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4 Apr, 4 tweets, 1 min read
One factor that really needs to be discussed is Facebook.

As post-junta Myanmar got broadband, cell plans often gave people free Facebook access. It became the country's primary news source. And we've seen how ineffective Facebook is at keeping hate and extremism off its site.
If anything it would be even harder to keep that content off Facebook in Myanmar than the United States, because while Facebook at least has a number of English language content moderators, it has almost none who speak Burmese.
Basically, hate and fake news eroded all the functions of civil society in that country, and Suu Kyi was either unable to stop it or got caught up in it herself.
And it's not just me saying this. John Oliver had a very chilling segment on how fake news on Facebook accelerated the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.

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Matthew Chapman Profile picture
2 Apr
Here's a very underrated infrastructure idea: what if we invested in creating seamless transportation between airports and train stations?
Intercity rail is never going to be as cost effective in America as in Europe because everything is so much more spread out. BUT, the hub-and-spoke airline model often has you take one long flight and one short one. What if we could replace *just the short flight* with a train?
Imagine if we had a system that encouraged multi-modal trips.

Airlines would fly you to a big city relatively near your destination, then transfer your luggage on to Amtrak, shuttle you to the station, and you ride the rest of the way. The ticket lets you book this all in one.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
25 Mar
I will say this for DeSantis: he at least seems to have a better intuitive grasp of what "marginal" Trump voters liked about Trump than, say, Hawley or Cruz.
DeSantis understands that the biggest thing isn't the far-right policy. It isn't even really the racism — that's the entire party at this point.

It's the way that Trump would take their every slightest frustration, and declare war on it. He would name the enemy, and go after it.
It's just such a simple, compelling kind of politics for people who don't want to think.

Identify who's the problem. Talk smack and get into a fight with them. Declare victory over them. Find the next person who's the problem. Repeat until America is great again.
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
25 Mar
I'm already seeing some on the right once again claiming that "the CDC" has proven that guns "save 2.5 million lives" per year.

So before we jump on that merry-go-round of bullshit, I'm going to debunk it again.
First, this 2.5 million number *doesn't* come from the CDC.

It comes from a 1992 survey by FSU criminologist Gary Kleck, who random-dialed a bunch of ppl, asked if they used a gun to defend themselves or their property in the last 4 years and extrapolated to the U.S. population.
There are a million problems with trying to measure defensive gun use this way.

First, there is no way to verify the respondents. Any of them could have fabricated an incident, named a real one that fell outside the 4 years, or even cast an aggressive gun use as a defensive one.
Read 9 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
21 Mar
It's not really an endorsement of communism, though, to say that zero leaders who have ever sought to create a communist society have ever actually created one.
If I were to tell you that being able to fly is a great idea and everyone who jumped off a building and splatted on the pavement just never achieved it, that's not an endorsement of jumping off buildings.
Similarly, no matter how good a concept it is for humanity to transcend the need for states and classes, if communism the political theory never actually gets us there, at some point that is on the theory, not just on every individual political leader who "messed it up."
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
16 Mar
She's right. Antifa is not an organization, it's an ideology — literally, the ideology of fighting the far right.

It doesn't make sense to talk about antifa as if it's a specific political party or activist group, because it isn't — it's just a thing that people believe.
The phrase "antifa organized a protest" makes about as much sense as saying "pro-life organized a protest."

Sure, individuals and groups who oppose abortion could organize a protest. But pro-life itself can't organize anything. It's just an idea — it doesn't have agency.
Republicans certainly seemed to get this whenever Tea Party activists attacked members of Congress or made terroristic threats. Oh, the Tea Party is just a grassroots belief in small government, we aren't responsible if a few crazies with Gadsden flags behave like criminals.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
7 Mar
Road trip day!

Driving to Portland, Oregon for a weeklong anniversary vacation with @fawfulfanswife.
Just made it to Susanville. Pulling over at the Diamond Mountain Casino for a quick rest stop and gas up.
Hello Oregon!

41 states down. 9 to go.
Read 9 tweets

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