Share this page!

Oliver Willis Profile picture
Twitter logo
28 Dec, 6 tweets, 2 min read
folks over the last 3 weeks ive binged almost the entire run of the crown. im now halfway through season 4. i believe alongside my watching of doctor who and sherlock, that i have honorary british citizenship and can authoritatively offer commentary on brexit and the troubles
i like the show though i have to say i like the first 3 seasons more than the most recent, but mostly because i was *vaguely* aware of what was happening at that point. i knew nothing of the royals pre-diana, so ive learned a lot. now im like "THIS MARRIAGE IS DOOMED"
i feel extremely qualified to either be a member of the royal family or a member of parliament at this point, having watched the fictionalized cliffs notes of the last half-century of uk history.

i mean, we all remember the spirit of the war and the queens jubilee, do we not?
also if i use my first and middle names, Lord Lloyd Oliver totally fits in. "Ah yes, Lord Lloyd Oliver served admirably as a Cabinet Minister and spent holiday with HRH"
i have read lord mountbatten and prince philip's wikipedia entries multiple times at this point. this is me now anytime a royal is mentioned in the news:
though i have to admit my big takeaway is still: lol, england wtf are you doing? you're paying for a rich lady to be rich and read letters wtf?

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @owillis

Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
the most humane and efficient thing to get relief to people *now* is to throw money at them. these wonderful ideas of how we can "just" go into state databases and select the most needy and micro-target them are the thing of fantasy, like my little pony. doesnt exist.
ive got a person in my mentions who keeps discussing this like its a simple matter of opening the excel file for a ma and pa store. and it DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT.

its 51 very dysfunctional state governments and a kludgy federal apparatus. it just doesn't operate like that!
its also telling that when its about getting relief to poor/middle class people suddenly theres a lot of "but, but but actually" but if the super-rich and megacorps are getting cash we just throw it at them no problem.
Read 4 tweets
Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
from the bizarre mirror universe where four years of sucking up to and profiting off the trump mess = adversarial journalism
they all profited handsomely from their books where they withheld reporting about trump from the public. and some how this made them part of hashtag resist.
four years of "its not racism" and "trump voters still like trump" and the narrative from coppins is somehow that reporters linked arms with trump opponents. insanity.
Read 6 tweets
Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
heres the thing: bragman's take is dumb and wrong, as usual, but the other problem is while dems pass message bills *they don't talk about them*. not in any sustained, consistent way. they talk about them after they pass them, then they slip off into the night.
democrats have a serious aversion to marketing, especially marketing their own work when theyve done the right thing. there's a shared belief that the press will just pick it up and voters will somehow get the message. this doesn't work.
by contrast, republicans know voters dont buy their schtick, and they nonetheless relentlessly market it. it helps that they have propaganda networks like fox, but this does not excuse democrats systemic refusal to even try to market their stuff. which is often popular!
Read 4 tweets
Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
My man is killing this bully stick.
This is SERIOUS work. No time for playing around.
I find the mechanics of his approach fascinating. (Probably the closest an extremely domesticated dog like him comes to wild-ish behavior)
Read 5 tweets
Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
yo dawg we heard you like OLEDs so we put thousands of OLEDs in your OLEDs theverge.com/2020/12/28/222…
im thinking of how it took me about 10 years to convince my very skeptical aunts that HDTV was in fact "actually better" than standard def
they just wouldnt believe me.

"it looks a little nicer, but its not like that much different. i can't really see the difference."
Read 6 tweets
Oliver Willis Profile picture
29 Dec
"we can't do a good thing because while it will mostly benefit the neediest people, a rich person may get a check" is the single dumbest and yet most consistently wrong objection democrats repeatedly offer.
this is the same argument with loan forgiveness and free college. "but a rich person might get it too, so we can't do good things!"

rich people who don't need it get social security and its *the most popular government program and you'll be murdered for cutting it*
you'll remember this argument popped up during the democratic primary and it was easily the single dumbest policy pushback in the primary.

"dont do a good thing for the masses, five rich people might get it too. noooooo!"
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @owillis has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @owillis!

Read all threads by @owillis