Dancing With the Dems

[Number 6]

I'll give voice to the Problem That Dare Not Speak It's Name and just say that America is probably not ready for a homosexual president. Even if that were not so, Buttigieg is too young and doesn't have the enthusiastic support of African Americans. Yes, at one level, being the chief executive of a smallish city is still the same sort of job as being President of the United States, but as I've argued in different contexts, at some point a quantitative difference becomes a qualitative difference.

Would he be a worse president than Trump? Of course not. Could he do the job? Sure. Being the head of anything is largely about having good people who do know their jobs and being able to lead them to achieve whatever your organizational goals may be. But let's not pretend he wouldn't have a very steep learning curve.

So my problems with Mayor Pete aren't that I don't think he could do the job; they're that I don't think he can get the job. He'd make a perfectly cromulent VP candidate choice, though, as long as the candidate, himself, wasn't a moderate liberal white male.

As in almost always the case*, DAR speaks my mind better than I can.

*Baroque music is gorgeous. Fight me.

[Mo]

PRESIDENT BUTT! PRESIDENT BUTT

[D.A. Ridgely]

*Baroque music is gorgeous. Fight me.

Baroque music generally doesn't move me emotionally. It's fine with me if other people like it. Take that!

[Jake]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and opine that "whom do you want to win?" and "whom do you expect to win?" are two different questions.

[Aresen]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and opine that "whom do you want to win?" and "whom do you expect to win?" are two different questions.

"Who do you least want to win?" is the more relevant question. Since you have not yet put your hat in the ring, 'President Fruitbat' is not yet an option.

[D.A. Ridgely]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and opine that "whom do you want to win?" and "whom do you expect to win?" are two different questions.

"Who do you least want to win?" is the more relevant question. Since you have not yet put your hat in the ring, 'President Fruitbat' is not yet an option.

I suspect pretty much all of us least want Trump to win, which means we care or should care primarily about which candidates can defeat him. What platform or policies we have to start fighting if and when that candidate does defeat him are problems to start worrying about in December 2020.

And as for that worrying, let it be noted that for all the harm he's done, intentionally and inadvertently, Trump has actually *accomplished* very little in the last three years. Electing a candidate who runs on a platform of Medicare for All, abolishing student debt and making college 'free,' raising the minimum wage to $100 a hour, etc., etc. doesn't mean any of those things will come to pass.

[JD]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

[Number 6]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

[Eric the .5b]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

It's cool; I didn't have a Game Boy, either.

[dbcooper]

8,515 people voted for Buttigieg is 2015.

[JD]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

Yeah they did. Mattel's Auto Race handheld video game came out when Yang was one year old. More to the point, though, is that parents, teachers, politicians, and busybodies of all stripes have forever been complaining about something that's ruining the kids' minds, whether it's radio or comic books or rock'n'roll or social media.

[Eric the .5b]

8,515 people voted for Buttigieg is 2015.

That means even fewer people voted against him.

[nicole]

I just realized I do know the "High Hopes" song. (I've been seeing a lot of references to it/videos of it on Twitter but obviously I have my sound off and don't watch videos.)

It's...not good.

[Aresen]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

Yeah they did. Mattel's Auto Race handheld video game came out when Yang was one year old. More to the point, though, is that parents, teachers, politicians, and busybodies of all stripes have forever been complaining about something that's ruining the kids' minds, whether it's radio or comic books or rock'n'roll or social media.

"Kids these days with their newfangled atlatls! Why can't they just throw their spears like we did? Not going to develop good throwing arm like that! Going to hell, I tell you." - Oog, talking to Mung, ca 21,000 BCE.

[JasonL]

I just realized I do know the "High Hopes" song. (I've been seeing a lot of references to it/videos of it on Twitter but obviously I have my sound off and don't watch videos.)

It's...not good.

Sinatra or Panic! At the Disco?

[Hugh Akston]

I just realized I do know the "High Hopes" song. (I've been seeing a lot of references to it/videos of it on Twitter but obviously I have my sound off and don't watch videos.)

It's...not good.

Sinatra or Panic! At the Disco?

