Election season: My re-reading list TRUMP v BIDEN
- While I may have issues with his abilities to govern, Trump is a a fantastic storyteller. Biden got better at it during the primary, but he has fall off of it since March.
- Trump’s best shot at reelection is false-consensus effect
Election season: U.S. leader quotes on my mind
Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.
President James-Garfield, 100th anniversary of Declaration of Independence
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln
Election season: Founding Father quotes on my mind
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
Thomas Paine (1776)
Even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.
Thomas Paine (1776)
The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people, which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.
Thomas Jefferson (1787)
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
Thomas Jefferson
Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.
Benjamin Rush (1788)
A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.
Thomas Paine (1792)
The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.
Thomas Jefferson (1816)
Election season: My re-reading list mandatory
- Illusory Truth Effect : how the frequency of statements influences how accurate we think they are.
- Puppet Candidates : how candidates claim they create things reserved for Congress. (Bush v Gore)
- The Enemy’s POV and Ideological Identity : ideology > facts. Even worse, we have arrived where ideology is our identity.
- Bullshit Curation : “the Orwellian spin of stories from political groups to make the terrible sound good for us or the good for us sound terrible.”
- Memic Straw Men & Gotcha Jerks & Gotcha Jerks II : is it better to be kind or to be right? Attacking people for their different understanding is just making them more entrenched.
Is MAGA pro-Social Democrat?
When people use Make America Great Again, the question is often posed as to what period? I often see the assertion to the late 1940s through the 1950s, which was before the removal of segregation. These are not usually MAGA supporters, but let’s hypothetically say this is true.
Something that came to mind is this was also a period when the United States was effectively fairly similar to social democratic countries.
- Unions were very strong. The CEOs of companies made 20x more than average workers rather than hundreds to thousands. The inequality we see between the middle class and 0.1% was not as great.
- Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid were just starting and heavily funded popular programs ensuring people were pretty well taken care of.
- The G.I. Bill ensure a huge number of men and some women attended college for free.
If this is indeed the period of time to which they are alluding, then I wonder why the despise the policies that helped make it so great. I often see references to them as Communist. Which was feared during this period.
Facebook discourages providing sources
A friend posted an article about a political candidate. I wanted to find a related article and add it to that conversation. So, I opened the browser, got pulled into a couple offline things, found the article, got pulled in a couple other offline directions, and went back to the post. The app refreshed and went to the top of the newsfeed.
Now, I cannot seem to find the original.
Guess I should stick to the browser where everything is in tabs so I don’t lose my place.
Opposite of face blindness?
Face blindness means that I would not recognize individuals I know. Clothing, voice, or other cues would be the only way to know person A from B.
I keep thinking new people I see look like a close relative of an acquaintance. I am not confusing them with the person. Just wondering if they are a sibling or cousin of this person I know.
Usually, I talk myself out of this thinking. Still, it is a case by case event so once in a blue moon, I ask. The more I am around the new person and the feeling persists, the more likely I am to ask.
Once I was correct. She was the sibling of a college friend’s friend. Hundreds of miles distant. Over a decade after I graduated college.
Over a few months window, my brother had a couple people both ask him if he was my brother. He moved across the country to get away from people who might know me. Of course, any time people I know head there, I advise them to be on the look out for a guy who looks like me but with my brother’s hair style.
Inverse Editor-Author Power
New authors have fairly weak power. Editors can exert their power to:
- streamline the story such that it flows more smoothly
- cut out dense detailed descriptions that take the reader from the story
- their experience at what it takes to make a book become a bestseller gives them authority
The trick is when the author becomes a proven bestseller, the editor becomes weaker. You can look at the books in a series like Game of Thrones and see how the editor became weaker as the book lengths ballooned.
- A Game of Thrones 726 pages
- A Clash of Kings 761 pages
- A Storm of Swords 973 pages
- A Feast for Crows + A Dance with Dragons 1761 pages
Tom Clancy follows this model as well.