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11 Apr, 4 tweets, 1 min read
I have no daughters, so I have no idea what might be wrong with a grown man preying on underage girls. Can someone with daughters sketch out exactly what's going on here?
For the record: Obama used to say this all the time, and it was bullshit when he said it too.
For the record, what's wrong with this approach -- "empathy for those with whom I have direct experience" -- is that many of humanity's most pressing problems involve victims that are very far away from the perpetrators, in time/geography/social class.
"As a father of Bangladeshis born in 2030, I care about climate change."

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More from @drvolts

David Roberts Profile picture
12 Apr
Because I excel at time management, I've just been spending some time in a NextDoor thread about a petition that would upzone my neighborhood to allow for dense low-income house. Naturally, the neighbors are in a total panic. What about parking?!
I dropped in to say, "Please support upzoning. Seattle desperately needs new housing."

The very first response -- I'm not making this up -- was from Linda: "Not if Seattle would be more selective in new residents."

Golly. What do you suppose she means?
More Linda: "I was not being unkind, David. I just don't think it is right that so many move to Seattle from other areas because they know they can get so many freebies in Seattle that we end up paying for. Seattle used to be a beautiful city, it is not anymore."
Read 6 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
11 Apr
All the people who think there was some noble, credible US conservatism that has "fallen," or been "taken over" by Trumpism, tell me: why was it so weak? Why did it offer so little resistance? Why did it devolve so *easily* into reactionary madness? Doesn't it make you wonder?
Pizza's cooking, so: my theory of conservatism. Basically, in any society, there's a group/class/demographic that has power & privileges, sometimes economic, sometimes relating to race or caste. And every such group has a story about why their place at the top is justified.
For royalty it was the divine right of kings. For oligarchs or nobles is often some kind of "natural law" that makes them more refined/smart/wise than subaltern classes.
Read 11 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
9 Apr
"Biden admin officials say [Trump's tax cut] increased incentives for companies to shift profits to lower-tax countries, while reducing corporate tax receipts in the US to match their lowest levels as a share of the economy since WWII." Are these not facts that can be verified?
Seems like the fact that it's true is more relevant than the fact that Bidenites say it. nytimes.com/2021/04/07/bus…
"Members of the Business Roundtable, which represents corporate chief executives in Washington, said this week that Mr. Biden’s plan for a global minimum tax 'threatens to subject the U.S. to a major competitive disadvantage.'" 🙄
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
8 Apr
Just going to enjoy a moment of uncomplicated pleasure in @ezraklein telling me that the Democratic Party has more or less conceded that I'm right about everything. nytimes.com/2021/04/08/opi…
Sure, others were right too. You can go to their feeds if you want to hear about that.
"They view the idea that a carbon tax is the essential answer to the problem of climate change as being so divorced from political reality as to be actively dangerous."
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
8 Apr
I know I should probably be trying to decode the 12D chess or whatever, but I'm distracted by all the mistaken assumptions, bad history, poor reasoning, & preening vanity here. washingtonpost.com/opinions/joe-m…
I'm trying to resist yelling about this piece for all eternity, but the key question Manchin doesn't address is, why, if small/rural states are already over-represented in the Senate, we *also* need a 60-vote supermajority requirement.
Or why the public would trust a Senate that passes legislation less than one that can't.
Read 12 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
4 Apr
Must-read investigative journalism from @JaneMayerNYer (if that's not redundant) shows that the right is in a bit of a panic about HR1, the voting rights bill, because it's wildly popular with the public, even a majority of Rs. newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
Hey @JoeManchinWV? This is how they're talking about the voting rights bill in private:

"Instead, a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress."

Do you want to be complicit in that?
Imagine sitting around having this discussion and never thinking, "gosh, I wonder if maybe we're horrible fucking people?"
Read 6 tweets

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