BC BIDEN
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

Has there been a moment in modern history where so many people in free societies have believed such damaging lies?
https://t.co/HrZcnJJ61W
1/

 It’s easy to point to the US, where nearly 90 per cent of people who voted for Donald Trump believe Joe Biden’s election victory was not legitimate.
2/
But it’s not just the US. In France, a minority of adults are confident that vaccines are safe, which explains why only 40 per cent say they plan to get a Covid-19 shot.
3/
Meanwhile, across the world, substantial minorities believe that the Covid-19 fatality rate has been “deliberately and greatly exaggerated”.
4/
How did it come to this? The simplest explanation — to repurpose a phrase from former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers — is: “There are idiots. Look around.”
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But while there is a certain visceral satisfaction in that explanation, there is much more going on. Robert Proctor, a historian, once told me “we are living in a golden age of ignorance”. That was in 2016; the golden age had barely started to dawn.
6/
Three elements of it are worth highlighting. First, distraction. It’s possible for people to spend hours every day consuming what is described as “news” without ever engaging with anything of substance.
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Second, political tribalism. In a polarised environment, every factual claim becomes a weapon in an argument. When people encounter a claim that challenges their cultural identity, don’t be surprised if they disbelieve it.
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Not everything is polarised — but almost anything can be polarised, and it will be if a prominent political or media figure sees advantage in doing so.
9/
Distractions stop us from paying attention to what matters, and political tribalism makes us reject evidence that casts our tribe in a bad light. Combine the two, add steroids and you get the third element of the age of ignorance: conspiracy thinking.
10/
So can ignorance be banished? It isn’t easy. @davidmcraney , creator of the You Are Not So Smart podcast, and @AdamMGrant , author of Think Again, each offers similar advice: don’t lead with the facts.
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Instead, establish rapport, ask questions and listen to the answers.
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https://t.co/g5ptXg89Ju
You won’t be able to bully someone out of fringe views, but sometimes people will talk themselves around.
13/
This is wise advice, but my own recent work has a more modest goal. Instead of trying to enlighten someone else, I suggest that each of us starts with our own blind spots.
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We are all distracted. We all have tribes too: social if not political. We are all vulnerable, then, to believing things that aren’t true. And we are equally vulnerable to denying or ignoring important truths.
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We should all slow down, calm down, ask questions and imagine that we may be wrong. It is simple advice, but much better than nothing. It is also advice that is all too easy to ignore.
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By the way - the US edition of my new book is out in a few days, with the title "The Data Detective".
Spread the word...
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https://t.co/CzuIaZKtOC

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Dr. Jeffrey Guterman
Dr. Jeffrey Guterman
@JeffreyGuterman
This is the start of my second thread of the front pages of newspapers on this date January 21, 2021. Click below for the first thread. #inaguration2021


Front page of the Independent Record on this date January 21, 2021. #OTD #Inauguration2021


Front page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on this date January 21, 2021. #OTD #Inauguration2021


Front page of the Daily News on this date January 21, 2021. #OTD #Inauguration2021


Front page of the Tallahassee Democrat on this date January 21, 2021. #OTD #Inauguration2021
BIDEN
Ali Velshi
Ali Velshi
@AliVelshi
1/13
President Biden signed an executive order phasing out the federal govt's use of privatized prisons. It instructs the Justice dept. NOT to renew contracts with privately-operated prisons; a policy that was first implemented under Obama, then reversed in 2017 by Trump. #velshi

2/13
Private prisons are a stupid, amoral idea. So how did we end up with them in the first place? For starters, the U.S. is the most prolific incarcerator on the planet. That is a fact & it is not new. #velshi

3/13
2018 figures show the U.S. ranks number one when it comes to the total number of incarcerated people. It has roughly 300,000 more people that have been sentenced to prison than China does... which has literally one billion more in population. #velshi

4/13
What about prisoners as a percentage of the population? America for the win, again, with the highest rate of incarceration in the world, a great deal higher than the next country on the list, El Salvador. #velshi

5/13
Our prison system became so overwhelmed, partly due to misguided federal initiatives like The War on Drugs in the 80s and the 1994 Crime Bill, that it was forced to outsource help. #velshi
BIDEN
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David Dayen
David Dayen
@ddayen
This is a very uninformed article that presumes the dumb way Trump initiated executive orders taints all executive action a president has the authority and mandate to

I can't believe this has to be spelled out:
Congress passes laws, presidents implement them. There are latent authorities in already passed laws that can be employed to give material benefits to people. That's literally the job description of the president in Article II.

Most of Trump's exec orders were BS but some did draw on already passed laws, like the farm funding through the Commodity Credit Corporation. That was billions of dollars that cannot be "rolled back."

It was untargeted and drawn upon disproportionately by rich farmers. But there are more equitable measures, with the authority granted by CONGRESS, which the president can implement.

So far Biden has not really taken this opportunity. There's been a blizzard of paper, most of it rolling back Trump EOs, and some emergency programs. A few of those emergency programs are going to give real benefits (eligibility changes on nutrition assistance for ex.)
BIDEN
Xiyue Wang
Xiyue Wang
@XiyueWang9
1. Ben Rhodes’s comment dismissing the concerns of former political prisoners and US hostages in Iran regarding Rob Malley’s potential appointment as Iran envoy is deeply unprofessional and offensive. As my own story illustrates, not everything is about partisan DC politics.


2. In 2016 I was a Princeton graduate student who excitedly supported the JCPOA and the new era of Iran-US diplomacy it was meant to usher. Such was my optimism that I actually went to Iran for dissertation research. That’s when my nightmare began.

3. I was arrested by Iranian security forces and held hostage in Evin prison-away from my wife and infant son-for more than 3 years. The regime knew I was innocent and told me so. It took me 40 months in Evin to comprehend what had happened to me.

4. As a political prisoner I’ve likely had more intensive contact with Iranian hardliners than most Iran watchers in the US, especially US govt officials like Mr. Rhodes and Malley. I believe the insights derived from that experience have a unique value.

5. I support strengthening the nuclear deal, but am convinced the JCPOA of 2015 is well-intended yet inadequate. Simply lifting pressure against Iran and allowing it to benefit from economic integration produced NO further incentive for the regime to change its behavior.
BIDEN
Tomas Pueyo
Tomas Pueyo
@tomaspueyo
The hopes that QAnon will disappear with Biden’s inauguration will unfortunately be dashed.

Some followers will decamp. But a lot will be hardened.

How did we get here? What will happen? Why? And what can we do about it?
A🧵about cults & persuasion
BIDEN

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