Andrew Appleton

Hurricane Survival Expert

[Alexander Stahel 🌻 @BurggrabenH]

Helen Andrews’s thesis on the feminisation of Western institutions helps explain something increasingly obvious about progressive politics in both the US and Europe.

Politics is becoming less a contest between competing ideas and more a system of social conformity: you are either with us or against us. Disagreement is no longer merely disagreement. It becomes evidence that there is something morally wrong with you.

That mechanism matters because it allows emotionally compelling narratives to substitute for intellectual coherence. Wind and solar are “green”, therefore questioning their economics, intermittency or system costs makes you a climate denier.

Mass migration from low-trust societies is framed as compassion, therefore questioning its fiscal, social or institutional consequences becomes evidence of moral deficiency.

The contradictions inside the policies matter less than the emotional legitimacy attached to supporting them. Emotions matter, not facts.

Once politics operates this way, social enforcement becomes more powerful than argument. People do not need to believe every proposition. They merely need to understand the reputational cost of challenging it. Nobody wants to be expelled from the respectable tribe.

This is where Timur Kuran’s concept of preference falsification becomes so powerful. People publicly endorse positions they privately doubt because dissent carries a social price.

The apparent consensus then intimidates the next person into silence, making the consensus look stronger still. Eventually you have preference falsification at scale: weak ideas protected by powerful social conformity.

The extraordinary feature of this system is that policy can remain emotionally successful long after it has become economically or socially destructive.

The moral narrative is immediate; the consequences arrive with a lag. By the time energy costs rise, institutions deteriorate, fiscal burdens compound or social trust erodes, years of policy have already been locked in.

It’s a fucking nightmare but it is how a society can keep voting for the Greens or Democrats or Labour etc, subsequently destroy the best nuclear plants, de-industrialise entire sectors, welcome barbarians at the gates etc until the state discovers that the constant false virtue signaling does not balance a budget.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@Vern_Funquist So fucking soft per usual

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

How does one even go about, “Checking my local listings?”

[Bruce Fenton @brucefenton]

Our Town Council keeps raising taxes.

So I showed up with an English Lord’s wig to speak in *favor* of taxes.

“If you can’t pay your taxes…don’t be poor.”

[Douglas A. Boneparth @dougboneparth]

Billion dollar business idea:

Fraud

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

I often forget I can just listen to “Levels” whenever I want, but it is so comforting to know, deep down, I can listen to “Levels” anytime that I want.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

I have no idea what the difference is between Type A and Type B people. When did this get explained to everybody?

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@RiverOaksPrblms @RiverOaksPrblms what’s your Top 3 steakhouses in Houston?

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@BFW @KayceSmith

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

https://t.co/ub7iOtdhKT

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

I’d like to point out that the only version of Jesus Christ Superstar I recognize is the Hell’s Kitchen Community Theater adaptation: https://t.co/v557cNursc via @YouTube

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@AreanRyan #RIGGED

[Bunkie Perkins @BunkiePerkins]

Yeah but there’s no El Tiempo in Gainesville

[Jack Mac @JackMac]

Arkansas fandom is a psychological experiment by the CIA to see how much pain a person can take with something they love deeply.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@JohnNaborsShow Brandon Dean.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@TheConcreteGuy_ Should have gone with steel.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

I had a lot of help from Jack Daniels.

[Andrew Appleton @AndrewAppleton]

@fasc1nate That’s Levon Helm.