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Angus Johnston @studentactivism
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
One mark of a great magician is that you have no way of knowing which of the stories that get told about them are true. By that measure, Ricky Jay was one of the greatest.
There's the "that didn't happen" stories, and the "that happened" stories, and the "that didn't actually happen, but everyone in the room believed that it did" stories. And half the stories getting told about him I have no idea which category they go in.
("That didn't actually happen, but everyone in the room believed that it did" is a really high percentage of great magic AND great parapsychology stories. And Ricky Jay was great at convincing people they'd experienced things they hadn't experienced.)
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A weird tack for a guy whose whole pitch is his elder-statesman avuncularity to take. "I don't want to run, but all the kids in the race are crap, so here I am" is the opposite of the tone I'd have expected him to set.
Just a reminder that his instincts for primary-race messaging have never been any good, I guess.
"We have a great, deep field, and I'm honored to be running alongside this crew. Whichever of us wins the nomination would be a far better president than Trump, and if it's not me, I'll be working night and day to be sure they get to prove it" is Biden's natural lane right now.
Read 3 tweets
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One more thing on youth voting: There are a lot of folks in my mentions saying kids aren’t cognitively developed enough to vote. But it’s not clear to me what that means.
At 12, the typical kid is more than able to meet baseline standards for voting—understanding what an election is, learning about candidates, managing the act of voting.
When we bar kids from making choices they’re not mature enough to make, it’s generally because we’re worried that they’ll do harm to themselves or others if allowed to choose.
Read 5 tweets
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Just saw something on my feed that reminded me to remind you that if you’re a NYC (or vicinity) high school or middle school teacher and you’d like me to come talk to your students, all you have to do is say so and I’ll be there.
I've spoken with NYC middle school students about the history of youth activism, how they can make change themselves, whether we should lower the voting age—all sorts of stuff. And the conversations are always really lively.
And because it's so much fun, and because it's a subway ride away, and because I know that y'all don't have budgets for this stuff, I'm happy to do it for free. So shoot me a message if you want to set it up.
Read 5 tweets

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One of the greatest tricks that SaaS-based white label fulfillment services have played on entrepreneurs is convincing them that they are their own "business owners" by externalizing the risks of former internal departments onto them.
This is exactly what Amazon is doing with Delivery Service Partners (logistics.amazon.com), AliBaba with AliExpress, Printful with clothing, etc.

Capital owners accumulate all the returns by creating a contractor sub-class to serve them under the guise of "entrepreneurship".
I'd much rather build and own those platforms, whatever the risk of foregone income to me might be, than to be "employed" by them.
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One of the greatest tragedies of Islamic history is that in the average Muslim’s mind, it ends in around 1300AD
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Mark Zuckerberg on NYT story: "To suggest we weren't interested in knowing the truth or wanted to hide what we knew or wanted to prevent investigations is simply untrue."
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Read 35 tweets
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THREAD: there is no one way to be a writer, no one way to tell a story, no one way to do this thing we do as a hobby or as a job or as an art form. Some write a little every day, in an office; some write a lot at one time at varying, sporadic points. It's all okay.
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I think it IS important to talk about the things you do and the processes you use to write and tell a story and to hold them up and examine them -- share them with others, and listen to their ways of doing things, too.
Read 32 tweets
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One day, I will write about the various characters that dot the Nigerian political twitter landscape, and maybe folks will learn a thing or two about engagement especially as 2019 approaches. Don't feed the trolls BUT don't miss the authentic engagement opportunities either.
That day is today, so here's Your Nigerian Political Twitter Guide (2019 Edition). As we go towards elections, it is important to engage wisely on social media and spend less time fighting with people who won't change their minds or just need you to increase their follower count
The following are some (not by any means an exhaustive list) of the #NaijaPoliticalTwitter types I have had the privilege (or in some cases, misfortune) of engaging. I don't block people. I've never blocked anyone so knowing who I'm dealing with helps with engagement
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