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Maggie Koerth Profile picture
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25 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
There are sociopolitical trends that researchers can trace across countries and time as destabilizing democracies and leading to violence. Any one of these trends happening is bad. We are currently dealing with six. fivethirtyeight.com/features/our-r…
This story is not an explainer on where the specific violence of Jan 6 came from. It's about 30+ years of broad cultural trends that mean there's not a "normal" to go back to and Biden's push for unity might not be possible (or all that desirable).

fivethirtyeight.com/features/our-r…
White supremacists and violent militias are a problem. But part of the danger about them is that they aren't the only problem. There's multiple, interconnecting trends at work -- building on each other, feeding each other, and leading nowhere good.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/our-r…
And all of that matters when it comes time to figure out how to move forward.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/our-r…

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More from @maggiekb1

Maggie Koerth Profile picture
7 Jan
It's not just the riot at the Capitol. Police treated BLM and left-wing protesters more harshly than right-wing protesters all through 2020. Even when the left-wing activists were more peaceful.

But theres another problem ...

fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-p…
Those right-wing protesters who got preferential treatment from police? They knew it. And strongly believed they DESERVED it.

To the point that any police pushback (however tepid it might appear to the Left) comes across as a betrayal ...

fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-p…
And even though the preferential treatment never should have existed to begin with, the perceived betrayal could have serious consequences: For public safety in general, and for the left-wing protesters who were already over-policed.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-p…
Read 4 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
7 Jan
I think the worst part about being a journalist right now is that you finish a story and then you have to go catch up on everything you missed while you were actually reporting/writing.
This is to say that I have absolutely no clue what is happening in DC this morning or anywhere else for that matter.
Actually, no, wait. Sorry. The worst part about being a journalist right now is that half my brain is editing a story on police brutality and race and worrying about the future of the country and half my brain is trying to talk an anxious 5 year old through drawing sheep.
Read 4 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
6 Jan
My 5 year old wants to learn sign language as her "Mommy and Me Lesson". I'm struggling here because my spatial reasoning or whatever isn't great and I'm getting stressed trying to get hand positions and movements figured out from pictures/videos. Any suggestions?
Looking for favorite apps/books/websites that might be helpful. I'm sitting here staring at a "Sign Language for Kids" ebook from the library and have no idea whether I'm correctly teacher her how to sign "bread" or if the first Deaf person she meets is gonna be like WTF?
Related question: If we start with the hand spelling alphabet, am I setting her up for a lot of mess, given that that isn't ASL? Or is that useful for her to know first, given that some ASL words are built on hand-spell signs?
Read 4 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
5 Jan
Cannot stop thinking about how researchers put a zoonotic disease laboratory in a place where a lot of zoonotic disease crossovers were happening and now conspiracists are like "what are the chances a zoonotic disease could have come from a place right near this lab??"
This is like looking at a car crash and deciding it was caused by the traffic camera that was installed at a high risk intersection.
Up next: Do sweaters cause cold temperatures in Minnesota? I'm just asking questions.
Read 5 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
5 Jan
Much more concerned about these kids than the soft-focused, middle-distance staring would-be oil barons, tbh.
I’m still so curious what the original pitch for that “youth who want to work in oil are worried” piece was. And what happened along the way. Because I can imagine an interesting piece about the weird alienation of being the pro-ghg young people.
But to pull that off, you can’t make the narrative about them being sad victims. Either it’s a story about kids out of step with kid culture, or it’s a story about kids struggling w pandemic economy. But if it’s the latter, why oil?
Read 4 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
5 Jan
What’s most frustrating about this is that I would love to read (or write) and actual deep dive into the risks of gain of function research. And instead we are getting conspiracist crap that will tar other critical looks with the same crappy brush.
Which, ironically, would look pretty suspicious in and of itself if I were a conspiracist. Can I have 5000 words to explain why I am certain (evidence aside) that this story was intended to discredit real criticism of gain of function research?
I think what is actually interesting about this story ... and what should make all editors pay CLOSE attention... is the way it demonstrates how fact checks can fail as gatekeepers of truth and how editing can go off rails if you don’t know the right questions to ask.
Read 4 tweets

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