Hugo Schwyzer

Dad. Ghostwriter. Believer. ⚽️ mad: Spurs, Galaxy, Beitar Jerusalem, Angel City. Love your crooked neighbor with your crooked heart. Philippians 4:5

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

My old friend @ENBrown writes so many correctives to prevailing narratives, it’s hard to keep up. Another good one.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown @ENBrown]

I am humbly begging people to stop acting like a drop in unintended pregnancies among teen girls is some great tragedy

Also to look at what the new NBER paper actually measured before making grand pronouncements about phones killing fertility.

The authors didn't measure how many people in their study areas actually had iPhones or whether birth rates actually dropped more among iPhone users. They just measured overall birth rates in areas with more or less AT&T mobile network coverage b/w 2007-2011.

There are *many* differences between places where mobile coverage was high and those where it wasn't. Are we really looking at iPhone effects, or just urban vs. rural fertility trends during the Great Recession?

And to whatever extent phones have contributed, it’s important to think about *how* they did so. People love blaming unhealthy porn & social media habits. What about phones spreading information & norms that empowered people — including those in isolated or highly religious or conservative countries and communities — to feel like they have more of a choice about when & whether to marry & have kids?

What about phones providing girls and very young women — among whom the birth rate drops were concentrated — with more access to and info about contraception?

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Philippians 4:5 is the single verse that serves as my guide for how I speak and act. It’s not enough to be kind or good. We are called to be gentle.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In addition to being kind and gentle, Christians must be compassionate, love selflessly, and seek the good of others, knowing that in every brother and sister who suffers it is the Lord Himself who asks and receives, who is welcomed or rejected, loved, or despised.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney

[David Frum @davidfrum]

The DSA Left is a machine built to fight moderate Democrats in factional warfare. The DSA Left is not built to fight Republicans. It has no idea of its own points of vulnerability because moderate Ds never fight back very hard.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

I think it’s a predictable backlash to a particular kind of claim about the “arc of history” that the left made in the 2010s. Too many too certain that progress was rapid and unstoppable

[Lisa Britton @LisaBritton]

Americans' views of the moral acceptability of certain behaviors have fallen significantly since last year, with each dropping between six and nine percentage points.

Those behaviors include using birth control, having a baby outside of marriage, gambling, sex between teenagers and cloning animals. What do you think is going on here?

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

View Park-Windsor Hills is notably the home of the Black middle/upper middle class. I’d be interested in the results one or two precincts south and east, which are still majority/plurality Black but not as affluent

[Ellis Bates @ElliscbIV]

Despite the focus on Steyer's affluent white base, his coalition had appeal elsewhere.

In View Park–Windsor Hills, California's most heavily Black community (>80%), Steyer edged out Becerra by 3 points and ran 18 points ahead of his statewide vote share.

[Peter Savodnik @petersavodnik]

He has no idea how the antisemitic virus gestates, how it spreads, shape-shifts, subsides and then, after a long or not very long sleep, reemerges. The "turnaround" has approximately zero to do with Netanyahu, Netanyahu's foibles notwithstanding, but he refuses to see that.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Half a billion for one man. Hold the line, Atleti!

[Madrid Zone @theMadridZone]

🚨🚨 BREAKING: ATLETICO MADRID HAVE REJECTED REAL MADRID'S OFFER OF 150M FOR JULIAN ALVAREZ AND ASKED FOR 500M.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Credit given.

[Ro Khanna @RoKhanna]

A close friend of mine is cancelling his voter registration today. He is convinced Spencer Pratt was robbed of the election. I explained to him that in California we count absentees first (which skew older and more conservative) and election day voters are younger and more Democratic. The slow count is largely because of policies to maximize participation, including postmarking a ballot on Election Day.

Regardless, we need to figure out in California how we can get the vote counted faster and results tabulated so it does not drag on. We should make the investments in operational improvements and resources in the wealthiest state in the nation. It is worth spending the resources to get the vast majority of the vote counted within 48 hours. Right now the system is eroding trust and spawning conspiracy theories.

