Political Discussion

ranbalam said:
I get where you all are coming from...FB is all braggers and complainers it seems. Oh, and advertisers, which was me. I used it almost daily to push the band - merch, gigs, new videos - and realized I was just spamming most of the time. But, with many of the gigs we booked, having an FB account was necessary to set up an event. Once the pandemic hit and I didn't have gigs booked, I finally was able to stop checking FB daily, then I only checked in once a week or so. Now I barely think about it, and yet still haven't ditched my account.

I like your approach @Chucktshoes with the streamlined friend list. I just know that once the band gets busy again I'll likely want the outreach that FB provides...but I'm very reluctant to dive back in.
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I have to use Facebook for the dad's club I run for our kids' school. I have been searching for an easier option to communicate what we're doing and meet new members as a lot of dads in our school don't use Facebook or have sworn off it. So I totally get where you're coming from. As my time is running out in that position, I'm happy to be able to back away from Facebook for the reason I stated above. However, I do want to keep some of the content I enjoy reading. And I think that's the trick to a lot of these social media sites. Just make it where you read the things that don't aggravate you. Why spend your precious time being purposefully irritated? I realize that's a bit of making the bubbles a lot of people are using to insulate themselves and only get politics and news they agree with. But I think for my own mental health, it's better to not have these little bits of aggravation pop up and waste my time.

I don't want to fully discuss the reasons why but I found myself comparing one of my kids who is going through a tough time right now both with school, friends, and their own mental state with the happier kid who loved school and had plenty of friends that I previously posted about on Facebook. I found myself being sad that this kid no longer exists and that's not fair to them. I think it made me realize that Facebook is all about how you want life to be and not necessarily how life really is. Nor did I want to post what was going on with us at that time because that's not fair to my kid and I don't need to have a shared misery moment. It's just my own personal issue with Facebook. But I realize there are others who either only post the best parts of their lives or post the absolute worst parts of their life (the vaguebookers who say things like "worst day ever" in an attempt to get others to respond with questions or support). Then I also realized I didn't want to know certain things about people who were my "friends" such as their personal politics, the conspiracy theories they believe in, or their desire to ignore science they don't agree with. Sure, you can hide that content but it led me to ask myself why I was even "friends" with these people. So then I removed them.
 
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www.cnn.com

Supreme Court takes up major abortion case next term that could limit Roe v. Wade

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a key abortion case next term concerning a controversial Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks, rekindling a potentially major challenge to Roe v. Wade at the majority conservative court.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

So far the courts have struck down PA's law. Do we expect the SCOTUS to continue the trend or weaken Roe V Wade?
 
Teeeee said:
The US has really lost its way.

(I'll take things we've known for years now, Alex)
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I'm just going to leave this right here.
Human behavior is linked to our immediate experience. In this study, the authors talk about people's "tolerance for uncertainty", and unfortunately that definition is hidden behind a paywall (if it's really there at all). So I looked it up here: To address these gaps, we propose a new integrative definition and multidimensional conceptual model that construes UT as the set of negative and positive psychological responses—cognitive, emotional, and behavioral—provoked by the conscious awareness of ignorance about particular aspects of the world.
www.sciencedirect.com

Tolerance of uncertainty: Conceptual analysis, integrative model, and implications for healthcare

Uncertainty tolerance (UT) is an important, well-studied phenomenon in health care and many other important domains of life, yet its conceptualization…
www.sciencedirect.com www.sciencedirect.com

From the study:

“So whether a person in 2016 was a strongly committed Trump supporter or a strongly committed Clinton supporter, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that an aversion to uncertainty only exacerbates how similarly two conservative brains or two liberal brains respond when consuming political content.”

Jeroen van Baar, study co-author and a former post-doctoral researcher at Brown, said the findings are important because they show that factors other than political beliefs themselves can influence individuals’ ideological biases.

“We found that polarized perception — ideologically warped perceptions of the same reality — was strongest in people with the lowest tolerance for uncertainty in general,” said van Baar, who is now a research associate at Trimbos, the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction. “This shows that some of the animosity and misunderstanding we see in society is not due to irreconcilable differences in political beliefs, but instead depends on surprising — and potentially solvable — factors such as the uncertainty people experience in daily life.”

Those participants — of any ideology — who were less tolerant to uncertainty in daily life (as reported on their survey responses) had more ideologically polarized brain responses than those who are better able to tolerate uncertainty.

“This suggests that aversion to uncertainty governs how the brain processes political information to form black-and-white interpretations of inflammatory political content,” the researchers wrote in the study.

scienceblog.com

Politically polarized brains share an intolerance of uncertainty

Since the 1950s, political scientists have theorized that political polarization — increased numbers of “political partisans” who view the world with an
scienceblog.com scienceblog.com

What I read here, is that as the world becomes more and more erratic and uncertain--this means economic uncertainty which accounts for a large number of the US population, which also translates to more political instability, greater amounts of stress on regular people, and spills over into our health as humans--we have the potential to become more polarized, not because people have changed in any fundamental way, but instead, because of external stressors that make our lives much, much more uncertain. People on podcasts and radio, TV news, and the internet all produce polarizing content because it sells. Money is the motivator here, but many content creators don't understand the psychology behind why people are reacting to their content--which is dangerous.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I don't know if that's real or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Why is the United States in bed with Israel? What's at stake?
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This is a decent summing up of US-Israel history.

www.grin.com

GRIN - US relations with Israel from 1948 to the present days

US relations with Israel from 1948 to the present days - Politics - Seminar Paper 2013 - ebook 12.99 € - GRIN
www.grin.com www.grin.com

