On July 21st, 2024, the day President Biden announced he wouldn't seek reelection, a political commentator named Owen Jones delivered an unconventional eulogy to his career:
I will not forgive Owen Jones for his rabidly anti-woman trans ideology and demonization of JK Rowling. So I have no interest in what he has to say about Gaza or anything else.
But I take your larger point. We are all seeing different views of the world filtered through our own leanings and preferences and amplified by the "confirmation bias machines" until we've each unknowingly boxed ourselves into ultra-partisan corners. And given what we're seeing, we assume anyone else is seeing the same thing and coming to appallingly different conclusions. But it is not so.
It depends upon your tribe if you can speak without being called an X-ist. I'm seeing an increasing number of white men expressing fatigue about it and are becoming what they are accused of. Free, white and twenty-one and got no right to sing the blues. Not helpful.
We completely under calculate the destructive force of the algorithms but also the shift of the mainstream media from one of journalistic ethics and integrity to clickbait profiting from confirmation bias.
I used to think that people would always gravitate toward an objective and traditionally moral conclusion. What I failed to understand is that about half of the population are mentally fucked by their low capability to regulate their own emotions, and that it was our old traditional media that pulled them back from their tendency toward disinformation, fatalism, hysteria and mythology.
Now that media actually foments disinformation, fatalism, hysteria and mythology.
So, the half of the population that was only fucked are now fucking insane.
"Conversation is valuable, despite the disheartening number of trolls and bad-faith actors, because it gives us a window into different perspectives, free of algorithmic interference. It’s not perfect, it’s not easy, it’s certainly not always fun, but the alternative is a word that is truly deranged."
This is why, even when we disagree, I 100% respect you and your perspective.
Well stated and I appreciate that you write about leftists, as well. This is a human issue.
I've grown so tired of the Hitler/Nazi comparisons, from every side of the spectrum. Most people don't genuinely believe it when they say it, but they all know it's indefensible, and guaranteed to stifle conversation. And for the gullible people who actually hear such a comparison and believe it, they're being given a "by any means necessary" justification for violence.
After all, if a given politician is literally Hitler, then they have all of Hitler's beliefs, goals, and aspirations, and if that's true then the "by any means necessary" approach is the most rational one to prevent WWIII and mass genocide in gas chambers.
I've tried to temper the hyperbole in my speech over the years, and try to call it out when I can.
Perfect description of the disintegration of discourse. In the last year I've been shocked at how a friend I've known for decades and my own mother have out of the blue accused me of extremism for simply saying something tangentially and mildly out of step with the current dogma. It was frightening how little it took. Both these people are political junkie news addicts.
I will not forgive Owen Jones for his rabidly anti-woman trans ideology and demonization of JK Rowling. So I have no interest in what he has to say about Gaza or anything else.
But I take your larger point. We are all seeing different views of the world filtered through our own leanings and preferences and amplified by the "confirmation bias machines" until we've each unknowingly boxed ourselves into ultra-partisan corners. And given what we're seeing, we assume anyone else is seeing the same thing and coming to appallingly different conclusions. But it is not so.
Excellent & nuanced perspective on the grayest of issues: there is only black or white in the minds of “true believers”.
That said, Owen Jones *is* a hyperbolic idiot.
It depends upon your tribe if you can speak without being called an X-ist. I'm seeing an increasing number of white men expressing fatigue about it and are becoming what they are accused of. Free, white and twenty-one and got no right to sing the blues. Not helpful.
We completely under calculate the destructive force of the algorithms but also the shift of the mainstream media from one of journalistic ethics and integrity to clickbait profiting from confirmation bias.
I used to think that people would always gravitate toward an objective and traditionally moral conclusion. What I failed to understand is that about half of the population are mentally fucked by their low capability to regulate their own emotions, and that it was our old traditional media that pulled them back from their tendency toward disinformation, fatalism, hysteria and mythology.
Now that media actually foments disinformation, fatalism, hysteria and mythology.
So, the half of the population that was only fucked are now fucking insane.
"Conversation is valuable, despite the disheartening number of trolls and bad-faith actors, because it gives us a window into different perspectives, free of algorithmic interference. It’s not perfect, it’s not easy, it’s certainly not always fun, but the alternative is a word that is truly deranged."
This is why, even when we disagree, I 100% respect you and your perspective.
Well stated and I appreciate that you write about leftists, as well. This is a human issue.
I've grown so tired of the Hitler/Nazi comparisons, from every side of the spectrum. Most people don't genuinely believe it when they say it, but they all know it's indefensible, and guaranteed to stifle conversation. And for the gullible people who actually hear such a comparison and believe it, they're being given a "by any means necessary" justification for violence.
After all, if a given politician is literally Hitler, then they have all of Hitler's beliefs, goals, and aspirations, and if that's true then the "by any means necessary" approach is the most rational one to prevent WWIII and mass genocide in gas chambers.
I've tried to temper the hyperbole in my speech over the years, and try to call it out when I can.
Perfect description of the disintegration of discourse. In the last year I've been shocked at how a friend I've known for decades and my own mother have out of the blue accused me of extremism for simply saying something tangentially and mildly out of step with the current dogma. It was frightening how little it took. Both these people are political junkie news addicts.