[Jon Fleischman @FlashReport]

California Democrats have cheapened the democratic process by making voting as routine as paying your utility bill. Voting should require some effort. Both to educate yourself and to actually go vote in person. Frankly if you don’t think meaningful effort should be required to cast your vote, consider the idea that perhaps you should not be voting.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

@EWErickson I like it when we sing Howe’s (usually excluded) final verse:

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

@IAPolls2022 Where have all the libertarians gone, I wonder? Free minds, free markets, pro-choice on everything, pro-gun, open borders, “leave me the hell alone?” Did they all die off? I knew so many in my youth.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

I do feel badly for him. There is no anti-Zionism without anti-Semitism, and Jews who try to curry favor with that bloodthirsty mob must learn that sooner or later.

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

I sacrificed friends, family, community and quite possibly the ability to return to my home in order to defend Palestinians against Israel. Spent thousands of dollars of my money and raised much more for Gaza. And I have found myself so viciously attacked by the people who are supposed to be pro-Palestine. You are definitely setting an example that no one should ever cross over or they will pay an awful price and be completely isolated. I do not regret the choice I made. It was the right one. But it has been costly.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

@katrosenfield The rage of the center and the right towards our voting system just makes its defenders dig in further. We defend the indefensible. With apologies to Lewis Carroll, we only do it to annoy/because we know it teases

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Rod identifies the problem: we are now enslaved by suspicion, unable to trust institutions. And that mistrust of institutions invariably progresses to mistrust of people.

[Rod Dreher @roddreher]

Let's assume, for argument's sake, that Nithya Raman really did, unlikely as it seems, got to second place in the LA mayoral race. The problem is that many, many, MANY of us simply cannot believe it. It seems for all the world like fraud. This matters, & is going to matter more.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Is an adolescent craving for validation evidence of sociopathy?

[Aella @Aella_Girl]

hmmm

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Liberalism was once an ideology of deep optimism: things were steadily (if slowly) improving and our descendants would flourish in ways we couldn’t imagine. That optimism is gone, replaced by despair, rage, and paranoia.

[David Bernstein @ProfDBernstein]

It’s wild to me that progressive political types like @ezraklein live in a world where questioning whether one should have children because of climate change is a frequent topic of conversation. I’ve literally never heard anyone i Know say anything remotely like this. But it does help explain why conservatives are out-procreating progressives something like 2-1; the inevitable, political implications of this will be seen in another 20 years or so

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

If you want to have a good time in life, I think you should believe in some conspiracy theories. They're fun. Life is about having fun.

But if you want to be right, you should probably have a reflexive aversion to every conspiracy theory you hear. It's not that they're all wrong. It's more that the vast vast vast majority of them are incredibly stupid and don't really survive three seconds' thought (see post below for why it makes no sense for Karen Bass to rig an election to help a stronger candidate against her). More broadly, conspiracy theories almost always assume the extraordinary competency of a shadowy group of elites who are very good at keeping a secret. Haven't the last few decades proved that elites aren't that competent? Everybody accusing Karen Bass of expertly rigging the LA election on Twitter right now also thinks she sucks as mayor. What are the odds that the politician you hate, who you think sucks at everything, is exclusively good at rigging electoral outcomes to make you personally upset?

There's more to life than being right, so feel free to ignore the second paragraph. But people interested in being right should be much more reflexively judgmental of conspiracy theories.

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

Bam.

[Decision Desk HQ @DecisionDeskHQ]

Decision Desk HQ projects Steve Hilton wins the second of two spots in the CA Governor Top-Two Primary

#DecisionMade: 8:37 PM EDT

[Hugo Schwyzer @reddirt90278]

The way the entire hemisphere is sweeping rightwards is remarkable. People want security and opportunity, not posturing for Palestine.

[Agustín Antonetti @agusantonetti]

A esta altura, con los últimos datos, en todos mis diferentes escenarios me da como ganador a Keiko Fujimori de la elección presidencial en Perú.

De todas formas, todavía es temprano para decir que ya he visto suficiente.

Pero empieza a ser casi imposible que suceda otra cosa.