Thread by @JoshuaCypess

31.52b/ This is a continuation of the week 31 (Feb. 13-19) thread which is getting too big for stable threading. This is an experiment for this week: to split a thread when it gets to 50 or so.

Part one is here:

31.53/ I've been thinking the same thing (not so well put, of course). How did Skype become the fax machine of this tech crisis?

31.54/ This is good to see! I'm glad the effects are empirically demonstrated.

It's nice when virtue is demonstrably effective. Social science for the win!

31.55/ Many different ways to criticize Democrats but you can't argue they should "fight more like Republicans." The GOP has become a death-cult that worships money, oil & a religious war vs women & POC. Just on proof of concept, the tactics can't be separated from the end result

31.56/ (1) Just marveling at the confluence of events that makes me agree with Bill Kristol (himself agreeing with the great Teri Kanefield)
(2) This needs repeating over & over: the US can't persist with one entire party committed to its destruction

31.57/ All last week, I've been seeing Haberman push back at her critics with an ever increasing irritation & it's the same tenor as her defense of Sarah Sanders. It also tells me that rejection from polite society is starting to commence. Keep it up.

31.58/ Very well put. And this indeed is the goal of the GOP

The same group of poltroons tried seceding from the union in 1860 and it didn't work as well as Jim Crow, so they're trying to enshrine that, the same way they tried with slavery under Buchanan

31.59/ This is as good an explanation for how to understand the implications of the non-removal (in short: the GOP has now become the toxic minority appendix to the largely hated RedHat movement):

it's to clarify this point:

31.60/ Just idly saying how much I love this. Biden, like, Obama are genuinely nice people (e.g. @ObamaPlusKids kept me sane through the #TrumpCrisis) even if I can disagree with policies. I think that's why the two got along. Same feeling with Harris.

31.61/ Indeed the GOP is a combo of those who want to be part of the violent mob & people afraid of that mob. Then again, the biggest likely motivation (per @RadioFreeTom) is that Senators crave the perks of DC fame & their biggest 'fear' is losing status

31.62/ This is great. First for "Johnny Reb always underestimated Billy Yank" & second for the great Sam Houston quote (confirmed, BTW: nps.gov/apco/february-….)

31.63/ I've said before that the fact the Framers didn't predict political parties demonstrates in itself the failures of their practical vision. Note: the Whigs in England were a century old at that time (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whigs_(Br…)

31.64/ The CNN chyron writers have been doing very good work for a while. Or at least screencaps tell me, I've largely boycotted them since they flagrantly had Trump (ym'sh) boosters on in 2016. Santorum is still there, right? Unforgiveable.

31.65/ Not only is B*ri W*eiss a ridiculous bad-faith actor, she's bad enough that I've been able to disqualify anyone who takes her seriously.

31.66/ While not surprising it's good to have these things on the record and front-and-center. The KKK and the GOP have nearly merged

31.67/ Infrastructure means more than bridges & roads, it also means professional ethics, rooting out corruption etc. Police reform/rethinking is a necessary first step (they have guns) but the legal profession's rot is closely linked.

31.68/ Well... when you put it THAT way

31.69/ This is a great observation

31.70/ The 20% for research explains SO MUCH about Mounk, oh my goodness.

The laziness of his thinking has gone from irritating to stupefying to "he's getting a NYT opinion column soon, isn't he?" levels

31.71/ This is true and if it weren't actually "local news" I would have hard time subscribing to the Times.

Note: I am also supporting my local papers (which are reduced to filling 90% of their columns with reprinting the AP wire... hey, I've been there)

31.72/ This is totally something I would do, on both ends

31.73/ Certain posts are so good I share them with my offline family. This is one of them. (It did prompt my wife to tell our daughter that I took her to the movie on one of our first dates back in '02. Good times)

31.74/ Here are 3 responses to this comment

that I thought were particularly salient:
1.
2.
3. An overlooked dynamic (bullying victims who aspire to abuse)

31.74b/ Sorry, here's a last one (responding to this:

I agree with it, but as I said in 31.61 the cowardice is swallowed by the greed in most cases ()

4.

31.75a/ Sent this out right when it happened b/c of the sheer beauty of a well executed alley-oop. I love the reaction of the teammates as well.

My sportsy son & I have a list of our favorite types of plays for the 4 main sports, and this is ours for NBA.

31.75b/ For the record, if memory serves, here are the 4 favorites:

NBA: An alley-oop
NFL: A long run (esp. with blocking and/or juking)
MLB: A swinging strike-out (esp. with DeGrom on the mound)
NHL: A short-handed goal

Runners up: MLB, inside the park HR & NHL: a one-timer

31.76/ Nice to see a prominent Miller's Crossing fan. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%27…)

I became a Coen Bros. fan after seeing "Raising Arizona" 3 dozen times (I owned a VHS copy)

They make 3 types of films, crime, comedy & period. So best of #3 is Oh Brother

31.77/ The bad underbelly of the fact-check enterprise is a potential for bean-counting #Literalists who will undermine the legitimacy of 'fact' by being unable to distinguish forests/trees and apples/oranges.

