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Angus Johnston@angus.bsky.social |
4225 followers 625 following 2122 posts
CUNY history prof. @studentactivism from Twitter.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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That points to a much better answer to the question asked! "I can't say how I'll feel in that situation. I don't know. But I DO know that if I step down, and the party loses, I'll feel like I let the country down." Much stronger.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Huh? No. I was trying to explain—to sincerely explain—why many of us understood the answer so differently than you did. I was trying to show you that it's possible for us to have a different reaction and have it NOT be a bad faith response.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Okay, we can disagree on that. But your claim was that people were misrepresenting what Biden said, that they were being unfair in doing so. And what I'm saying is that many of us understood what he said just fine, and were viscerally repelled by it.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Right. He's answering the question asked, and giving an inhuman, sociopathic answer. If he stays in, and loses to Trump, he shouldn't feel okay. He should feel like shit. He should be consumed with doubt and regret. If he's going to be fine if he loses, that's horrible.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Unless the answer he gave is his real answer, in which case, well...
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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You weren't talking about framing, though. You were talking about "how he'll feel." Which is why the way to answer that question is to deflect it—to NOT talk about how you feel, because a true answer is horrifying, and a fake answer, the answer he gave, is sociopathic.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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If the question is how he'll feel, why isn't the answer "I'll feel like shit forever, and I'll never stop wondering if I somehow could have done better?"
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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My daughter only decided last week that she was voting in the presidential election. She's heartbroken over Israel, and lives in a safe Dem state. And nobody hates Trump and wants him to lose more than her.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Yep. There’s a desperate panic going on.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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The idea that there are these vast swathes of lefties who are rooting for a Trump victory is so weird to me. Everyone I know who wants Biden to step down is scared to death of a Trump win.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Yeah. I feel like a lot of people have been holding off until the interview dropped.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Have I offered a prediction of what's going to happen? Do I claim to know how this is going to go down? Do I claim to know who will win, who is more likely to win, in November? Have I made any such claims at all?
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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You literally never interacted with me before tonight, and you know nothing of my work or my values. You're just a weirdo projecting shit onto strangers.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Funny you should say that! I cut an interview with a national publication short on election night 2016 because I realized I had completely misjudged the moment, and had nothing of worth to say. I think about how that humbled me frequently.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Genuine curiosity: If he drops out, and Kamala takes over, and she wins the presidency, what will your takeaway be? Will it be cause for reflection on your part? Self-doubt? I'm honestly curious—what do you think that would feel like?
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I'd have thought that before Biden's slamming-the-door statements today. But who knows? Maybe he's out of the loop.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Okay. You're gonna be right, or you're gonna be wrong, and if you're wrong you won't come back and say so, so what exactly should I take away from this assertion?
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I'm not trying to make him drop out or stay in. I'm describing what I think is happening. I don't imagine that I or you or she have any influence at all, and I'm not trying to exert any.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I don't think online chatter is going to be the deciding factor on this one. I SUSPECT that they're all holding their breath—if he does great tonight, and a couple more times, and the polls hold up, they'll stick. If not, they'll bail. But however it goes down, they decide, not us.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Pelosi said last week that Biden needs to prove himself to the American people. Schumer made a pro-forma show of support this week, and hasn't given a quote since that I've seen. Obama tweeted once, and that's it. And so on and on and on. For whatever reason, none of them is squashing this.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Again, neither RM nor I have any say in what happens. When this ends is gonna be an elite decision. Go yell at them.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Don’t tell her. Tell Mark Warner.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Letting people fuck with your guy with impunity is worse.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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My assumption is that beating Trump is pretty high on the priority list of the top Dems.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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You think that Mark Warner moving to putting together a committee to go to Biden and tell him to step down—as was reported this afternoon, and his office didn't deny—is consistent with Schumer and Obama telling everyone that Biden's 100% the nominee and they need to suck it up on pain of reprisal?
