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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • There are three practical reasons Trump does this:

    1. Deflection: Trump doesn’t have an affirmative platform. As a populist strongman, Trump’s platform is situational and entirely based on what his supporters want to hear in any given moment. If health care is in the news, Trump will say his plan is coming in two weeks (it won’t ever come). If immigration is in the news, Trump will say he will build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it (he won’t). But what’s even easier? Focusing on the shortcomings of the opponent’s platform. Any time this works, Trump saves himself an opportunity to be put under the microscope.
    2. Deflection: Manipulating the media works. Trump knows that the more ludicrous things he says about Kamala, even if the media then starts to talk about how he’s wrong or fact-check him, the focus is still on the thing he said rather than Kamala’s platform. It’s subtle, but it really does focus the media effectively on whatever he says, and use his frame of that issue as the media’s frame.
    3. Filling the echo chambers and other spaces. We’re in our own echo chambers like never before. Trump says these things so that the people in the right-wing echo chambers have a plausible response to Kamala’s policies, or even just need filler for their broadcast/websites/Facebook groups. Ultimately there is only so much media people can consume every day. If Trump has filled all relevant supporter spaces with his own opinions & framing, there is no time or energy left to explore other opinions and framing.










  • Are you Taliban and want someone dead, but frustrated with your fundamentalist movement’s pesky adherence to the rule of law? Upset at the heretic you can’t quite get proof of? Overbearing parents trying to arrange another marriage?

    With new Taliban Ban on Images of Living Things®, you are back in the driver’s seat. Just take a picture of your target. After it’s done, the authorities will be practically begging you to murder that person to prevent the inevitable consequences, including the collapse of society and the rending of the fabric of space-time.






  • I’m initially feeling, “Great, now do Apple.”

    But I do wonder how some of this ruling will be implemented. Forcing Google Play to host other app stores seems like it may be excessive.

    Let me download F-Droid or whatever, drop anti-competitive barriers to it, don’t prevent anyone from using their device how they want. But I am savvy to the risks. There are a lot of non-techie people for whom the Google Play walled garden more keeps out threats than keeps them imprisoned, if we’re being honest. It’s one thing for Google to host an app it can scan for malware and designate as safe. Hosting an app store is impossible to verify is safe, I think.

    Good overall, but I think Google isn’t entirely acting in bad faith in promising to appeal.