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4 Nov, 10 tweets, 3 min read
Okay, we've been trying to do gallows humor here to lighten the mood. But the sense of dread is starting to really descend upon us (me personally but also at the election "party" I'm at). It's funny, but it's also really not funny

wisdomofcrowds.live/live-blogging-…
I'm thinking about my mom, and how she was volunteering all day at the PA office where they were preparing to process ballots. This is going to be hard for a lot of us. But my mom believed that democracy works, that it self-corrects. And now it's dawning on us that it might not
My mom loves this country so much, and it breaks my heart. And it's breaking my heart right now. It will probably come down to PA. And there's hope, of course. But the fact that it's even this close should tell us something
I'm a pretty staunch proponent of procedural democracy, and I've often talked about it as "the right to make the wrong choice." But it becomes harder for us to argue for, and believe in, democracy when it cuts it this close
God I love this country so much. And I'll still love it regardless. Not to be dramatic, but if there's anytime to be dramatic, I suppose it's now
Who knows, maybe being truly enthusiastic about your candidate matters. A lesson that Democrats might finally opt to learn, but they probably won't
This is our country. This is us. We spent the last 4 years misunderstanding who we were and who we could become. Even if Biden ekes this out, this is a time for looking inward. If this isn't reason enough for a reckoning, I'm not sure what would be
In our @WCrowdsLive live blog, @dmarusic calls me out. Should I really be as distraught as I seem considering my supposed commitment to procedural democracy Democracy is not meant to produce better outcomes, only legitimate ones:

wisdomofcrowds.live/live-blogging-…
I honestly don't know how to respond to @dmarusic's challenge. I think I've just about given up for the night

If any of you have a better answer, I'd love to hear it

wisdomofcrowds.live/live-blogging-…
After tonight, I think we’re going to have to reassess our understanding of the word “disinformation”

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More from @shadihamid

Shadi Hamid Profile picture
10 Sep
Something about the U.S. response to COVID has been bothering me, and it goes well beyond the president's own failures. In this new essay, I explore how anti-Trump narratives misled Americans about how exceptional we were—or weren't

[Thread]

wisdomofcrowds.live/is-trump-respo…
Media outlets endlessly pushed an all-consuming narrative—that America's handling of COVID was uniquely bad and that Americans themselves were incapable of collective action. If only we could be more like Europe! These assertions are misleading, at best. They are also wrong.
Mainstream outlets weren't lying. They did excellent, mostly accurate reporting. But facts can be accurate while distorting our sense of what's real. One example is how infections and deaths were reported, without adjusting for population

wisdomofcrowds.live/is-trump-respo…
Read 11 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
30 Aug
NPR did a service by publishing the interview on 'In Defense of Looting.' I don't mean that in a snarky way. Bad ideas should get a platform, especially when they represent a significant segment of public or elite opinion
Of course, actual defenders of looting are a numerical fringe. But sympathy for looting and rioting is is more common among privileged elites. Mainstream journalists, including at places like @nytimes, have been coyly legitimizing certain kinds of violence as not actually violent
So let's not dance around these issues, considering how important they are. If you think widespread property damage and destruction of communities can be justified in the name of "justice," then come out with the full argument, and let's judge it on the merits
Read 10 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
25 Aug
I thought I was crazy—or maybe my contrarianism had run amok—but after thinking about it more and furtive text messages from liberal friends, it seems that the worries about November are more prevalent than would have appeared from last night's snarky, dismissive coverage
Yes, I admit: I'm naturally suspicious when all the lefties, liberals, journalists on my feed are all making fun about how stupid and terrible the RNC speeches were. My instinct then is to assume that if enough "experts" think this, they must be at least partly wrong
While I was watching the RNC speeches and simultaneously reading the Twitter commentary, I kept on thinking to myself: are we watching the same convention?
Read 6 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
18 Aug
My thoughts on the Israel-UAE peace agreement:

Not historic. Not particularly important. And a reminder of why Israel, one of the region's few democracies, prefers that its Arab neighbors *not* be democratic Image
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't central. "Solving" it would be good, but it wouldn't address the region's fundamental problems. If Arab-Israeli peace happened, it would bring together Arab autocrats + Israel, none of whom want to see Arab citizens make their own decisions
Israel's anti-democratic foreign policy should be a major concern for U.S. policymakers because of its broader regional effects. If the U.S. ever got serious about supporting Arab democracy, Israel would see that as an existential threat—just as it did during the Arab Spring
Read 4 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
24 Jul
My new column—part of a series we're calling "First Drafts":

Is democracy its own end, or a means to other things we hold dear? Is there a way to promote democracy abroad *without* promoting liberalism?

wisdomofcrowds.substack.com/p/first-draft-…
Some additional thoughts based on some of the replies. First, democracy is good even if it leads to bad outcomes. We've become so used to seeing democracy & liberalism as intertwined that we've lost sight of why democracy, as a set of mechanisms and procedures, is so valuable 1/
Why is democracy good even when it doesn't bring about liberal outcomes? Democracy allows for peaceful transfer of power, particularly in ideologically polarized contexts. As a system of conflict regulation, it contributes to long-term, if not necessarily short-term, stability 2/
Read 7 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
10 Jul
Mass atrocities are happening against the Muslim Uighur population in China—in full view of the world. Details are too shocking to recount here. Yet little is said and even less done. And it presents us with an indictment of the international system
Like so many other things that seems hopeless, what China is doing as we speak has receded into the background and become a "new normal." How did this come to be? @dmarusic and I went back and forth in an attempt to answer that question: wisdomofcrowds.substack.com/p/do-we-care-a…
@dmarusic, who is Croatian-American, writes:

"More personally, having watched the wars of the 1990s in the Balkans, it became clear how low a priority human life plays in politics"
Read 8 tweets

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