After a rather exhausting but amazing trip to the Southwest American National Parks (Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes), I am back. If the constant go-go-go was tiring, at least I didn't have to marinate in the constant doom scrolling of Twitter. It's tough to be impressed by the latest online kerfuffle when you are staring at the direct example of millions and billions of years of geology.
In that vein, I thought I'd flag this piece by Yglesias. One thing the Left and Right share is a profound distrust of social media giants. No one like Facebook. I have a hunch even Zuckerberg hates Facebook. The real problem with Facebook's algorithm is not the algorithm; it's the people.
As social scientists are noting, people seem to crave that doom scrolling. They WANT the negative story. Especially those stories that let you hate the other side. We rightly look at Faux News and see a network largely divorced from reality. But MSNBC also peddles alarmist, negative posts.
One thing that I've noticed is that a lot of people think that democracy in America is on life support. My guess is that most of these GOP vote suppression efforts will either not work or will backfire. A lot of older people vote for the GOP and they like increased ballot access. The pandemic and Trump made the 2020 election different. Democrats voted early and the GOP voted on election day. That's not usually the case.
There are some legitimately worrisome measures in the GOP bills, including allowing the legislature to override the election results in some cases. THAT is worrisome. But the various speedbumps placed in front of the ballot - combined with the lingering legacy of 1/6 - will likely do more to increase Democratic turnout than suppress it.
Still, we seem obsessed with bad news. Covid was just the worst. Except for the last pandemic, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that took 50,000,000 lives, as opposed to the roughly 4-7 million lives lost to Covid. We obsess over the horrific shooting, while violent crime falls. We are now freaking out over a momentary inflationary blip caused by excessive demand.
It's never ending.
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