News, Notes, and Notions For 24MAR24
I'm not a hater, I just crush a lot; plus my recent writings, things worth reading, listening to, and watching from the week that was
One of the lazier phrases thrown about to ward off criticism these days is “you’re just a HATER” or its cousin “don’t be a HATER” and various variations thereof.
Sigh…
There are certain things I really, really dislike in the discourse. I don’t mind opposing opinions, folks who take information to mean something different than I do, people with honestly founded differences of opinions.
What I don’t like is being berated for not believing in unicorns.
Some of these unicorns come in the form of ideology that sounds great on paper but has no chance of convincing living, breathing, feeling people to submit themselves to it. Some of them come in technology that over-promises and under delivers, or that simply won’t be ready anytime in the near future. Then there are the unicorns that are self-manifested from minds that are ate up with fear, or anger, or even worse true belief.
Social media really makes you wonder about that last batch. Anger, fear, and untethered true belief are strange things. Often they start out as foreign thoughts and emotions to a mind, but if tolerated long enough the anger, fear, and foundless belief starts wearing down like old leather, becoming comfortable and adapting while become a protector that keeps other things out.
“Ate up” was a term I first started hearing and using while in the military. It was not a compliment, directed at folks so totally committed to the perfected ideal that could never be reached they were utterly worthless to the mission and moment at hand. Those ate up folks are the ones who will invade your timeline and bombard your media intake will all sorts of unicorns of their own making. Then, when the rational folks reject those unicorns, the accusation of “haters” comes easy enough since to the ate up mind there can be no good reason for seeing the world any different way.
So, hate away, those who just throw out “hater” as an instant response because they have nothing better to retort. Sometimes the way you respond tells us all we need to know about you, and we choose to believe you the first time you accuse us of drinking the hateraid.
Welp, cheers.
My Recent Writing:
Girl Dadding in the Taylor Swift Era
A bunch of my 90s artists overdosed, died tragically, or revealed themselves as deviants, so spare me “Taylor Swift is bad for my children.”
Happiness, Ranked and Revealed
Understanding younger Americans “happiness” drop off has to include the conversation of carefully cultivated social and news media intake
Sports Betting Opponents Try Mopping Water Off Legalized Gambling Beachhead
There will be no un-ringing the bell that launched legalize sports gambling in America. So, what is the next play for folks who don’t like legalized sports betting in America
Worth a read:
This is real “how the sausage is made” stuff from the NY Times on why right wing content creators are going to Panama to get their immigration ammunition”
Chasing Clicks in the Jungle: Right-Wing Influencers Descend on the Darién Gap
Ayub Ibrahim had just walked out of the jungle. His feet still ached. A month earlier, he had left his home in Somalia, fleeing a civil war, he said, traveling first to Turkey, then Brazil and finally crossing on foot through a 66-mile expanse of wilderness known as the Darién Gap.
Resting in the sweltering San Vicente migrant camp in Panama with hundreds of other recent arrivals, he suddenly found himself surrounded by a half-dozen Americans with video cameras.
“Do you guys like Ilhan Omar?” one person asked. “What do you think about Joe Biden?”
Mr. Ibrahim, 20, answered the questions. He said he liked and admired Ms. Omar, the first Somali-American to serve in Congress. He doesn’t follow American politics, he added, but thinks Mr. Biden is a good president. When asked if Mr. Biden or former President Donald J. Trump would be better for immigrants, he chose Mr. Biden.
Later, Mr. Ibrahim would say he had felt ambushed and confused by the questions. He hadn’t intended to make a political statement.
But by then, it was too late.
One of his questioners, Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and former Republican candidate for Congress, had already posted an edited video of the conversation online. It had rocketed around the internet, amassing nearly two million views on X.
The caption read: “Somali illegal aliens proclaim support for Ilhan Omar and Joe Biden inside Panama migrant camp!”
As immigration becomes a dominant issue in the 2024 presidential race, right-wing media has been awash in gritty and often deceptive videos of migrants emerging from the Darién Gap, a roadless stretch of Panamanian jungle that has become a bottleneck for thousands of people on their way to the United States.
The clips are presented as proof of what Republicans often describe as an “invasion” of Muslim terrorists, Chinese spies and Latin American criminals. Posted widely on social media, the videos blame President Biden for the migration and suggest, falsely, that Democrats are encouraging it to create new, illegal voters. International aid organizations are cast as profiteers making money off human misery.
Worth Listening To:
Chef José Andrés on cooking in war zones From Post Reports:
In the last week, celebrity chef José Andrés has been at the forefront of efforts to feed people in Gaza on the brink of famine. Today on “Post Reports,” he talks to Martine Powers about how food can meet immediate needs – and be a bridge for healing.
Our friend Gabby Hoffman on the No Gimmicks Podcast:
Gabriella Hoffman is director of the Independent Women's Forum's Center for Energy and Conservation and host of the District of Conservation Podcast (@dconservpodcast) specializing in all things hunting, fishing, and conservation. Follow Gabby @Gabby_Hoffman.
Young Voices UK commentator Albie Amankona joined Times Radio
ICYMI I was on Hot Talk 99.5 with my old friend Joe Catenacci and Ruth Le May talking about the Happiness Rankings piece I wrote. Joe gave me my first experiences with radio as a guest, then full-on guest hosting when he had the morning newstalk show in Wilmington, NC. Now he’s in Myrtle Beach, and I love any chance to work with him. Thought this was a great conversation, check it out here:
Worth Watching:
Stephen Kent joins the Bullpen to talk about Christian Nationalism and its role in politics. Dr. Rashad Richey discusses on Indisputable.
From DW Documentary:
The race for supremacy in the age of artificial intelligence has begun. China, the USA and Europe are vying for the top spot. So are individual tech companies and start-ups. Who will determine which technologies will shape the future of humanity? The documentary follows key figures from the tech industry, science and politics who are working on artificial intelligence around the globe. They are tasked with making far-reaching decisions within a very short space of time. How can the technology’s potential be harnessed, while preventing a science fiction dystopia? The potential benefits of the currently emerging super-infrastructure are as limitless as its existential dangers. The latter include disinformation and election manipulation, as well as new forms of warfare and surveillance.
The film focuses on three entrepreneurs whose start-ups are among the top players in the field of generative AI: Jonas Andrulis from Aleph Alpha (Germany), Thomas Wolf from the open-source platform Hugging Face (France) and Han Xiao from Jina.ai (China). Director Dominik Bretsch follows the three AI pioneers over the course of a year, from the spring of 2023, when the technology first became a mass phenomenon, to the turbulence surrounding OpenAI. For the three of them, it's all about capital, influence and economic survival in a fast-paced and mercilessly competitive world that’s changing more rapidly than any other. China has set itself the goal of dominating the technology worldwide. The USA wants to prevent exactly that. And Europe - caught between the two competing superpowers - must find its own way: those who lose out now won’t get a second chance.
The film provides insights behind the scenes in the tech world and introduces the people behind the technological revolution.