BC POLITICS
Saved by @Jacobtldr

The real danger for the country isn’t the election results, it’s the reaction to, and the refusal to accept the results. For more than four years, Trump and the Right Wing Media Echo Chamber have conditioned his supporters to believe the election is “rigged”. They believe it….1/

 In a recent thread about collective election anxiety/PTSD, I wrote that “one half the country doesn’t believe in evidence, the other half can’t trust it.” 2/
https://t.co/h216nbEdkp
This couldn’t more evident than by the fact that 87 percent of Trump supporters believe he will win re-election, despite the fact that… 3/ https://t.co/tlMUbC8WVi
…the empirical data that shows Biden *should* win easily. This has resulted in https://t.co/e8JNg5tYmK calculating that Trump has only a 10% chance of winning. To be clear, 10% is a non-zero number, much like the 30% chance that Trump had in 2016. 4/ https://t.co/y4uSRZ59dM
But the real problem isn’t necessarily about low probabilities, the real problem…..or more accurately, the danger…..lies in the pathologically unrealistic expectations of the cult of Trump: 90% of them have been conned into thinking that a 10% probability is a “sure thing”. 5/
Imagine if 60+ million Americans packed into every Riverboat Casino along the Mississippi River to bet their “life savings” on what they were told would be a “sure thing” bet.

Imagine if 90% were convinced they’d win.

Now imagine that the bet didn’t come in. 6/
What would happen in that scenario? The gap between expectations and reality would likely result in people revolting over having been conned/cheated out of their life savings. It might result in some of those river boats ending up on the bottom of the Mississippi River. 7/
Bringing this back to the election, Trump and the Right Wing Media Echo Chamber are the pathologically dishonest conmen who sold four years worth of “can’t lose” tickets onto those riverboats…which created pathologically unrealistic expectations…. 8/
…..which conned tens of millions of people into betting their “life savings” (ego/identity) on a Sociopath whose convinced them that culture war jihadism (complete with “suicide bomber”-like Covid self-sacrifices) will bring back an alternate reality that no longer exists ...9/
The difference in real life: the “Riverboats” represent the already weakened institutions of democracy. And as has been seen with Trump’s 2016 invitation for Russian interference, the Ukrainian “high crimes and misdemeanors” quid pro quo, & his recent pre-election rhetoric,...10/
…..Trump will do anything and everything to send the pillars of democracy to the proverbial bottom of the Mississippi River in order to self-preserve. 11/ https://t.co/sRRVPAQxWS
Trump will play on the expectations that he has created.

If Trump gets an early vote count lead, he will claim victory in that state, and attempt to get the secretary of state to stop counting… 12/
….. If that is unsuccessful, and votes continue to come in and erase his lead, Trump will claim victimhood and fraud.

The Right Wing media will promote this narrative, the cowardly congressional Republicans will back it or remain silent, and his supporters will believe it. 13/
The greater the disparity between reality & expectations...

...and the greater their feeling of grievance over the perception of the election being stolen from Trump/them...

...the greater the risk for civil unrest.

That is exactly what Trump desires.14/https://t.co/bchAxV9J1B
Relevant threads:https://t.co/t2kqxzul0n
Relevant thread: https://t.co/58u5rzRNe1
Just added this thread as an article here (no paywall): https://t.co/ZTXW5hBhey
https://t.co/h216nbEdkp

More from Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych
Nick Carmody JD, MS Ps...
@Nick_Carmody
How did the Right come to hate this country so much?

Remember when (justifiably) criticizing the United States, even over minor flaws/errors, would cause the Right to seethe with contempt over your lack of Patriotism?

Yet now,….1/

...the Right claims the country is a cesspool run by corrupt, deep-state conmen who have exploited the system to get rich.....

