In which we yet again post yet another ten thousand plus interesting or amusing -or neither- tweets

Is there a difference between Mormons east and west?

 

I should be drunk pretty soon - I can get to work on it then.

 

Very much so.

The big difference is if someone lives in an area with a good amount of Mormons where you wouldn’t be one of a handful in an entire high school vs being just about the only one.

In the West, the rugged individualist and anti-govt sympathies align very well with Mormon culture.

I may have been able to stay Mormon if I had stayed in Spanish-speaking congregations in Texas, but the racism was strong and blatant there too. Here, the racism is really extreme too, but maybe a bit more subtly expressed. I have friends with one foot in and one foot out who have gone to a Portuguese congregation to get away from really in-your-face toxic elements of the religion. But the quiet racism and the blatant patriarchy sometimes become more apparent when you step out a bit.

For context, I was raised as and was personally a true-believing and practicing “thoughtful” Mormon until I was 22/23. Then my thoughtfulness got the better of me.

 

It's always hard to look at a culture objectively if it's all you have ever known. It's only when you are living in a different culture that you are able to look back at your own more objectively.

 

That’s why DeTocqueville was probably the best cultural ethnographer of the early US.

 

1852019502550048865 is not a valid tweet id

 

This post and the ad it is based on is getting the response it is getting is because being a petty tyrant over at least your family, and then moving that circle outward, is the basis of most of conservative politics. https://t.co/yiz2Flrz2m

— A. Bartaway🇺🇦❤️✊✌️ (@Bartaway) October 30, 2024

 

"Women are not without electoral or political power." https://t.co/AFjDTCXRQo

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) November 4, 2024

 

Long post ahead:

My issue with polls and data goes back to the following:

Data: 2012 American League MVP race, Detroit's Miguel Cabrera versus the Anaheim Angels's Mike Trout. One was an offensive juggernaut who led his team to the playoffs and achieved a Triple Crown for the first time since 1967. Another was a rookie who was a great defensive player and a good baserunner on a team that for most of its existence, is poor to mediocre. Both were remarkable, but a lot of the people advocating Trout were stats guys who kept arguing that things like WAR mattered more (Including Nate Silver), however, one could argue that Trout was a rookie and while great, he was still a rookie who didn't get that many at-bats that season. Plus, injury prone, even in his first season.

So when Cabrera won it (Understandably so), I saw a lot of stats people not taking it well. So part of it is arrogance. The other part is realizing that maybe the guy doing great in traditional baseball stats while helping his team succeed might have some importance than a stat like WAR.

To use another sport, basketball. Daryl Morey is a data fanatic, so much so that his teams rely heavily on threes. When he was with Houston there was a lot of praise for him, but the man signed James Harden (Who is not great defensively) and hired Mike D'Antoni, where defense is not in his vocabulary (Several stories from former players, woof). Just about everyone in the NBA world (Which I was a part of then) was going on about how much of a genius Morey is, and I'm going wait, he's trying to recreate the Steve Nash Suns, that's not genius.

On the polling front, I've posted the Perlstein article before. But the other thing is, polls are only good as the last election. And it's so obvious Dobbs is getting overlooked by most polling firms it's not even funny. Selzer meanwhile is going yeah, it's Dobbs, (Coverage of which has been a massive failure). Then there were the 2022 election where a good chunk of polls were convinced a red wave was going to happen. Only for it to be a puddle. That, and we've had people freaking out over polls back in May, when that's an ice age in politics.

I have no problem with data and stats adding to the conversation, but an issue I've seen with it in the last decade or so is the living and dying by it, and heaven forbid if it's questioned. Especially if you try to suggest that the numbers might be off or that they're misleading. I've used it for my line of work, but I also don't treat it like it's gospel.

 

If polling controlled policy, we never would have made it to the moon.

 

Closing arguments--

Dems "life is pretty good, let's see if we can make it better."

