A thread on J.D. Vance, From Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive our Appetite for Misinformation: Backstory: To understand J.D. Vance, we have to first understand the concept of "social-sorting" (from @LilyMasonPhD )... that the 2 major parties have become more... ...sociodemographically distinct since since the 1970s with Republicans becoming more homogeneously white, Christian, rural, & culturally conservative and Dems growing more racially/ethnically diverse, secular/agnostic, urban/suburban & culturally liberal.

🚨Something I’d love for us to think and talk about as we enter 2024 is how democracy isn’t a “thing,” but a *practice*. America isn’t a democracy because we say it is. It is a democracy because we do the work to make it one… 🧵 And We= citizens and lawmakers alike.

Democracies require that lawmakers abide by certain norms. But norms are weird, right? They’re not laws. You don’t legally HAVE to do these things…

The incentive structure is broken. Folks. Science cannot “win” a media performance because science is not entertainment. Science is a practice, a method of pursuing truth. And in our current political media environment it is at a disadvantage against performative “whataboutism”. The appeal of RFK jr or even Rogan is the psychological needs they fulfill, not because they get anyone closer to Truth. But because they offer simple intuitive answers in a seemingly incomprehensible world. They offer a sense of agency and control, and a sense of community.

As I raise two teens I’ve thought a lot about a conversation my freshman (high school) English teacher had with me. Ms. Evans was tough. She also talked straight. there was something about me that she identified (and identified *with*) that year… It was probably half way through the school year. She asked me to stay back and chat w her one day. Eager for more face time with a teacher, I happily accepted. But the conversation was not at all what I thought.

So appreciate @CaseyNewton's common sense approach to (and breakdown of) the Surgeon General's adolescent social media warning (both here and on Hard Fork podcast: nytimes.com/2023/05/26/pod…)
Some additional thoughts from me below...

https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1661161706578657281

Something that comes clear in the literature are what we refer to as "moderating variables" in the effects of social media use on kids - these are individual characteristics that are associated with MORE or LESS harmful effects demonstrated as a result of social media use.

As the Gov of Florida registers his full throated support of Penny, the man charged with manslaughter for killing a Jordan Neely on the NYC subway, it may be worth unpacking the incentives that would drive DeS*ntis to enter this debate in this way... Relatively often in the U.S., visceral events happen that tap directly into the partisan mega-identities that have come to dominate our political culture. The killing of homeless man Jordan Neely on the NY subway was such an event.

If only there were experts in fascism, authoritarianism, media economics, political communication, American history, or democracy who could have told @CNN this was an unwise choice.

Oh wait. I’m being told all of those experts did indeed weigh in. But they fucking did it anyway Remember in the Lorax how NO ONE was there to represent the interests of the trees… except the Lorax?

“I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees…”

Who speaks for democracy, people? IF DEMOCRACY DOESNT MAKE SOMEONE MONEY, WHO IS GOING TO SPEAK FOR HER?