Yes

[nicole]

Panic! at the Disco

Part of my confusion/recoiling in disgust is also because I still always think Panic! at the Disco is like, a Smiths tribute band or something. And there's basically no less-Smiths song than "High Hopes."

[JasonL]

They are freaking terrible. No more Smithsy than any other Emo band, which, I grant is a thing.

[nicole]

(In case it wasn't clear the source of my confusion is the Smiths song "Panic" which makes reference to discos.)

[Andrew]

I just realized I do know the "High Hopes" song. (I've been seeing a lot of references to it/videos of it on Twitter but obviously I have my sound off and don't watch videos.)

It's...not good.

The Pink Floyd one is pretty good. And the video is appropriately strange.

[D.A. Ridgely]

No love for Der Bingle?

[JasonL]

(In case it wasn't clear the source of my confusion is the Smiths song "Panic" which makes reference to discos.)

Oh right.

[lunchstealer]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

I'd say the bigger differentiator is that Radio, comic books, TV, video games, D&D, The Jazz Music, The Heavy Metal Music, computers, and all the other stuff that have been decried in the past century is that they weren't wired for detailed usage feedback to allow fine-tuning to maximize interaction. So game designers and TV programming executives and everyone else had to guess what would bring in revenue or put butts in seats or whatever, and design/write according to those guesses. The best they could do was highly aggregated viewing statistics from firms like Nielsen or focus groups.

Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc have been able to automate experimentation and come up with methods to tweak their interfaces and content to elicit specific user behavior for maximum revenue as a computer optimization problem which is turning out to be awfully effective. I'm not one to be alarmist, but mobility is probably far less game-changing than the fine-tuning, if the fine tuning has had as much of an impact on maintaining longer engagement periods as has been suggested.

[Hugh Akston]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

I'd say the bigger differentiator is that Radio, comic books, TV, video games, D&D, The Jazz Music, The Heavy Metal Music, computers, and all the other stuff that have been decried in the past century is that they weren't wired for detailed usage feedback to allow fine-tuning to maximize interaction. So game designers and TV programming executives and everyone else had to guess what would bring in revenue or put butts in seats or whatever, and design/write according to those guesses. The best they could do was highly aggregated viewing statistics from firms like Nielsen or focus groups.

Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc have been able to automate experimentation and come up with methods to tweak their interfaces and content to elicit specific user behavior for maximum revenue as a computer optimization problem which is turning out to be awfully effective. I'm not one to be alarmist, but mobility is probably far less game-changing than the fine-tuning, if the fine tuning has had as much of an impact on maintaining longer engagement periods as has been suggested.

Yep, with those insidious corporate algorithms and whatnot, our kids are out there right now buying ANOTHER WALLET.

[lunchstealer]

Without real accountability, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are ignoring the negative impact of their services on our children. As the father of two young boys, I worry about what this will mean for the generations growing up with these technologies. Our kids have access from infancy. They’re getting glued on apps and devices that are functioning as dopamine slot machines.

I look back at my childhood and I remember riding a bike around the neighborhood, but now tablets, computers, and mobile devices have shifted the attention of youth.

Oh, fuck off, Yang. I'm the same age you are and I remember parents, teachers, and politicians complaining about TV, video games, and computers when I was a kid too.

None of those things fit in a pocket and went everywhere with you.

I'd say the bigger differentiator is that Radio, comic books, TV, video games, D&D, The Jazz Music, The Heavy Metal Music, computers, and all the other stuff that have been decried in the past century is that they weren't wired for detailed usage feedback to allow fine-tuning to maximize interaction. So game designers and TV programming executives and everyone else had to guess what would bring in revenue or put butts in seats or whatever, and design/write according to those guesses. The best they could do was highly aggregated viewing statistics from firms like Nielsen or focus groups.

Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc have been able to automate experimentation and come up with methods to tweak their interfaces and content to elicit specific user behavior for maximum revenue as a computer optimization problem which is turning out to be awfully effective. I'm not one to be alarmist, but mobility is probably far less game-changing than the fine-tuning, if the fine tuning has had as much of an impact on maintaining longer engagement periods as has been suggested.

Yep, with those insidious corporate algorithms and whatnot, our kids are out there right now buying ANOTHER WALLET.

There is iron in your word of death, for all grylliaders to see.