1/ Another observation the #Literalist fallacy I see about how much Trump (ym'sh) has planned all of the chaos & violence. My overarching point will be that society is structured & that means there's an inherent pattern to effects no matter the 'intelligence' behind the causes

2/ The virus should teach us this. #Literalists claim it was made in a lab because they see a killing-machine that carves its way through society and they must apply individual force & cause to the effectiveness of the biological organism

3/ #Literalists see only the tree, not the forest, so they think every effect stands alone, and thus has individual cause. This is the root fallacy of 'intelligent design'

its what led my ancestors to presume every disease is caused by a demon. Nature becomes personified.

4/ [Note, I'm not a deist, I believe in an active, caring God - the God of the Exodus, not just Genesis - but, ironically, in our hidden-faced age I can only see God's presence in the anomalies of nature (miracles), when it skips a pattern, and not from it's surface efficiency.]

5/ So nature looks intelligent, but that's another irony: we only see overt nature when it works. A dysfunctional organism, an inefficient virus, won't replicate to a degree that we'll experience & perceive it, especially as a culture

Navigation through the Zodiac (signs) in the Quran..

A thread about Zodiac Signs in the Quran, Part 1 (from Aries to Virgo):

From @jack:

Starting now, we are changing the way we do things at Twitter. Even though we have been following policies we created, that we thought were good and necessary, it just hasn’t had the desired effect of promoting good discourse. Effective immediately, we are changing.

The basic principle that now guides us is that instead of trying to manipulate discourse, we are opening it up, and making ourselves more transparent and accountable, and resisting attempts at censorship of us or our users.

Further, we have been fundamentally operating under the false premise that we, our our news and fact-checking partners, are smarter or better at understanding information than you, our users, are. This is a vain fiction, and we will drop this pretense.

We have long known that we are not just another social media site, but the place where citizens, governments, and organizations communicate with each other, for essential purposes. We have a great responsibility to the public to be open. So, we change to improve.

First: we will no longer proactively delete any content, except for: private information harming a person other than who posted it (e.g. doxxing, revenge porn, etc.), and any content we are legally required to remove.

PUB DAY! My book, Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy, is officially out with @UCpress. Can I tell you a little bit about it? Thread:

The book argues that 20th century Mexican economists, diplomats, and political figures had a surprising influence on the design and reform of a whole host of multilateral institutions and agreements meant to govern international trade and finance from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Mexican postrevolutionary state officials argued for representation in international organizations and redistribution through multilateral institutions. From the 1920s to the 1940s, they effectively conceptualized and advocated for the apparatus of international development.

The book shows how, working in collaboration & contention with other Latin American and Third World representatives, Mexican officials demanded reforms to the global economic system that would channel the surplus capital of the Global North to productive use in the Global South.

But then something funny happened on the way to the developmental state: once capital began to flow from multilateral institutions like the World Bank, and Mexico reentered the international financial system, it abandoned its role as a reform champion in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1907, Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts decided to try and prove the existence of the soul.

All he needed was a set of scales, some people willing to die under his supervision, and some dogs.

(Thread, sources here: https://t.co/eAjnXjI4Rj)

The doctor, for reasons he didn't take time to note down, believed that the soul had physical mass and thus it should be possible to weigh it.

He had the imagination to believe that a piece of soul magically departs your body when you die, possibly to live in a heaven-like place for eternity, but thought it unrealistic that this couldn't be weighed like a bag of flour.

He decided the best way to prove his theory would be to weigh somebody at the precise moment they snuffed it, and then immediately after. The weight disparity would be the weight of the departed soul.

MacDougall looked for volunteers that would be up for the job of dying, and, shortly before that, having their last act on Earth be a fucking weigh-in.

Right now, President Trump is on his way to the southern border to tout his record on immigration.

It's one of chaos, cruelty, and illegality. Let's set the record straight

The Trump administration has separated over 5,500 families under its draconian “zero tolerance” policy.

Years later, at least 545 children remain separated from their parents

They have delivered tens of thousands of asylum seekers to danger in Mexico, where @humanrights1st has found 1,314 public records of rape, murder, kidnapping, torture, and assault.

They misused public health authority over the objections of senior experts at the CDC to expel children and asylum seekers to danger.

