# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
I need to figure out how to stock up on estradiol. ADHD meds are really hard to stock up on. I'm imagining my dad, a doctor in his mid 60s who looks like a friendlier Wallace Shawn, giving people black market vaccines.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
I need to figure out how to stock up on estradiol. ADHD meds are really hard to stock up on. I'm imagining my dad, a doctor in his mid 60s who looks like a friendlier Wallace Shawn, giving people black market vaccines.

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
Alive. Trying to get more functional, I'm not very functional. But I'm hanging in there. Been doing some macrame and trying to learn woodworking and riding my bike as much as I can manage.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
Alive. Trying to get more functional, I'm not very functional. But I'm hanging in there. Been doing some macrame and trying to learn woodworking and riding my bike as much as I can manage.

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
🫂

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
🫂

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
🫂
Since Twitter died I have been much more scarce on social media too. I hope you've been ok.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
🫂
Since Twitter died I have been much more scarce on social media too. I hope you've been ok.

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
I always like talking to you 🫂

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
I always like talking to you 🫂

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
Which is a huge part of why we desperately need more ways for people to be reached. Most people in the US oppose the genocide but have little access to real information about it or our government's complicity. It's like climate denial, everyone either gets fed pro genocide propaganda or gets told that there's nothing we're doing to support it and can do to stop it. And they're fighting very successfully to make those two things the two sides of the argument.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
Which is a huge part of why we desperately need more ways for people to be reached. Most people in the US oppose the genocide but have little access to real information about it or our government's complicity. It's like climate denial, everyone either gets fed pro genocide propaganda or gets told that there's nothing we're doing to support it and can do to stop it. And they're fighting very successfully to make those two things the two sides of the argument.

# orderedItems[].object.content
@NicoleZoopzoop
The way the current administration has handled the Palestinian genocide is a war crime and the way the media has handled it is more or less evil, but I also don't think the Democrats could have won the election by opposing it. They might have won Michigan, but maybe not, and I think that's probably about it. People don't have good information because the media is a garbage fire and all moat people would have heard is AIPAC propaganda and Republican propaganda.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
@NicoleZoopzoop
The way the current administration has handled the Palestinian genocide is a war crime and the way the media has handled it is more or less evil, but I also don't think the Democrats could have won the election by opposing it. They might have won Michigan, but maybe not, and I think that's probably about it. People don't have good information because the media is a garbage fire and all moat people would have heard is AIPAC propaganda and Republican propaganda.

# orderedItems[].object.content
We can sink tens of billions into high speed rail projects and no child left behind but can't pay teachers or fix school buildings or require large railroads to maintain safe operating conditions or create a system where new track can be built or allow a functional national passenger rail network to operate. We can close all the mental asylums but not establish and fund community care. We have to be able to do nuanced maintenance and big initiatives at the same time.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
We can sink tens of billions into high speed rail projects and no child left behind but can't pay teachers or fix school buildings or require large railroads to maintain safe operating conditions or create a system where new track can be built or allow a functional national passenger rail network to operate. We can close all the mental asylums but not establish and fund community care. We have to be able to do nuanced maintenance and big initiatives at the same time.

# orderedItems[].object.content
And that's of a piece with other things that have happened in our politics where we have been unable to focus on or keep up with basic maintenance on things as simple as roads, electric grids, railroads, and the educational system while at the same time remained able to aggressively pursue highly directed policies, including on those things, which are often very counterproductive. We can sink tens of billions into projects that make things worse but can't address really basic things.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
And that's of a piece with other things that have happened in our politics where we have been unable to focus on or keep up with basic maintenance on things as simple as roads, electric grids, railroads, and the educational system while at the same time remained able to aggressively pursue highly directed policies, including on those things, which are often very counterproductive. We can sink tens of billions into projects that make things worse but can't address really basic things.

# orderedItems[].object.content
Generally speaking Democrats have failed to focus on what is basically homeostasis. You have to maintain an internal environment where democracy can survive and be healthy and at almost every turn they haven't focused on that. The media environment is not conducive to that, the political environment is not conducive to that, and the economic situation is not conducive to that. You can keep winning elections without focusing on maintaining that homeostasis for a while but it catches up with you.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
Generally speaking Democrats have failed to focus on what is basically homeostasis. You have to maintain an internal environment where democracy can survive and be healthy and at almost every turn they haven't focused on that. The media environment is not conducive to that, the political environment is not conducive to that, and the economic situation is not conducive to that. You can keep winning elections without focusing on maintaining that homeostasis for a while but it catches up with you.

# orderedItems[].object.content
A Trump administration doesn't have to work hard to suppress the media. The vast majority of the work is already done, and the Democrats were often enthusiastic participants in pursuing policies that destroyed journalism and made all this possible.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
A Trump administration doesn't have to work hard to suppress the media. The vast majority of the work is already done, and the Democrats were often enthusiastic participants in pursuing policies that destroyed journalism and made all this possible.

