2022-07-05

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A Time of Troubles - by Noah Smith - Noahpinion

as serious as the danger from oppressive laws may be, a far bigger danger is the erosion of democracy. 2020 already featured a sitting President denying the result of a free and fair election and attempting to abet a (doomed, incompetent) coup attempt against Congress. (In the interest of fairness, I should mention that Democrats contributed to the trend toward election-denial when Stacey Abrams refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election.) Now, hoping to double down on Trump’s approach, some Republicans are trying to change state laws so that state legislatures, rather than a state’s voters, choose which candidate the state supports in a presidential election. The Supreme Court may soon give its blessing to this sort of abrogation of voters’ will.

it’s clear that taking away tens of millions of Americans’ right to cast their vote for President would shift the U.S. from the category of full democracies into a middle tier of flawed partial democracies.
Rock group's music returns to Spotify months after leaving to protest Joe Rogan
- Crosby, Stills & Nash rejoin Spotify after 5-month protest of Joe Rogan.

Get Ready for the Forever Plague | The Tyee
'Two doses no longer enough': Canada to require Covid shots every 9 months
- Canada's Health Minister: "You Will Never Be Fully-Vaxxed"
Midsummer Mask Madness - Laura Dodsworth

Normative pressure is enhanced and sustained when we wear masks in public. They are a visible indicator that there is danger present all around, in the air we breathe and in the people we meet. Masked faces prime you to think of danger. They keep fear in our faces. Literally. They also distinguish the compliant from the rebels.

Some sort of madness has taken hold of people if they are fretting about re-introducing masks for Covid and not worried about the excess thousands of non-Covid deaths. Reicher said “closing our eyes and pretending it's not there, that's the most dangerous strategy of all,” but that is exactly what people are doing.