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I feel like if Obama, for instance, thought we were all freaking out over nothing and was 100% sure that Biden was up for the job, him saying so would clear the air enormously. That he's not doing so feels significant.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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That makes sense. But/and, their behavior is also consistent with the idea that he's likely to go, but want the process of dumping him to be as painful as possible.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I assume that most of the hundred most powerful Dems understand that. As an exercise, let's say they all do, but also: Ten of them think Biden is the best shot of winning. Thirty think he has to go. The other sixty aren't sure yet. Seems to me that what we're seeing is consistent with that.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I don't think it's either of those things. I think that none of them are certain that Biden is the way forward.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Yep. Cosign. And where I tweet on this, it's 90% "here's what I think is going on," 10% "here's what I'd like to see," and literally zero percent "here's what I'm trying to make happen."
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I suspect that for a lot of them their priorities go: 1. Keep their own seats. 2. Hold at least one house of Congress and/or the presidency. ... 99. Biden. (Some, maybe even many, would swap my 1 and 2. Most see 2 as implying 1, so it's not an either/or.)
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Seeing a lot of folks saying that the push for Biden to drop out is all an effort to tank the party's chances in November, but the behavior of big Dems who desperately want to win the presidency and congress absolutely does not reflect confidence that Biden staying is their best shot.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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That would be my first call.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Sure, lots of people who want the Dems to lose are making hay, but Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, and Obama desperately want the ticket to win, and none of them are stepping up to a mic to say that those in the party who want him out need to shut the fuck up and sit down and get with the program.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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It seems clear at this point that Biden wants to stay, some powerful people in the party want him to leave, and other powerful people in the party are refusing to commit decisively. NYT and others are trying to work the refs, but it's the wobbliness at the top that's giving them that opening.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Oh, that's useful to know! Thanks.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Allegra/fexofenadine is the one we’re looking at now, but they all affect different people differently.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Hers make a big enough difference with EDS GI stuff that she sees some fatigue as a fair price to pay. But if we can get that price down it’s a win.
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Prisonculture
@prisonculture.bsky.social
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Anywho, show up every day to do what you can with others and make sure that you're attending to people's material needs while doing so. That basic political engagement will put you in good stead. The rest is noise.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Yeah. There's a class that basically always do that, and another class that mostly doesn't but sometimes does, and my theory is that this particular one may have that effect on both me and her.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I just realized that I get fatigued when I take a certain antihistamine, and it happens to be one of the four AH's that Casey is taking. So she's going to take a break from it and see if that helps HER fatigue. Apparently we're doing genetically-informed drug testing protocols at our house now.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I often say to student activists that one essential trait of any organizer is the ability to be wrong in public in a generative way. But this version is a lot pithier.
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Micah McCurdy
@mbm.bsky.social
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The trap comes from the insecurity which demands immediate moral clarity about ourselves, a level of clarity which is denied to all mortals.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Absolutely. Absolutely.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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But doing your work is almost always better than tearing down someone else's. And aggressive criticism from a stranger is very very very rarely generative of anything good. Build a thing. Let other people try to build their things. With a little luck, we'll meet as friends on the other side. (4/4)
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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Do your thing. Let other people do their thing. Sometimes they'll turn out to have been right and you'll turn out to have been wrong. Sometimes they'll turn out to have been wrong, but their wrongness put them on a productive path. Sometimes none of it matters. (3/4)
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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It's not the case morally, it's not the case logically, it's not the case empirically, and it's not a useful fiction that makes the world a better place. Most of us are doing what we can, where we can. Some is visible, some not. Some of it is at cross-purposes. Always we could be doing more. (2/3)
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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There's definitely a trap we can fall into where we say "If I accept the premise that ordinary people doing X can make the world better, it must also mean that ordinary people who aren't doing X—or worse, are doing not-X—are making the world worse." But that's not the case. (1/2)
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Charlotte the Host Origami
@confusedcharlot.bsky.social
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SOMETIMES WHEN ONE HAS AGENCY THEY NEED TO KEEP A LID ON THAT SHIT IN A PUBLIC FORUM.
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Angus Johnston
@angus.bsky.social
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I didn’t ask you to apologize, and I didn’t say that having cognitive deficits is shameful.
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