# orderedItems[].object.content
Incidentally I didn't know where to put this in my thread but since 1980 the US population has grown by about 50% and the number of paid journalists has fallen by around 2/3. And those journalists make a ton less. There weren't enough people to cover everything important back in the day, and now journalists are spread just impossibly thin. And a lot of the effort and money gets spent on stuff that's flashy or profitable and not what's important. It's dire.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
Incidentally I didn't know where to put this in my thread but since 1980 the US population has grown by about 50% and the number of paid journalists has fallen by around 2/3. And those journalists make a ton less. There weren't enough people to cover everything important back in the day, and now journalists are spread just impossibly thin. And a lot of the effort and money gets spent on stuff that's flashy or profitable and not what's important. It's dire.

# orderedItems[].object.content
But it seems like people are going to dissolve in backbiting. Major figures have long been more concerned with gaining or maintaining control of the sinking ship rather than stopping it from sinking.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
But it seems like people are going to dissolve in backbiting. Major figures have long been more concerned with gaining or maintaining control of the sinking ship rather than stopping it from sinking.

# orderedItems[].object.content
And like it kind of goes without saying that we need aggressive support for independent journalism and a long term policy plan to make national policy to make journalism financially sustainable and far larger than it currently is. And obviously that should be in political platforms.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
And like it kind of goes without saying that we need aggressive support for independent journalism and a long term policy plan to make national policy to make journalism financially sustainable and far larger than it currently is. And obviously that should be in political platforms.

# orderedItems[].object.content
And I don't know that most of the Democratic party is going to get there let alone do something about it. Only a few more or less insiders seem to and they already have been trying to do things about it (notably The Crooked Media guys). A lot of outsiders on the left (Cool Zone Media, etc.) have been trying to reach people, and succeeding, but it needs more scale and more focus on demographics not being reached. And they don't have the same potential access to financing.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
And I don't know that most of the Democratic party is going to get there let alone do something about it. Only a few more or less insiders seem to and they already have been trying to do things about it (notably The Crooked Media guys). A lot of outsiders on the left (Cool Zone Media, etc.) have been trying to reach people, and succeeding, but it needs more scale and more focus on demographics not being reached. And they don't have the same potential access to financing.

# orderedItems[].object.content
It is clear there's a core structural problem that keeps getting worse that makes it so that people are experiencing a very constructed reality that only has the facts (often lies) Republicans want. It isn't all pervasive for everyone but it's certainly reaching the majority of people and reality isn't. Even the way regular news constantly overestimates crime and misleads people about what it is and why it's happening is part of it. And that has to end if we want a democracy.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
It is clear there's a core structural problem that keeps getting worse that makes it so that people are experiencing a very constructed reality that only has the facts (often lies) Republicans want. It isn't all pervasive for everyone but it's certainly reaching the majority of people and reality isn't. Even the way regular news constantly overestimates crime and misleads people about what it is and why it's happening is part of it. And that has to end if we want a democracy.

# orderedItems[].object.content
But like Democrats are very much fiddling over how like not being economically populist enough was dumb (very true imo). And some Democrats are talking about how defending queer rights and black people's rights was a mistake which is absolutely insane, that would have made their propagandists jobs even easier and the Democrats could have lost even more.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
But like Democrats are very much fiddling over how like not being economically populist enough was dumb (very true imo). And some Democrats are talking about how defending queer rights and black people's rights was a mistake which is absolutely insane, that would have made their propagandists jobs even easier and the Democrats could have lost even more.

# orderedItems[].object.content
And now the questions are is anyone with the resources interested and will there be time and opportunity before MAGA cracks down on that kind of dissent. Unfortunately the reality is this was a strategy on which urgent systematic work should have started in 2004 or earlier, not 2024. Now it all needs to happen fast under potentially appalling conditions. It's certainly possible it could be done, but it probably would require a kind of popular front and a lot of money to do it.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
And now the questions are is anyone with the resources interested and will there be time and opportunity before MAGA cracks down on that kind of dissent. Unfortunately the reality is this was a strategy on which urgent systematic work should have started in 2004 or earlier, not 2024. Now it all needs to happen fast under potentially appalling conditions. It's certainly possible it could be done, but it probably would require a kind of popular front and a lot of money to do it.

# orderedItems[].object.content
Some have tried that, with small scale degrees of success. But like there needs to be a massive apparatus for constantly contesting the Republican narrative that is built around people's communities and providing entertaining information sources for every demographic group. That's not gonna look like right wing talk radio, Fox et al, and it's probably going to involve more organizing as well as media. But like the fact that hasn't happened got us here.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
Some have tried that, with small scale degrees of success. But like there needs to be a massive apparatus for constantly contesting the Republican narrative that is built around people's communities and providing entertaining information sources for every demographic group. That's not gonna look like right wing talk radio, Fox et al, and it's probably going to involve more organizing as well as media. But like the fact that hasn't happened got us here.

# orderedItems[].object.content
The Democrats are also fucking up pretty hard by not being more aggressive about implementing policies that help people and adopting a lot more of them. I think moving left in a lot of areas would help a lot there. But fundamentally Democrats need to build a media and word of mouth apparatus that people like and is gripping that reaches people day in and day out.

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
The Democrats are also fucking up pretty hard by not being more aggressive about implementing policies that help people and adopting a lot more of them. I think moving left in a lot of areas would help a lot there. But fundamentally Democrats need to build a media and word of mouth apparatus that people like and is gripping that reaches people day in and day out.