fox news meta
A word on the CWs we here at Fox News use:
• worldpol has to do with any massively inter-regional political event.
• three-letter codes before pol (ruspol, chnpol, frapol, etc) are always countries.
• two-letter codes before pol (nypol, wapol, ilpol, etc) are almost always US states or territories - the exceptions are uspol, ukpol, and eupol, for the US, UK, and EU.
• meta always refers to commentary on the previous word's topic.
• adj refers to adjacency - closely related topics.
self, editorial, chicago, DHS secret police
We here at Fox News consider it very unlikely that we will be disappeared or killed by the DHS in the coming days, regardless of any involvement or lack of involvement in or material support for protests.
That said, we'd like to have it on record that @CoronaCoreanici is not suicidal and will be continuing to post more news here at least once a week.
covid meta, original analysis
Pinning this because more information and analysis has already brought people some solace.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14X18mvs9dlsg9rnihnd8Vi6cMNesOkcp3AXV2epZWUQ
meta, silly
@starkatt all the same, here at Fox News, we AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
media recs
I should put more thought into this later but required reading:
Nonzero
Debt (The First 5k Years)
Guns, Germs, and Steel
It Could Happen Here (podcast, very heavy)
Seeing Like A State
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Predictably Irrational
538, Vox, WSJ (economics only), NYT and WaPo to see what the centrists and liberals think
... more I can't easily remember, open to suggestions
it's that time of the year again
Social media turns emotional and social energy into profit.
Reddit has started pushing a thing called "predictions tournaments." Not just pushing it but pushing it hard. They do this by setting up the posts advertising this, such that anyone who responds to the post or engages with the predictions tournament page automatically upvotes the thread.
They also ensure that it's nearly impossible to block the posts, by having the moderators of the different subreddits make the posts themselves.
All this to exploit the network effect. It's highly upvoted, so it looks like a lot of people like it, and it's constantly on the front page, posted to different subreddits.
It's a rip from an existing idea called a predictions market.
A predictions market is basically where people put money on what they think a likely outcome of a situation is. Rather than an algorithm or a person setting the odds, the cost of a position is determined by the people buying the positions, it's like a stock market.
The point of this is that people, in aggregate, tend to be pretty good at predicting outcomes of things.
I don't really like capitalism, but this seems like a fair exchange to me. People get rewarded monetarily for participating in a process which attempts to predict outcomes.
Reddit's predictions tournaments work much the same way.
Of course, Reddit users are not compensated in any such way for their participation. They get fake internet points.
Reddit and other social media exploit the desire for social connection and subvert it to get people to perform emotional and social labor for the sole benefit of enriching corporations.
Think people in the Matrix, plugged into machines.
Roe, Useful practical info
Hi friends. Here's some things to think about from The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty for folks who might be panicking right now and planning to stockpile emergency contraceptives (Plan B):
"1. Are you buying locally, or online?
-If you are purchasing emergency contraception for future use, please consider only buying it from online sites. This ensures that for those who have an actual emergency and need medication immediately, there is still a supply on the shelf for them to buy and it isn’t out of stock. Waiting two days or more for delivery because there is no place to purchase locally is the surest way for a person to end up with an unwanted pregnancy.
2. Do you really need that many doses?
-Yes, buying a bunch of EC feels like a really proactive way to stick it to anti-abortion politicians. But remember, most EC has a shelf life of three to four years, and in some cases the clock may already be ticking. Twenty packs of EC do no one any good if they all expire because you really only needed four. Unless you have a real reason to think that you might end up as a distribution channel for your friends or neighbors, limit how many you get at once. Odds are, you will be able to buy more later.
3. Is there a local organization that offers EC? Can you help them, instead?
-Let’s be frank, getting emergency contraception from a stranger is a sort of freaky idea. Preventing a pregnancy—especially after intercourse—is a pretty private activity. No one really wants to reach out to someone they don’t know in order to get medication, but they are more likely to contact reproductive rights and justice groups, organizations that support marginalized communities, or feminist groups than private individuals. Don’t recreate the wheel when there are already organizations distributing EC—offer those groups money or medication, or even offer to help distribute through their channels rather than try to do this alone.
For people looking for medication that will be delivered straight to their home, Afterpill.com is a website where you can purchase single-dose or three-dose packages of EC for twenty dollars each—less than half of what you’d pay at a pharmacy.