One expelled Nicaraguan dissident frantically ate his 5-page declaration listing his torturers so that the Nicaraguan police wouldn’t find it.

They imposed an illegal transit ban to deny asylum to hundreds of #refugees, including persecuted pro-democracy advocates, torture survivors, and people targeted due to their sexual or gender identities.

This thread is against attempts to 1) downplay the danger of a coup and/or 2) argue that Trump's Twitter ban is actually what we should be worried about. All posts are directly lifted from today's WSWS perspective, linked at the end.

#CoupAttempt

The claims being made by various pseudo-left tendencies that the seriousness of the events in Washington should not be exaggerated, that it is wrong to refer to a coup, are dangerously complacent.

Jacobin magazine, which is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, argues against “social media posts and liberal magazines of record [that] immediately characterized the rampage as a coup.”

The danger of fascistic violence, Jacobin claims, is minimal because the ruling class supports democracy. It writes: “The takeover of the Capitol has laid bare the lack of backing, both among corporate elites and within state institutions, for far-right authoritarianism. [...]

[...] Capital, it seems, is still committed to liberal democracy, which has served to safeguard its interests throughout American history.” [end of Jacobin quote]

I’ve done two interviews in the past day with media about the Twitter/Facebook bans and the Parler shut down.

I’m trying to use these opportunities to stress something is getting lost in all the debates about the action: conversation about free expression is the wrong debate. 1/

It’s pretty clear at this point the First Amendment doesn’t apply. The only people making that argument are craven politicians who are trying to gin up anger.

An expression debate focuses on the content. What I keep underlining is social media is a distribution platform too. 2/

What this means is that when someone gets on and posts conspiracy theory content or seditious incitement, it isn’t a question of whether it will be distributed. The publishing platform has the tools for outreach and connection that let that content travel. 3/

Think about me in my basement printing up some nutty manifesto on my laser printer. I still have a problem of reach. How do I get that message out? I could walk the neighborhood or the city, but I’m limited by time and ability.

Working with others takes social connection. 4/

Publishing through a third-party allows for mass printing, but the real power is distribution. They have marketing, sales, shipping arms to make sure those things end up in the hands of others. 5/

A Very Merry .....
Twas the weekend before covfefe, and all thru the land, The lefties were trembling at the cards in Trump's hand. The patriots were nestled, all snug in their beds, While visions of perp walks danced in their heads.

Absolutely KILL it this year in 6 steps

// THREAD //

*this does not just apply for 2021

You can do this at anytime but this is what my content will be focused on this year.

LET'S GO!

1. Agency work

You're going to
>> learn a skill on the side
>> learn a few outreach channels
>> learn how to close clients
>> learn how to price your skill at $1500+ min.
>> learn how to automate the process
>> learn how to outsource work

Est. time?
3-6 months

2. Build your network

You're going to
>> focus your timeline on a theme
>> tech, marketing, biz, health, fitness, etc.
>> consistently post value 3-5x a day
>> comment insight, not repetition
>> interact with similar accounts
>> network in DMs

Est. time?
6-12 months

3. Learn copywriting

You're going to
>> create an organized swipe file
>> screenshot every ad that made you click
>> screenshot every tweet that went viral
>> hand write copy for sample products
>> focus on action, emotion, and concision

Est. time?
Forever

Megathread...

Would you run for your life or just stand on the beach as a gigantic tsunami rushed towards you?

You’d run, right? Don’t be so sure.

During the Boxing Day Tsunami, many vacationers just stood on the beach and watched as the ocean receded into a monstrous wave...

The locals knew better. They ran as hard as they could. But some of the foreigners stood on the beach, stared in amazement, and were engulf in a deadly mass of water.

Why didn’t they run? Why did they just stand there like a bunch of idiots?

Because tsunamis weren’t a normal part of life in their country. They knew that tsunamis existed and that they happened in this part of the world. They, however, had never seen one. So they underestimated its danger and were slow to take actions.

This has a name: normalcy bias.

“A normalcy bias is a psychological state of denial people enter in the event of a disaster, as a result of which they underestimate the possibility of the disaster actually happening, and its effects on their life and property..."