....and that none of this country's institutions (FBI/Intelligence/democracy/etc.) can be trusted, and therefore must be torn down. 2/

We are currently seeing this in real time as Trump challenges the election in the courts. The danger being exposed during all of this is that the Right’s contempt isn’t limited to just the “liberal judges” whose professional integrity can’t be trusted because they’re liberal….3/

...the contempt also extends to Republican state office holders and a Trump-appointed appellate court judge/panel who wrote an opinion, that not only eviscerated Trump’s legal claims, but emphasized the danger that Trump and the conspiratorial Right poses to our democracy. 4/

Article III of the Constitution empowers the judicial branch to finds facts/settle disputes. When half the country believes that every “liberal” judge, and any Republican judge that rules against Trump is corrupt and can’t be trusted, then this country is headed for disaster. 5/
UNITED STATES
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych
Nick Carmody JD, MS Ps...
@Nick_Carmody
The problem lies with "self-governed people" who'd rather be entertained than educated, or competently led.

Details/competency are boring, and expertise causes people to feel ignorant. So they choose reality TV stars over competent leaders, or actual mental health professionals.


https://t.co/uMufgDNlaO
CATEGORY
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Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych
Nick Carmody JD, MS Ps...
@Nick_Carmody
It's a perfect storm of emotional immaturity, arrested development, and the fetishization of "freedom" to the point where the *right to ignorance*....and the "freedom" to put others at risk...... is equated with "liberty".

Relevant threads:https://t.co/6at83OnxpK


It's a perfect storm of emotional immaturity, arrested development, and the fetishization of "freedom" to the point where the *right to ignorance*....and the "freedom" to put others at risk...... is equated with "liberty".

Relevant


https://t.co/W78IMiOAmA


https://t.co/UDgKTmjHOG
ALL
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych
Nick Carmody JD, MS Ps...
@Nick_Carmody
The, “how do we fix this” is perhaps the most important question we face as a country. To the extent that it can be fixed, it starts with framing and language used to describe the problem/solution. The “deprogramming” and “brainwashed” verbiage has to be eliminated. 1/


No one is receptive to finding “common ground” when the starting point of the person who claims to desire common ground is telling them they’ve been brainwashed, and that they need to be “deprogrammed”. 2/

This plays into the “Totalitarian” narrative that Tucker Carlson is propagating, even going so far as using the “don’t believe your own eyes” to reinforce the narrative. 3/


Of course, this is exactly what occurred during Trump’s presidency. Basically, it’s another attempt to confuse and distract with moral/false equivalency. 4/

In the past, the Right attempted to excuse Trump’s pathological dishonesty with allegations of the Left lying: if everyone is lying, then no one is lying……because lying is normalized.
AFTER TRUMP
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych
Nick Carmody JD, MS Ps...
@Nick_Carmody
Observations about Covid, vaccine effectiveness, media portrayals/hypocrisy, and even Jan 6th to show the dangerous effect “trickle down irrationality”:

When disinformation causes otherwise irrational behavior to appear rational.

Let's unpack.....1/

In the video above, @rubinreport uses Johnathon Isaac’s response about being unvaccinated to correctly encourage people to
- avoid summarily demonizing people
- have a measured, good-faith interpretation of other people's potentially good-faith “rational” motivations/actions
2/

I agree. Jonathon Isaac was very impressive in that interview.

We won’t make progress as a society by engaging in the same behavior that helped create the problem. And : 3/


Yet, just 12 seconds into the show, Rubin’s characterization of efforts to contain covid as attempts to “control”/tyrannize not only demonizes medical professionals (“elites”), but it’s also an implicit refusal to acknowledge ANY good faith motivation to protect public health: 4/

“[Covid is] going to be this constant cudgel that they can always use to control us and lock us down and put more rules on us, and all of the *stuff* that you all get since they’re always going to do that….. 5/
ALL

More from Politics

Mike Dunford
Mike Dunford
@questauthority
Good morning, electoral lunacy followers. Welcome to what I suspect will be the 2020 equivalent of the Orly Taitz litigation: Sidney Powell Sues Everoyen For LAL Of Teh ThInGs

This is the first of what will (hopefully) be a limited number of #Kraken-related threads.

