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Malka Older @m_older
, 5 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
My short story Tear Tracks is about an alien culture that chooses their leaders based on the grief and suffering they have survived, which proves confusing for humans making first contact
tor.com/2015/10/21/tea…
What criteria do we use to choose our leaders? Do we still think about "character" - and if so what does that mean? Do we judge based on "rationality" or "objectivity", both problematic concepts?
some kind of authority or gravitas? the way they look and dress and the haircut? the schools they went to? the cascade of positions and prestige that builds out of those schools and enforces that look and suit and haircut?
it's a fucking sham, is what I'm saying. think about your criteria next time you vote.
note that I'm not trying to say the grief system is the way to go. The story is very explicit about it being imperfect. But I am saying we need to interrogate the proxies we use to assign leadership.
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This is an interesting thread, but I just want to add that I wish we could stop separating out "digital" from other forms of deception. The OP touches on this upthread, but the difference in digital is mostly a matter of scaling and vectors. Important to understand, yes, but+
digital deception and misinformation works in part because people have been primed by slanted coverage and pundit spin on television, by bombast on talk radio. Lies and corruption have been accepted as part of politics.
To stop digital deception we need to condemn other forms as well. If we act like this worse (and not just faster or more widespread) because it happens on that social media thing all the kids are doing, we are badly missing the point. #Infomocracy
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Berntzen, Einar, "Democratic consolidation in Central America: a qualitative comparative approach" Third World Quarterly, Vol 14, No 3, 1993. I came for the qualitative comparison but I'm staying for the democracy analysis & regional focus.
"It is widely assumed that elections may promote democracy, but for decades dictatorial regimes in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have periodically held elections that merely reinforced or justified authoritarian rule." 589 👀
"The reason for this is that the main obstacle to democratization in Central America has been the existence of authoritarian regimes formed by a sociopolit- ical alliance between the oligarchies and the military." 589
Read 50 tweets

Related threads

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A short thread on how NOT to shift #culture

1) Weak leadership - enough said.
2) A vision that has been written by a few and adopted by the few that wrote it. It's understood by no-one.
3) A mission that is known by a select group who when questioned, don't know it. The school are certainly none the wiser. It's a mission that impresses from the outside looking in but is meaningless to the inside ones looking out.
Read 10 tweets
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First issue of #TheGoodJournal carries one of my short stories (along with lots of fab wtiting so go get a copy).

But this short thread is about how that short story was born.
Some years ago I was sitting on a rooftop in Barcelona with some friends.

My friends had left Buenos Aires in the early 2000s when the economic crunch got too bad there
One friend had lived through the dictatorship and the dirty war when he was younger. His partner who is one of my dearest friends had met him in BA while she was working there.

Even though we became friends in BCN, our memories of Buenos Aires are a special link.
Read 14 tweets
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THREAD: While we wait for the NRA to come clean about its connections to alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, let’s take a trip down memory lane and explore the twisted web of ties between Butina, the NRA, and prominent GOP operatives.
In 2011, then-NRA president David Keene befriended Russian banker & politician Alexander Torshin. Shortly thereafter, Torshin joined with Maria Butina to form a Russian gun rights group supposedly modeled after the NRA called the Right to Bear Arms. newrepublic.com/article/110223…
In 2013, Butina’s gun rights group hosted Keene and NRA-linked Republican operative Paul Erickson at the Right to Bear Arms’ annual convention in Moscow. rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
Read 20 tweets
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(Short version) What is a #ConCon? It is a Constitutional Convention made possible by a little known phrase in The Constitution which explains how to pass amendments.
The first way you know because our country has passed an amendment 27 times, the first 10 of which are together known as the Bill of Rights. Amendments that have passed include: 1: Freedom of Religion, speech, freedom of the press; 2: The Right to keep and bear arms;...
5. The right to due process (all in the Bill of Rights); 13. Abolishes slavery; 17. Election of U.S. Senators by popular vote; 19. Women’s right to vote; 24. Prohibits revocation of voting rights due to nonpayment of poll or any other tax;
Read 24 tweets
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Short Story: A Journey from Hades

The story begins with a young lad who had lost a beloved family member. In his immense grief, he is delivered into the realm of Hades after falling asleep. In there, he meets his beloved family member and his ancestors........
He quickly realizes that they must all escape from Hades. His ancestors have been locked in for thousands of years and there is a large river blocking their path from salvation. The young lad must guide them to Christ as the key to turn the river of lava into a calm stream
Unfortunately for him, he cannot force anyone to accept Christ, as many of them have too much pride to do so. The prideful have spent thousands of years coming up with tricks/ideas to cross the river of lava, but the young lad understands that they will do this infinitely.....
Read 8 tweets
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(THREAD--26 tweets) In a letter dated Jan 4, House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes memorialized a conversation he had had the previous evening with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein tinyurl.com/y8jh4fm2 and tinyurl.com/y8jkm666 .
1/ Nunes’ letter memorialized an arrangement with the DOJ according to which designated majority and ranking members of the committee and their respective staffs would be able to view at the DOJ headquarters these materials:
2/ From this letter we learn that on Jan 5 (or shortly thereafter), DOJ provided access to designated House Intel members and staff *all* FD-1023s and FD-302s involving FBI interactions with Christopher Steele.
Read 29 tweets

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