Well, until it cuts off...
www.reuters.com

TIMELINE: U.S.-Israeli relations since 1948

Israel's ambassador to the United States was quoted on Monday as saying that U.S.-Israeli relations were in a "crisis of historic proportions" because of a dispute over Jerusalem settlement plans.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
mdmost said:
Then I also realized I didn't want to know certain things about people who were my "friends" such as their personal politics, the conspiracy theories they believe in, or their desire to ignore science they don't agree with. Sure, you can hide that content but it led me to ask myself why I was even "friends" with these people. So then I removed them.
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Just the other night chatting with my wife I compared FB to going to a bar/restaurant where everyone makes sure to tell you where they stand on things...even if I didn't ask. I wouldn't go to that establishment, so why would I go back to FB? I loved it at first of course...alllll my old high school friends were there; people who I hung out with before we really all even had strong stances or knew enough to have them. I now realize that just because we partied 25 years ago, doesn't mean I need them as FB or other sm contacts now. I need to let go.

I already scaled way back after the initial rush of checking in everywhere I went. I guess that goes with the Bragbook part of that platform: "I'm at this brewery, now I'm at this brewery" etc. A guy that came to see our band a lot showed up at a brewery my wife and I were at on vacation on a Sunday night. The guy doesn't drink, didn't come in for a beer, he came there to say hi to me because I advertised where I was. That was an invitation for pretty much anyone. He meant no harm but it freaked me out, and my wife even more. I doubt I'm saying anything here that most of you all haven't thought or expressed as well.
 
I left FB about 2 years ago. And it was one of the better decisions I've made for myself.

I tried to join a Buy Nothing group on FB as I was moving out of my old place. I explained to the admins that I don't have a FB profile but I was only trying to donate to people that might like them a bunch of really great furniture. They wouldn't let me in the group because they couldn't research me enough. Sadly, that meant the furniture ended up at the dump.

I really wish FB was not the platform used so much by local bands and venues and groups like Buy Nothing. There is zero reason to link those things to such a breeding ground of misinformation and hatred.
 
There are very few friends on Facebook that I haven't removed from my feed. I mostly use it for news I missed from Twitter, because it inevitably circulates on Facebook for 2-3 days after it happens. I've tried some local Facebook groups, but it's basically Nextdoor levels of old man yells at cloud. Even our local Buy/Sell/Trade groups suck.

I went through the Facebook braggart phase in college, especially relating to what bands I was seeing, but that was exhausting and now I only use my personal account as a photo repository with a few obligatory anniversary and birthday posts mixed in.

ranbalam said:
I already scaled way back after the initial rush of checking in everywhere I went
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I still use Swarm religiously to check into places, but I have like 3 friends there so it's mostly just habit at this point. And the occasional "Oh what was that place called that we went to when we were in X city 7 years ago" conversations.
 
Teeeee said:
I really wish FB was not the platform used so much by local bands and venues
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I totally agree. It's mostly the venues that require the bands to set up or join an event. I get it, it's free, but I don't love it.
And free doesn't mean there's no cost.
Facebook has never been great for bands or their music. Looking back, Myspace was pretty kick ass.
 
On July 15, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin dispensing monthly payments of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child older than 6 to families who qualify. These benefits will be dispersed to families through direct deposit, paper check or debit card, every month on the 15th, or, if it is a weekend or a holiday, the closest available day to the 15th.

thehill.com

Child cash benefit will show up in parents’ bank accounts soon

“With two parents, two kids, that’s $7,200 in the pockets you’re getting to help take care of your family.”
thehill.com thehill.com

Maybe I should cross post in the parenting thread.
 
nolalady said:
On July 15, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin dispensing monthly payments of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child older than 6 to families who qualify. These benefits will be dispersed to families through direct deposit, paper check or debit card, every month on the 15th, or, if it is a weekend or a holiday, the closest available day to the 15th.

thehill.com

Child cash benefit will show up in parents’ bank accounts soon

“With two parents, two kids, that’s $7,200 in the pockets you’re getting to help take care of your family.”
thehill.com thehill.com

Maybe I should cross post in the parenting thread.
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This is honestly so incredible. I'm sure there are downsides, and I'm sure there will be no shortage of people telling us all about it. But can they all just shut the fuck up for a bit and recognize how this has the ability to be so positively impactful to so many?
 
nolalady said:
On July 15, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin dispensing monthly payments of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child older than 6 to families who qualify. These benefits will be dispersed to families through direct deposit, paper check or debit card, every month on the 15th, or, if it is a weekend or a holiday, the closest available day to the 15th.

thehill.com

Child cash benefit will show up in parents’ bank accounts soon

“With two parents, two kids, that’s $7,200 in the pockets you’re getting to help take care of your family.”
thehill.com thehill.com

Maybe I should cross post in the parenting thread.
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We were really unsure what to do with kids this summer. We were looking at trying to scab together some summer camp for the enrichment and otherwise cheap out on a baby sitter who has some pretty shitty influencing kids in her house. Then I remembered this whole thing and now we're doing a pretty great, academically centered summer camp for the entire summer (still involves swimming, bowling, skating, etc.). Meanwhile mom and dad can continue to work without crazy schedule requirements. Pretty sure this is what thating is meant to do, right?
 
debianlinux said:
We were really unsure what to do with kids this summer. We were looking at trying to scab together some summer camp for the enrichment and otherwise cheap out on a baby sitter who has some pretty shitty influencing kids in her house. Then I remembered this whole thing and now we're doing a pretty great, academically centered summer camp for the entire summer (still involves swimming, bowling, skating, etc.). Meanwhile mom and dad can continue to work without crazy schedule requirements. Pretty sure this is what thating is meant to do, right?
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Yea I thought of the hippy nature home school enrichment I was thinking about sending my kid too when I saw this headline. They have summer camps.
 
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