That said, I doubt the number will be limited. I think Sidney Powell is the Orly Taitz of the Biden Administration.

And I doubt I've acquired enough maturity since my younger birther-watching days to ignore these. So, yes, at least for cases with public dockets, I'm here.

We've got two filings so far - a Michigan one (King v Whitmer) that has been filed, and a Georgia one (Pearson v Kemp) that cannot presently be located on PACER.

This may be because there are parallel Quorts not in the system but maybe it just didn't get filed.

Here's how I'm going to deal with that - I'll start livetweeting King (the filed one) in a little bit, after I do some turkey prep. I'll do that in this thread, but probably even slower and more interrupted than usual - so you might just want to bookmark and come back later.

Tonight, if there's interest, I might be both willing and able to stream a read of the (maybe unfiled) GA case on Twitch tonight.
POLITICS
Tierney
Tierney
@MaggiePeggy123
1) Looks like Trump KNEW what the coup plotters were plotting on the 6th, so he arrived an hour late to the stage, and talked longer than he intended, before he asked MAGA to walk peacefully down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.

He also didn't walk WITH them as he promised.
POLITICS , POLITICAL
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Greg Olear
Greg Olear
@gregolear
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Let’s sort it out.

[THREAD]


1/ Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch called on Mitch McConnell, after hours. Since then, two Fox News-related Twitter accounts have not tweeted.

2/ Trump fired Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with human dildo/Putin collaborator Matt Whitaker. Sessions had asked to stay until Friday and was told to leave immediately. So there was clearly some urgency to install the dildo...er, puppet.

3/ The Democrats won the SHIT out of the Midterms. Come January, the House check on Trump will leave him so hobbled, he’ll be like the dude from Misery.

4/ Trump went to Paris, ostensibly for an Armistice Day centennial event. He skipped the event, and much of the dinner tonight, because of “weather,” which everyone seems to agree is a bullshit excuse.
POLITICS
Alex Seitz-Wald
Alex Seitz-Wald
@aseitzwald
NEW w/@akarl_smith: Republicans see an opportunity to begin winning back the suburban voters they lost under Donald Trump's presidency by capitalizing on widespread frustration with pandemic life and directing it at an old enemy: Teachers

New NRCC Tom Emmer told staff as soon as he took over to go all in on schools: "It's the teachers unions that want to keep the schools closed. Dems are ignoring the science, and they're standing with their special-interest donors instead of the students."

Going after public sector unions is a throwback to the last time the GOP was locked out of power in DC in 2009/2010 and it's a message that every faction in the party can get behind -- with the potential for crossover appeal to indies and some Dems.

The politics have changed since circa 2009, when the school reform movement was at its height w/ broad bipartisan support, including from the Obama admin.

Now, support for unions is at a nearly 20-year high and teachers unions favorability has gone up a bit during Covid, BUT...

But the frustration over shuttered schools is real and Republicans think they can channel that anger into a grassroots uprising to drive a wedge between suburban voters and the Democratic Party.

"This is the suburban-parent revolt," said Corry Bliss.
POLITICS
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
@RepJayapal
We promised people that if we won the Senate, we would send out $2,000 survival checks. They delivered us to victory—and now we MUST deliver.

“Targeting” checks to a smaller group fails to do that. People need help like never before, and we must put money in their pockets.

“Targeting” checks isn’t just bad for people, it’s bad policy too! It’s not humane, it's not smart, it’s not effective, and it’s not even fiscally responsible. Not to mention that it doesn't meet the scale of this crisis.

Help me spread the word about 4 obvious reasons why:

1⃣The survival checks often use 2019 tax data to measure someone’s income.

Millions lost their jobs in 2020 due to COVID—that’s the whole point of this relief!—and therefore their income from 1 or 2 years ago is no longer accurate. They need help now and we must provide it.

Even if someone isn’t one of the nearly 1 million additional people losing their job EVERY single week, they likely lost hours and therefore had their overall income significantly reduced.

