Mitchell Hall

Skeptical optimist; cerevisaphile 🍻. My opinions probably ≠ my employer's. He / him / your excellency. Cynicism is an intellectually lazy, cowardly pose.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

Like I say in my bio^

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

Wow, this study is devastating for cynicism.

Here's a TL;DR:

In studies 1–3, participants indicated they thought cynics would do better on cognitive tasks.
In studies 4–5, cynics were tested and 1 SD of cynicism was associated with 0.25 and 0.17 SDs lower cognitive ability in studies 4 and 5, respectively.
In study 6, cynics were found to be

- less educated in 29/30 countries
- less literate in 28/30 countries
- less numerate in 29/30 countries
- less computer-literate in 23/26 countries
Cynicism is simply not smart.

Source: https://t.co/fk77cy1TV3

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@JamesSurowiecki @Heminator @ATabarrok The problem is that, like his wife Molly, he doesn't appear to be a serious person. It's like this is their best attempt at being serious people. They're just not very smart and lack integrity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

Thank you #Knicks!

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Gazans are calling for mass protests on June 26 against Hamas and its entrenched authoritarian, fascistic rule. The campaign, “The Voice of the Oppressed,” seeks to amplify the silenced majority in Gaza – voices crushed not only by Hamas, but also by its enablers in the West Bank, across the Arab and Muslim worlds, and within Western “pro‑Palestine” activist circles.

Gazans are exhausted by endless wars with Israel, perpetual Islamist repression, the collapse of their national hopes, and life as hostages to the suicidal nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Stand with the people of Gaza and elevate their voices; never speak over those who have lived under a terror regime that destroyed the Strip in the name of “resistance.”

Hamas will fall, externally and internally, no matter how long it takes.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@magi_jay I'm interested in your thoughts on Brian Beutler's argument about Graham Platner: "I will take a bad senator from a broadly liberal party over a “moderate” senator from a fascist party 100% of the time I’m confronted with the choice." https://t.co/wDvJFy2EJT

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@JamesSurowiecki @DVinny84 @work_distract_ @infantrydort I'm impressed by your good faith engagement with these malevolent clowns, but I have to wonder - to what end?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@Noahpinion The Afghan War lasted for a decade and helped to bring down the Soviet empire. There's no way the Ukraine war ends well for Putin or Russia.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@HeerJeet @SmelOdiesOG @HowardPollack Hot take: I don't think carnage inflicted on civilians is *ever* justified. By saying "what about..." you imply Arab slaughter of Israelis is justified. Did you mean to do that?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@HeerJeet @HowardPollack I think Palestinians are human and deserving of dignity and their own state. But somehow when Israeli civilians are slaughtered by Hamas (or any of their Arab neighbors) so many people just hand wave that away like only Israel has agency. It's bizarre.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@AJEnglish @AskPerplexity what evidence is there that dogs have raped Palestinian prisoners?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@ianbremmer A dynamic that seems not entirely dissimilar to Trump's invasion of Iran.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@SealOfTheEnd @BrynnTannehill After all, how hard could it be to shoot down several satellites (owned by a US defense contractor)?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@Atticus4All4 @DakdaR22 Yes the people who are defending their country from invasion are the warmongers, you are very smart

[Dr. Arthur Brooks @arthurbrooks]

Heartbreak doesn't feel permanent by accident.

It's designed to. The designer is Mother Nature.

She tells you the sadness will last forever because your ancestors had to learn from loss. If grief wore off by morning, you'd lose the same way again. The pain had to feel infinite, or they wouldn't take the lesson.

But she also tells the same lie in reverse.

When you fall in love or finally land the job, she whispers that this will last too. Chase the gazelle. Stay in the hunt. The high has to feel permanent, or they wouldn't chase it again.

Except emotions don’t last. They can’t last. Because they're a signal system. Something crosses your horizon — a threat, an opportunity — and the limbic system tells you to approach or avoid. An emotion that doesn't pass is an alarm that won't stop ringing.

It took me decades to figure this out.

Now, when someone cuts me off in traffic, it bums me out for a minute. Then I think: this won't bother me in an hour. So I get a head start on not caring right now.

