."
On the TikTok debate, I actually found Walter Kirn’s arguments persuasive and changed some of my views!
More than anything, I really, really wish Glen Loury hadn't been cowed by Balko's original piece. Because of his "un-endorsement" people get to say things like Balko "thoroughly debunked Hughes and the film" Balko did nothing of the sort - yeah, the film is biased EVERY documentary is. It's quaility is sometime amatuerish, but even in the 30,000 words Balko vomited out he concentrated on 3 things, while ignoring or dismissing vast swaths of the films critique - the actions of the police and city hall brass leading to the abandoment of a police station, the immediate acceptance of one narrative gleaned by one amatuer video and not the much more relevant body camera footage, and completely ignoring Georg Floyds' role in his own death, leading to massive national and international pressure to render a guilty verdict.
Balko spent 10,000 words using parsing sophistry that the MRT technique Chauvin was using was not taught to MPLS police, when it obviously was, but Chauvin was technically doing it wrong. Balko basically admits the technique had been used many time before (even by Chauvin) so how could could Chauvin be convicted of murder instead of manslaugther?
He spent 10,000 words going over minutuae about fentanyl overdoses, while barley mentioning Floyd's already terrible health and the fact he was also high on meth as well as fentanyl at that time, dismissing that these factors has ANY effect on his death.
Derek Chauvin caused the death of George Floyds through his cruelty and negligence. But he should be serving a 5 year sentence for manslaughter., not 20 years for 2nd degree murder. The fact that the other cops with him are serving long jail sentences as well is mob justice at it's finest.
More and more I think the output of certain people are not the result of ideological politics rotting their minds. Rather, there is an erosion of good faith and friendliness that exposes their true temperament, or an over indulgence of bad comportment that is really a part of these individual's identity. I do think we can change and work on these flaws (we all have them) but Radley and Shiki seem to be doing the opposite. For me, it's not the disagreement in outlook, but the gross way they engage. And that isn't politics as much as it is being a fucking jerk-off.
I'll look forward to reports of the Haidt Reason interview from the bowels of rural flyover country! At any rate, so many other great podcasts (Unspeakable, BARpod, Smoke 'em) have been interviewing Lee Stein about MFA programs (which she feels are MLMs). I'm finishing my MFA this spring (old....went back for something fun and to try and write the PhD out of my voice)....BUT one thing that really made me sad was how so many of the students had internalized self-censorship and wore it as a badge of honor. In one class, we read a few artistic manifestos--including the Futurists--who even Moynihan would agree were proud fascists--and then produced or own. One young poetess (she might object to the gendering but I love that particular word) had as her MAIN ARTISTIC TENET "ARTISTS SHOULD CENSOR THEMSELVES SO NO ONE ELSE HAS TO!" How heartbreaking. There was no other dissent to this perspective in the classroom.
Hey Matt, (relevant to nothing) do you know this collaboration between Dennis Wilson, Taylor Hawkins, and the Queen boys? Gave me chills. It's on my Holy Week playlist now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA-v7hRYTk0
Speaking of Mojo Nixon, here is a YouTube playlist of videos from the Mojo Mayhem event during SXSW 2024 in Austin that Matt mentioned.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlbVsiJKDA_Dby423V7NTlM93QO3a6k7G
See all you NYC Fifdomers at the Haidt event 🙌🏼
Is the MRF the new RBF?
That MRF reminds me of someone who would kill a man just to watch him die.
A lot of the tension over TikTok comes down to whether the CCP is ordering ByteDance to manipulate the algorithm in anti-US ways, or use it as a surveillance asset. I was surprised than none of the Fif' boys mentioned TikTok was already used to spy on journalists that report on TikTok. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists Isn't that relevant to the debate? Interesting that TikTok swore it COULD NOT be used to spy on users this way-that it lacked the capability-before being forced to admit that it could, and it did. Just like they swore nobody in China will be able to access US user data. Believe that one? If so, why? We know, and nobody can deny with a straight face, that any company whose corporate parent falls under CCP control can be ordered to toe-the-line by the CCP, and also ordered to lie about it. The CCP has banned all US social media there-and also the version of TikTok available in America. CCP said it is disinterested in TikTok and its just anti-Chinese bias that Americans are alarmed about it and swear TikTok is merely a commercial venture and not a strategic influence platform at all. It has also said it will forbid sale of TikTok's US operations to a US company.
IDK why we keep handing the most reprehensible regimes on earth a stick to beat us.
It may be true that historically ignorant young whippersnappers prefer Russia over Ukraine or Hamas' narrative over Israel's. Ignorant kids are easy to lead down the garden path. But they come to believe particularly dumb things more quickly and fervently when their media buffet is, unbeknownst to naive TikTok consumers, restricted to a diet pro-CCP, pro Russia, and pro Hamas. Just because a pernicious sentiment preexisted various forms of social media doesn't mean we should give TikTok a pass for making something 10 times worse. If a match is lit, yes, you have a fire going. It can burn you. And if someone tosses that match into a pool of gasoline they poured at your front door, the "preexisting" fire is going to have an effect scales of magnitude different than the lit match by itself. The strategic planning documents of both Russia and China openly state in their asymmetric warfare strategy against the US is to sow division in the US. Yet when people on both the right (in the case of Russia) and the left (in the case of China) are confronted with social media enabling that strategy, its called alarmist, or a threat to free speech, or anything but people noticing what is going on right in front of our eyes. If anybody'd recognize a technological fifth column, you'd think it would be The Fifth Column!
Waiting for the next scandal at Twitter/X to go down and inevitably be titled “The X Files”.
An excellent, insightful conversation between Nancy and Noam on Live From the Table, which, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the best podcasts for open, honest dialogue. Another great thing to which TFC led me.
I know this in unpopular sentiment here and almost everywhere else in media, but I love "populism". I wanna be dumb and informed/ilinformed on my own terms. Maybe I fail to understand the terminology in its present context. Most of America doesn't follow either orthodoxy - "left" or "right" yet it's so hard not to get sucked into one camp or the other depending on the minutiae of ones political beliefs.
Maybe I am completely wrong and things really have shifted away from moderation, but I still believe most Americans want to be able to stand on a corner shouting whatever the hell they want with the ability to shoot a mother fucker in the face if they come along and try to assault your rights or physical well-being. Damnit do I hate authoritarians!
Happy Easter
Real MRF is a multi-stage maneuver - unless he has access to brown liquor it's not MRF