Favorite Rejects 2021-10-26

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I don’t really think this is right — what the leaks show is not that Facebook is “bad” but just that it’s a normal companies whose decision weight is 100% “this makes us money” and 0% “stuff we pretend to care about.” Again, that is super normal.

Brad Spahn @BradSpahn

The thing to understand about the Facebook leaks is that you’re only getting half the story. It’s like only reading the plaintiff’s briefs. On the other side from integrity in these disagreements betweeb integrity and growth are teams worried about the quality of user experience.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

What’s unusual about Facebook is that Zuckerberg is more deeply invested in BS than most CEOs, seemingly as an employee retention tactic. But it’s like any other company, the product causes a mix of harms and benefits and the leadership does not care — at all — what the mix is.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

NIMBYs ruin everything: "I have determined that the operation of your goat yoga and goat snuggling businesses are not permitted uses in this current zoning classification for your property."

reason.comIndiana Woman Must Shut Down Business After County Officials Determine Her Farm Isn’t Zoned for Commercial Goat Yoga or Goat SnugglingJordan Stevens’ application to legalize her Happy Goat Lucky Yoga business was denied by Hamilton County’s Board of Zoning Appeals last month.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

As I keep saying, the big obstacle to U.S. decarbonization isn't Elon Musk or leftist activists or economists or whoever... it's just the same old fossil fuel lobby.

Liam Denning @liamdenning

Gas industry still lobbying hard for the right to waste its own product: https://t.co/oSY8pGG1Ot via @bopinion https://t.co/E70XtgkD93

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

If Armageddon happened tomorrow, the news cycle would literally bury it after 3 weeks and we'd be back to arguing about Critical Race Theory in Hell

rice🌐 @412ricefarmer

incredible https://t.co/8bFf5vVLH5

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

The Oath Keepers are too small to take on the Military or the National Guard, but with 35,000 members and deep connections in the Republican party, they are plenty big and strong enough to create havoc in this country if they so choose.

propublica.orgOath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican MainstreamA membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a violent extremist group whose followers have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, includes state lawmakers, congressional candidates, and local government and GOP officials.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Generous unemployment insurance making it hard to fill job vacancies

Julie Bykowicz @bykowicz

NEW: Facebook’s giant Washington operation is losing Democratic lobbyists and struggling to hire a big-name Democrat for its $2.5 million top position. https://t.co/bcpos50pHd

JoOoOoOohn 🎃🎃🎃 @JohnCarltonKing

Expecting every single detail of a science fiction setting to be fully explained, quantified, and coherent is how you end up with the Star Wars Prequels instead of a compelling story.

Matt Grossmann @MattGrossmann

Historically, provisions that can be reduced or repealed in appropriations changes, including grants, are less likely to last. That includes some of the housing & care provisions. Tax credits & entitlements are more likely to last, but expiring provisions make that less likely. https://t.co/UFGsaC2l32

Niskanen Center @NiskanenCenter

ICYMI: Which social programs are likely to last if Democrats lose power? @EricPatashnik and Stuart Kasdin discuss how policy design can increase sustainability in social programs on @MattGrossmann’s #ScienceofPolitics podcast. https://t.co/0rGPEsNRJo

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal

I'm loath to wade into this debate, and I'm sure I'll regret it, but this is literally how representative democracy is supposed to work. We the people (parents) elect representatives (school boards) to make decisions on our behalf. Don't like the decisions? Vote 'em out. FFS

Philip Klein @philipaklein

New post: "McAuliffe’s Infamous ‘Parents’ Quip Wasn’t A Gaffe — It’s How Democrats Think" Poll finds Democrats by 70-16 think school boards should have more say than parents https://t.co/IEtm1ERNl3

Central NJ Yimby 🇺🇸🚲🏙 @YIMBY_Princeton

After his son was struck by a SUV in a crosswalk, a guy in DC set up a camera outside his home to record the behavior of drivers. He found that drivers ignore stop signs or enter crosswalks where pedestrians are present about once a minute. Lawlessness.

ggwash.orgIs anyone safe in DC crosswalks when one dangerous driver per minute passes by?Nathan Ballard-Means asks his father almost every day to “promise“ that he won’t get hit by a car again after a driver in an SUV hit the 4-year-old last month. Since that time, his father has tried to better understand how the District can create safer streets across all wards.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Thread about how the transition from authoritarianism to democracy often depends on the authoritarians themselves deciding to embrace a different system.

T.K. of AAK! @AskAKorean

Roh Tae-woo, who was the first president of South Korea's democratic era, died today. Three notable things about his life: 1. He was a fascist mass murderer, acting as the right hand man for Chun Doo-hwan. He overthrew the govt with tanks and oversaw the massacre in Gwangju.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

This is how it worked in Japan, too. The democratic politicians who ran postwar Japan were mostly drawn from the same group of people who ran Japan during WW2. What changed was their decision to embrace democracy and human rights as a system.

noahpinion.substack.comThe Afghanistan occupation and the Japan occupationWe learned the wrong lessons from our post-WW2 success