Kent Pitman 🌎

Philosopher, Technologist, Writer.
Progressive independent.
Using this same handle in the blue sky.
Pachyderm: @[email protected]

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@BobKerns @francoisfleuret @ATinyGreenCell It was once said "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM", that those too lazy to research a purchase decision could safely buy IBM.

PhDs as Principal Investigators may be same.

This administration might streamline such if they sought actual efficiency, yet they war on research.

[ProPublica @propublica]

New: Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here's how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and analyzed the outcomes before and after the ban. https://t.co/uaVWJy7N9W

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@AJEnglish I'd wondered why any country'd let the US dump huge numbers of people off, probably undocumented, maybe not knowing the language, probably without income. Even if we're bigots who think "they must come from country X and need returning", it doesn't mean country X agrees.

[Nyombi Morris @mnyomb1]

Today, I woke up to find my story featured in the renowned Danish newspaper @informeren

I shared how dictator Museveni has turned Uganda into a de facto monarchy, controlling everything. Anyone who speaks up is branded an enemy of the state. #Thread 🧵

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@dave97384732 @brianstelter Yeah, just a variant on my Political Terraforming essay.
https://t.co/DB5uZPrA9Y

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@reason And stop worrying about paying someone who could afford not to receive money. Should I not pay you for a sandwich at your restaurant if you are rich enough to not need the money? The most streamlined system doesn't make means distinctions.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@reason If the US government tried to regulate golden parachutes, rich elites would cite contractual obligation, saying it's not matter of any discretion. But when it comes to retirement benefits for unions or Americans who've paid their dues, they just don't care. These are obligations.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

The related point I keep making is that while we protected the Constitution with supermajority requirements for textual change, we did not similarly create a supermajority requirement for changing who interprets the text. Once that vulnerability was found, it was exploited.

[Zachary Elliott @zaelefty]

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."

- Philip K. Dick

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@cliffnuttman @ezraklein I wasn't here commenting on the efficacy of the ads. Twitter's probably not a useful for him to do that. I was just commenting on the availability of correct statistical information.

[Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) @speechboy71]

Yes, why would the public want to have more information about a guy nominated to be the nation's top-ranking law enforcement official?

[David Corn @DavidCornDC]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to order stopping the development of new drugs for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and other illnesses for eight years on his first day as HHS secretary. Thank you, Trump voters.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@cliffnuttman @ezraklein I don't even know what this means. My point is that beyond visible ads, we know there were others out of sight. Targeting frequencies vary too. Speaking about public ads says nothing about about private ones. We know there was personally-targeted effect, but can't summarize it.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@ezraklein Apparent apathy may be MUCH more structured, just not VISIBLY so. Voters maybe saw messaging manipulating them on targeted points known to annoy/scare them. Such ads can't be statistically summed or fact-checked. They lack recourse in law, democratic debate, or political outcome.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@ezraklein I would not underestimate the degree to which micro-targeted advertising was able to manipulate the sense of outrage or futility that drove this trend you are pointing to. It means that there is no data to tell us what voters were responding to.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@Yair_Rosenberg @itaisher US has long history of different tactical approaches within democracy, but wasn't divided on basic matters of whether corruption, incompetence, and foreign influence were OK. His sowing of broad distrust in fellow Americans & planned retribution for political opponents is scary.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@Yair_Rosenberg @itaisher It's like he's play-acting a part for the applause. Corruption seems clear, not engendering trust. Feels like success of US isn't his goal, just getting a cut. Exceptions/accommodations for Putin are reason to worry he's compromised to power that actively wants the US to fail.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@TheLastWord @SenJackyRosen @Lawrence @MSNBC It matters more to Biden to be recorded as a good guy than to actually DO good, saving the nation from darkness. But History won't even say "he lost democracy with honor". He'll be tried on trumped-up charges, his wins erased, his vain quest for honor costing lives & suffering.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@TheLastWord @SenJackyRosen .@Lawrence @MSNBC
NO, they won't. SCOTUS ruled POTUS has unquestioned king-like powers. Biden immediately said (I paraphrase here only slightly) "yeah, but I won't use such power. I'll just tie one hand behind my back and leave it to any aspiring dictator to explore such power."

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@DavidKaib Your breakdown makes it easy to see the issue here, but maybe not to solve it. Solving it relies on the idea that the partitioning criterion is crisp (supporting a consistent, reproducible & decisive choice), commonly agreed upon, and easily computable by or explainable to all.

[Kent Pitman 🌎 @KentPitman]

@DavidKaib Just saying explaining what is a sustainable share is may be hard. They may think that technology or market capitalism will sort it out, that's it's not their job to use less, that they're modeling "good consumption" when it's a consumption economy that's not sustainable.