Or if you are already getting birth control pills by mail, either through a Planned Parenthood clinic or via an online pharmacy, ask about having a dose or two of EC added to your next delivery. Some outlets—especially Planned Parenthoods—will offer one or two doses a year that they will send along as part of your prescription. Or you can ask your doctor to write a prescription for her to fill now and have on hand for later, when you or someone you know might need it."
I'm not a fatalist. Of course, I have my feelings about today, but hopelessness is not one of them. White people have been trying to take us out for a while, and they have failed and instigated their demise in the process.
We do not live in the 50s and 60s, even though old white men and their tokens are trying to legislate like it is. Reactive policy based on hate inherently acknowledges they are terrified of the direction the world is going and will do everything in their power to stop it.
But the world has changed, and it was and is inevitable. No doubt these hateful fools will fight, but fascism and hate are the best they have, and we see the best they can do.
Keep the pressure up. Keep building community. They don't have any new ideas, so the bulk of their strategy is to attack our hope to make us feel like it's hopeless.
But it's not. Not even close.
abortion, boost
Demedicalize abortion. This is not the 1970s. Mifepristone + misoprostol pills are safe and effective. The majority of people seeking abortions are capable of using them without the involvement of healthcare professionals. Especially since the pandemic, abortion providers have been providing telehealth abortions by mailing pills, with no need for medical tests in most cases. Please boost.
https://www.plancpills.org/ https://floss.social/@be/108240466675086664
editorial, meta, best practices
And remember, kids: if you're going to talk about how this is going to drive you to do a crime, shut the fuck up!
uspol, theocracy hell, editorial
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn
Oh huh look at that the incredibly important sweeping decision that got leaked last month and the surprise extra day on the end of the judicial term are in fact related in a completely predictable way, * @starkatt *.
(If anyone had asked my odds, btw, they'd have been 7:1 or so.)
uspol, Second Trump Impeachment, Jan 6 hearings
https://twitter.com/C_C_Krebs/status/1540071428409753601
Explicit testimony here about Trump directing seizure of voting machines.
frpol, leftpol? (+)
https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1538584368343568384
Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of France, is projected to have lost majority in France's bicameral parliament.
This would see his centrist coalition, ENS/Ensemble Citoyens (Citizens Together) lose a lot of power to the left-wing NUPES/Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale (New ecological and social union), which is headed by previous left-wing French presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Melenchon.
It is not reasonable nor acceptable to insist people wait for time immemorial for wrongs to be made right.
Certainly not when it only takes a fraction of the time to commit atrocities in the first place.
No battle — figurative or literal — is without bloodshed, I’m afraid.
This obsession I see libs and centrists have with getting this smug “perfect”victory is infuriating as it is naïve.
The adversary doesn’t give a shit about the process. They bent it to their will. You now have to destroy the process and put a new one it it’s place; one that will set your adversary back, if not do away with them altogether.
If you’re not up for doing that, stand down.
There’s no reason to have faith in a system that takes aeons for justice to be dispensed when injustice is served from the same kitchen.
Liberals like Justice Sonia Sotomayor really don’t get it, do they?
It’s all good and well to be optimistic in the face of a bleak future but their optimism is fresh. They haven’t seen what’s it like on the ground, nor have they felt the brunt of these decisions.
If it took a century to undo Dred Scott — and the toll of life taken was incalculable— do we really want to see how long it takes the courts to undo the curtailing of abortion rights?
worldpol, hellworld, deeply unorthodox but unsettlingly appropriate christianity mention from the editorial board
https://twitter.com/HecubianDevil/status/1534610369326505984
"And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.” "
editorial, uspol, guns
And also that self-defense is a human right, that literally every weapon is a weapon of war, and that an unarmed people are subject to slavery at any time.
FOX NEWS: You can stand what is true, for you are already enduring it.
A mathemagical DemSoc royal fox analyzes (mostly US) politics & provides actual news. Not the other, lesser Fox News.
Debate livetoot threads. Dem primary & election analysis. Economic bellwethers. Supreme Court cases. Sometimes worldpol. Has reality's liberal bias.
Willing to negotiate calibration bets seeking gain, be it money or correction.
Tallies, catalogues, & holds to the light.
(@lorxus but pol)