A Trump accountability innovation: How to take credit for winning and blame others for losing

A Trump accountability innovation: How to take credit for winning and blame others for losing

You may have thought the results of yesterday’s midterm elections were about the candidates who were running and the voters who were voting. Nope. They were about former President Donald Trump, who has decided this is his moment to return to the spotlight. In an interview with a new news organization, NewsNation, on Election Day,…

The Rationalist Papers 2022: voting to preserve democracy

The Rationalist Papers 2022: voting to preserve democracy

It’s a fundamental principle of democracy. If you lose, you concede. You accept the results of elections, whether you win or not. And that principle is on the ballot in 2022. Whatever your political ideology, I’m betting you’d like to have a say in future elections. Here’s why, in states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania,…

Political Ad
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Political Ad

Bad politician is bad. Very bad. He kills puppies. He eats babies. He is a communist fascist just like the well known fascist communist leader of his party, shown here in a distorted slanted photo. If elected, he and his corrupt fascistocommunist buddies will kill babies, eat puppies, take away your rights, and raise your…

What you can learn about writing from The Onion’s amicus brief for the Supreme Court
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What you can learn about writing from The Onion’s amicus brief for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will be hearing arguments regarding an Ohio man whose parody page of his local police department led to criminal charges. The Onion, the widely read satirical publication, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court. It’s awesome. It’s certainly the most amusing legal document I’ve ever read. It starts like this: The…

Cloudflare stopped supporting hate site Kiwi Farms. How defensible is their justification?
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Cloudflare stopped supporting hate site Kiwi Farms. How defensible is their justification?

Should internet infrastructure companies desert sites that spread hate? That’s a very hard question. Let’s look at one recent instance — Cloudflare withdrawing its product from Kiwi Farms — and analyze the statement they make to justify their extraordinary actions. Who is Kiwi Farms? Kiwi Farms is an online community for trolls who harass people…

Why does the DOJ use so much passive voice in its Mar-a-Lago filing?

Why does the DOJ use so much passive voice in its Mar-a-Lago filing?

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a response to a recent Donald Trump request regarding the raid of Mar-a-Lago. Its filing is full of passive voice, a means of expression I’ve continually railed against. Why is it passive, and should the DOJ be writing in the active voice instead? Here’s a passage from the DOJ’s…

New voting systems would benefit moderates, according to this voting simulation

New voting systems would benefit moderates, according to this voting simulation

The average American politician is far more extreme than the average American voter. Our current voting methods encourage these extreme viewpoints. To investigate how new voting systems like ranked choice voting and “jungle primaries” could change this, I created a simulation of different voting systems and tested it on various types of voting districts. How…