31.78/ Quick #Purim note: this Shabbat is Zachor. It's rare to be on #Terumah, but them's the breaks for a Friday Purim. So 'remember' (har) to hear Zachor.

Second: Shushan Ha-Bira in the megillah compared to the same name for a Temple structure. Discuss.
steinsaltz.org/daf/bekhorot40/

37.79/ OK, perfect. As I said above (31.65) B*ri W*eiss is a caricature of a public intellectual, esp. about morality. As Hobbes shows here, she considers something "bad" when "it's an admission of guilt"

Um, my dude, that is THE FIRST STEP of repentance!

37.80/ It is a rare perk about being consistently underestimated and disrespected - and it doesn't outweigh the detriments - but you can occasionally just intellectually bodyslam some jerk in the middle of an act of aggressive arrogance

37.81/ The horrible situation in #Texas is heartbreaking and I'm getting flashbacks to a year ago and looking at Italy, then Spain, then NYC under the hammer-blow of COVID.

I've also discovered how many people I enjoy reading live in TX. Sending brachot.

37.82/ Great parody. BLOB is a master-stroke

37.83/ First of all, I hope so. It's irredeemable. Second, it's possible this is the #ETTD-Effect for McConnell. He basically shut down the Senate for 2 weeks in order to preserve the filibuster & that may have permanently bonded it to his decrepit evil.

37.84/ Strong "explaining the entire mechanic behind Midrash" vibe in this comment (I keed, I keed... kinda)

37.85/ This is an amazing picture showing the difference between Texas & Arkansas when it comes to social services (aka "taking care of people you're responsible for"). Reminds me of the parody of East vs West Berlin in Casino Royale (1967)

37.86/ Yes. Do it. Doooo eeet!

37.87/ Not a bad perspective to take. Seeing what isn't there from what is.

37.88/ I aspire to be as witty as @nycsouthpaw. This is just art.

37.89/ #TedCruz fleeing to Cancun while his state is in a horrifying humanitarian crisis is a perfect encapsulation of the entire GOP. #Literalist thinkers aren't good with abstract thought, but this is a pretty concrete case of cowardice.

37.90/ Limbaugh was a cruel hate-machine who made a fortune off hurting people. To say "don't speak ill of the dead" is the attitude of abuse enablers.

If you can't condemn a ghoul who dedicated his life to destroying society, you're part of the problem!
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

37.90b/ Most of the "don't speak ill" people are cultural conservatives, and that should tell you everything you need to know about that worldview. It's encrusted cruelty with a polite face.

And the people who liked listening to him and/or saying he was "funny"?! Oh... oh my.

37.90c/ These are people who've never suffered the lash of real oppression. Who in fact identify more w/the abusers & are frightened of social stigma being directed their way. Those of us who've felt the boot of majority society on our face recognize you. And yes, we condemn you.

37.91/ OK, I split this off into a thread about the way to respond to the death of a toweringly evil person. We normally declare a Purim, usually, when a monster dies. So, for today, I can only declare this:

31.92/ OK, I started mis-numbering the thread back up in 31.79. Can't fix them now, but boy will that weird up the purpose of my numbering system in the first place. I will need to sack my research department/proofreaders.

31.93/ One my must-reads every week is this @JuliusGoat. He's more to the Left than I am, but his observations - and incredible craftsmanship in concisely explaining complex ideas - are brilliant and valuable to me.

31.94/ Getting a strong flashbacks to my confrontations with the philosophy dept. at Princeton - rife with Analytics dudes - and finding out that the actual work was in Religion, Politics, and my home field of Anthropology (I focused on semiotics)

31.95/ The Cruz-Cancun story reminds me of this story I read over Shabbas about a rabbi who insists on meeting a miser in the cold vestibule of the mansion so he could experience the cold first-hand and internalize the need for charity.
torahmusings.com/2014/01/vort-f…

31.96/ While I'm going back thru #Mishpatim, I found out that Rav Soloveitchik z'l was a student of Heidegger. Not 'read his books' but actually SAT IN HIS CLASS. The Rav and the Nazi; what a world. ("The Rav Thinking Aloud on the Parsha - Sefer Shemos" by David Holzer, p176)

31.97a/I'm thinking I need to yet again split this thread as it's getting quite large (this is a result of me trying to make up for the past 2 weeks being sick plus a new technique for writing).
So part 3 is here:

(PS: My commitment to threading, for my use and yours, is why I try to unroll everything)

@threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader please compile.