By “targeting,” we cut out people who are desperately in need of help.

2⃣The data from people who filed for unemployment shows that more than 20% of those earning between $50k and $70k were still food insecure.

That's up 16% from 2019—and it's why food banks have such long lines. We need to put money in their pockets so they can feed their family.
POLITICS

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Anshul Pandey
Anshul Pandey
@Anshulspiritual
STORY OF PURANAS AND SUB PURANA (उप पुराण).

We have already gone through the series on importance & characteristics of all the eighteen Purans. We also know that originally there were hundred crore shlokas but were divided by Vyas in each Kalp and was compiled as eighteen Purans


for the common people to understand it properly and now their total is about four lakhs.

In Brahm Puran, Brahma preached this to Marichi. So this Puran of ten thousand shlokas is called Brahm Puran.

In Padma Puran, the base of the story is the appearance of Brahma on a lotus(Padm) from Vishnu' s navel.This has fifty five thousand shlokas.

Vishnu Puran is primarily based in Varah kalp. This book is on Vishnu and this book has twenty three thousand shlokas.

Vaayu Puran is written in Shwet Kalp and has twenty four thousand shlokas. Here Vayudev preaches about Dharma.

In Bhagwat Puran, which is written with the base of Gayatri mantra describes Dharma extensively. It has 18000 shlokas. It also mentions the story of Vritrasur.

In Narad Puran, which has twenty five thousand shlokas, is a sermon on Dharma by Narad based in Brihad Kalp.

Markandeya Puran has nine thousand shlokas and here it is through the birds that Dharma is described.
RELIGION
Cookie Cyboid
Cookie Cyboid
@CookieCyboid
“Why are Tumblr and Facebook cracking down on sex so much? And why is Facebook in so over zealous about it? It’s all Apples fault!” Etc etc

I can explain all. It is largely the fault of a set of US laws called SESTA and FOSTA.
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Jeannette Ng \u5433\u5fd7\u9e97
Jeannette Ng 吳志麗...
@jeannette_ng
So, you’re a writer and you’re worried about writing outside your immediate experiences and identities.

Here is the thread of practical advice for you.

EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES. Why do you want to write this?

Are you trying to solve racism/sexism/colonialism with your work?

As writers we love stories about heroic writers whose work has changed the world. And as such we like to look to our own writing to solve societal problems.

And I understand this completely, not the least because I’ve felt the pull.

But if you’re looking to play saviour with your words, it is unlikely that you will do the marginalised people you are trying to save justice.

And I understand this very often comes from place of good intentions, but there is a reason that most of the moralising plays written by white abolitionists are deeply uncomfortable to read.

It is incredibly easy for works looking to play saviour to become patronising or traffic in simplistic stereotypes that ultimately hurt the people they are looking to rescue.
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antifa.drone
antifa.drone
@antifa_drone
Fake chats claiming to be from the Irish African community are being disseminated by the far right in order to suggest that violence is imminent from #BLM supporters. This is straight out of the QAnon and Proud Boys playbook. Spread the word. Protest safely. #georgenkencho


There is co-ordination across the far right in Ireland now to stir both left and right in the hopes of creating a race war. Think critically! Fascists see the tragic killing of #georgenkencho, the grief of his community and pending investigation as a flashpoint for action.


Across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook disinformation is being peddled on the back of these tragic events. From false photographs to the tactics ofwhite supremacy, the far right is clumsily trying to drive hate against minority groups and figureheads.


Declan Ganley’s Burkean group and the incel wing of National Party (Gearóid Murphy, Mick O’Keeffe & Co.) as well as all the usuals are concerted in their efforts to demonstrate their white supremacist cred. The quiet parts are today being said out loud.


The best thing you can do is challenge disinformation and report posts where engagement isn’t appropriate. Many of these are blatantly racist posts designed to drive recruitment to NP and other Nationalist groups. By all means protest but stay safe.
TRADING
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

I get the sense that they're not just afraid of external censure, but have also internalized liberal norms.
SOCIETY