"...Their denial is based on the assumption that if the disaster has not occurred until now, it will never occur.”

Huge portions of the American church are underestimating and therefore under-reacting to the disaster that is racing our way.

What disaster do I speak of?

A belief to me proves only the phenomenon of belief, not the content of the belief.

-Carl Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

-Carl Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

Touching evil brings with it the grave peril of succumbing to it.

-Carl Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

The individual is so unconscious that he fails to see his own potentialities for decision. Instead he is constantly and anxiously looking around for external rules and regulations which can guide him in his perplexity.

-Carl Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

Meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning makes a great many things endurable - perhaps everything.

-Carl Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

Perhaps no House member that Democrats would less like to hear this message from.
"Rushing this resolution to the floor will do nothing to unify or heal the country," says @Jim_Jordan at House Rules. "These actions, again, will only continue to divide the nation."

>@RepMcGovern not having it: "I'm glad that all it took for you to call for unity and for healing was for our freedom and our democracy to be attacked. But for the last several months the gentleman from Ohio and others have given oxygen to the president's conspiracy theories."

More @RepMcGovern: "We all want healing, but in order to get to healing, we need truth and we need accountability." Notes he was in the Speaker's Lobby and saw the mob trying to rush through the doors. "I saw in their eyes hate and evil."

More @jim_jordan playing down the Stop the Steal push: "Mr. Chairman, I said Joe Biden won the election, but there were problems with how it was done."
McGovern: "People came here, Mr. Jordan, because they believed the lie...this election was not done in a fair & square fashion."

Jordan tries to equate the Trump/Republican "Stop the Steal" effort with Democratic challenges to Trump's votes on Jan. 6, 2017. McGovern, exasperated, noted he recognized Trump as winner and Clinton had long since conceded.

#PhD INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE + TIPS/TRICKS (mine were for #biomed)

A thread.👇

Before I begin, all of you are awesome and never let anyone tell you otherwise😃

Share and RT 😁❤
@AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics @PhDspeaks @firstphdchat

You made it. You have an interview for a #PhD program! And we are in the middle of a pandemic! Be proud of this accomplishment, you are amazing 👏

It took me a while to become confident and actually acknowledge this as something to be excited about and not anxious about.

Remember that the committee is impressed and wants to recruit you.
They would want to impress you with their the same way you want to impress them.

Now let's move on to interview prep.

An interview really is you marketing your best self as a candidate to the committee/your faculty interviewers.
If you know your interviewers prior to your interview (I also had the opportunity to pick them), read up on them, their research, recent publications/projects.

Faculty interviewers will be impressed if you have an understanding and interest in their work. It is also a good conversation starter.

One on one interviews with faculty will have more room for conversation than panel interviews.

Looking forward to my grad seminar this semester on Black History from Reconstruction to Jim Crow. A preview/tour of what we’ll be reading follows. We’ll start in week one with some DuBois, from Black Reconstruction, and supplementary essays from Eric Foner and Thomas Holt. 1/

Week 2: Hannah Rosen, Terror in the Heart of Freedom.

Week 3: @KidadaEWilliams, They Left Great Marks on Me.

Week 4: Sarah Haley, No Mercy Here.

Week 5: @profblmkelley, Right to Ride, and Omar Ali, In the Lion’s Mouth.

News Safety Update 2#: Let's talk about Situational Awareness! SA is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening. More simply, it's knowing what is going on around you. @RTDNA @NPPA @rcfp @pressfreedom #tvnewsers

The concept of Situational Awareness isn’t something for spies or secret agents. Applying it to real world conditions is actually rather simple. Situational Awareness is keeping your head on a swivel, looking around to observe what’s going on, who’s there, what they are doing.

What is going on around you that might cause you trouble? If based on your observations and predictions, you feel unsafe, then Situational Awareness means you're able to make adjustments to what you are doing, like changing your body language, behavior or location, to be safe.

Cooper's Color Codes are a great way to remember levels of Situational Awareness. You want to be in condition Yellow when you're on location, in your vehicle, out in the field and even in the newsroom.

Condition White: Unaware and unprepared. If something dangerous occurs in this condition you will be caught off guard and not ready to rapidly react to escape harm.