When it comes to emotions: Intensity is real. Permanence is a lie.

Next time a feeling feels like forever, remember: Mother Nature lies. Forever never lasts.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@chiky_handlr @AskPerplexity is this Trump quote real?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@Doveofwar @michaeldweiss But Ukrainian capabilities keep increasing. Fighter jets, strategic depth drones and missiles, Starlink coverage in Russia, new organizational structure {corps). Russian capabilities have been degrading along with their air defense network. It's a reductive comparison.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@Doveofwar @michaeldweiss And why would Ukraine keep recapturing lost territory at exactly the current rate?

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@RichLowry Because the Trump administration and Republican Supreme Court hasn't already overturned it? Wut?

[Ilan Goldenberg @ilangoldenberg]

Social media has accelerated the trend, but let’s be clear: the collapse of Israel’s standing in the United States didn’t just “happen” to Israel. It was the direct result of a series of catastrophic political decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu over the past decade.

1. Netanyahu chose to drag Israel directly into partisan American politics.
Opposing the JCPOA was not itself unique. The Gulf states also disagreed with the deal. But Netanyahu went far beyond policy disagreement. He organized a speech before Congress behind the back of the sitting American president in order to directly confront Barack Obama and align Israel with one side of America’s political divide. That moment, ten years ago, was the beginning of the end of bipartisan consensus around the US-Israel relationship. It planted the seeds for Israel becoming a partisan issue in American politics.

2. Netanyahu chose to empower extremists like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in order to maintain power. He helped engineer alliances with them, brought them into the center of Israeli politics, and handed them real authority over national security and settlement policy. The images Americans now see almost daily on social media — violent settler attacks in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir celebrating with a noose cake, a Palestinian journalist emerging from prison emaciated and abused under systems overseen by Ben Gvir’s ministry and being interviewed on CNN. All of that has done enormous damage to Israel’s image.

Those outcomes were not inevitable. They were the direct consequence of Netanyahu’s political choices.

3. Netanyahu chose to prolong and prosecute the Gaza war in a way that maximized devastation.

After October 7, there was overwhelming sympathy for Israel in the United States. Americans broadly agreed Israel had the right to respond to Hamas’ atrocities.
But the war did not need to continue for so long, nor did it need to be prosecuted this way.

A year before it ended, most Israelis were prepared to support ending the war in exchange for the hostages. Netanyahu repeatedly extended it because ending the war threatened his coalition and his political survival. At the same time, he refused to seriously empower or work with alternative Palestinian leadership that could replace Hamas. So Israel fought a devastating war while ensuring Hamas would still remain part of Gaza’s future afterward.

The images coming out of Gaza more than anything else have transformed global and American opinion. Had the war ended earlier after Israel had achieved what military objectives it realistically could, Israel would not be facing anything close to this level of backlash today.

4. Netanyahu played a major role in pushing the United States toward war with Iran.

That war is deeply unpopular in the United States. It directly cuts against what Donald Trump promised much of his own political base, namely, avoiding getting bogged down in another Middle East war with no clear strategic rationale and no plan for how to win. It has dramatically driven up oil prices, and will have long term direct economic impacts that Americans will feel every day.

And now, just as the JCPOA fight a decade ago began the fracturing of Democrats on Israel, this Iran war is beginning to fracturing of conservatives. It will take time but you already see it. 

So no — this is not fundamentally about social media. It is not simply a mysterious surge of antisemitism, a lack of hasbara, or genius social media of Iran and Qatar. And it is not primarily the result of advocacy groups or messaging campaigns.

At its core, what we are witnessing is the cumulative consequence of a series of disastrous decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu — decisions that have been bad for Israelis, bad for Palestinians, bad for the United States, and bad for the broader Middle East.

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@adamawmo @FireStaroX @jacksonpolyp1 @stoolpresidente Your apparently fervent desire to see this as a war between goodies and baddies speaks to your level of understanding of it. Thank you for your input, and have a nice life : )

[Mitchell Hall @mitchellhall]

@DeepShort7 @slantchev I was going to say the same thing. And Trump will never learn how to deal with Putin.