GOP "some of you, unfortunately, are going to die, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice... "

-OS

— Lyndon Baines Johnson (@lyndonbajohnson) November 4, 2024

 

My mother worked a few Dead shows and she mentioned how a lot of its attendees reeked. I imagine it's the same with the Trump crowd.

At some point, Trump's rallies transitioned from a sad Dead show, with the same sad people, going through the same sad 4 hour rendition of China Cat Sunflower, to a Vegas cabaret act of the world's saddest stand-up routine. -OS

— Lyndon Baines Johnson (@lyndonbajohnson) November 4, 2024

 

Someone made the point on this site recently that basically every Republican staff under the age of 35 came through the far-right online world. https://t.co/et8ZdMq58F

— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) November 5, 2024

 

Maybe.

The GOP establishment had less leverage after a string of establishment presidential candidates lost (or failed and were memory holed like Bush Jr) to implement the findings about 2012 then it will have next year after an insurgent has lost twice in a row.

 

I can’t stop laughing https://t.co/7XT3QfLyil pic.twitter.com/aoLpDB8YBL

— Doc Strangelove (@DocStrangelove2) November 4, 2024

 

Oh man the replies

Look one man is a phase

but 5, mf is gay

— Eigen Frame (@normerector) November 4, 2024

I mean like if this is seriously his way of comming out, NGL I respect it lol. Asserting dominance and all that.

— Rocket Goblin (@rocket_goblin) November 4, 2024

1853557937605582857 is not a valid tweet id

 

Tell me the lie

Honestly, this is more incisive than 9/10ths of commentary on American politics. https://t.co/Xcq0FNFzfE

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 5, 2024

 

Ok I’m sorry but this is just hacking, amateurish, I-hate-the-audience scriptwriting here.

If the season finale doesn’t have its shit together, I’m bailing before next season.

Elon Musk cancels his tele-town hall because of technical issues 😂 pic.twitter.com/GPhw6BThdC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2024

 

Harris ad:
Avocado Toast Millennial 1: I hate Amerikkka. Time to vote third party to spite my loving parents.

Avocado Toast Millennial 2: haha yeah (Looks over to Outback Steakhouse across the street and is suddenly overcome with enormity of American Values, ticks Harris box)

— Haus of Decline (@hausofdecline) November 4, 2024

 

Dammit it’s over now.

Oh, and Skip, good luck getting an interview with any person of color. Shouldn’t be a problem for a <checks notes> sports reporter.

Skip Bayless all but endorses ‘natural born leader’ Donald Trump https://t.co/qSZTwjg4ca

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 4, 2024

 

“Like a f’ing pilgrim” is a good line

“Both sides suck!”

Sure. I hear ya. But if we decide to have another kid, I don’t want my wife to die in childbirth like a fuckin pilgrim. So I voted democrat

— Corey Ryan Forrester First of His Name (@CoreyRForrester) November 4, 2024

 

Trump looking to see if Megyn Kelly has “blood coming out of her wherever” pic.twitter.com/vb4i3dEwte

— Outspoken™️ (@Out5p0ken) November 5, 2024

 

I’m tempted to @ every Trump fan from the last 9 years and ask them what they think of their boy now

Trump: Those Penn state guys, I wanted them to wrestle the migrants. I told the Dana White. I told him to set up his league of champions and a migrant league. I want the migrant to go against the champion. I think migrant might win. That’s how nasty some are pic.twitter.com/4vwwSXSUQz

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 5, 2024

 

They had their chance after Trump lost to Biden, and they were given the best excuse the world could possibly give them with the January 6th storming of the Capitol. They made a little noise but ended up on their knees to the guy.

 

Suroweicki sticking up for his fellow Tar Heel and knower of superdave in college, Michael Jordan

1.6 million views for a completely made-up story intended to influence voters. When Musk first took over Twitter, he said that "outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law" wouldn't be censored, but would have their reach limited. Instead, their reach is amplified. pic.twitter.com/RUwEgqIurA

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) November 4, 2024