A diagram showing the VDA framework and the Arc of Democracy. At the top, three icons label the essential elements of democracy: Verification (tick), Deliberation (speech bubble), and Accountability (magnifying glass). Arrows descend from each through three horizontal bands representing the arc: Substantial (truth tested, voices included, power constrained), Performative (forms remain but substance is weak, rituals without consequence), and Simulated (appearance maintained but functions inverted: propaganda as verification, polarisation as deliberation, scapegoating as accountability). A vertical arrow on the left marks the arc's direction: improvements, decline, collapse. A column on the right maps counterpublics onto the same three states: functional counterpublics act in a substantial way, hollow counterpublics in a performative way, disordered counterpublics in a simulated way. The bands shift from grey through pink to red as democracy moves toward simulation.

A society that runs on this stack doesn't stop holding elections, or debating, or running investigations. The forms stay, but what goes is their capacity to constrain power. The arc bends toward simulation, carried out in the language of defending democracy.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

Point 21 is the giveaway, some cultures produce "wonders," others are "regressive and harmful." Once you accept that hierarchy, you've quietly been given permission to apply different standards of verification to different actors. The form of verification stays, but the democratic function doesn't.

Healthy accountability is triggered by evidence, points upward at power, and happens in public. Disordered accountability protects insiders and aims its punishment outward. What the document does is argue for the second while calling it the first.

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

Points 9, 18 and 19 go after accountability directly. Scrutiny of public figures gets reframed as a kind of cultural sickness driving talent away from public life. The problem becomes the people doing the scrutinising, not the people being scrutinised.

Really? You're disagreeing with my extremely idiosyncratic take on a technology nobody understands?

what do you call people from Dunedin? Dunedain? Please let it be Dunedain?

While I think whale vocalizations are cool, and the inherent structure in them is even cooler, I am not sure that showing that they look like human stuff is nearly as interesting as the tendency for structure

This “-maxxing” and “-mogging” stuff comes from an ugly place and has never been particularly funny. But what about if *I* adopt it, but ironically,

fb marketplace listing of a northern pintail decoy. Priced a $400 the listing is titled Good Shape

i agree. ducks ARE a good shape

MULTIPLE ORBAN FAILURE

Politics has unexpectedly hit a special interest of mine so here is a quick rundown on the Avignon Papacy.

ceci n'est pas un

If you see this I implore you to quote skeet with an unusual image from your posting device without explanation.

Still definitely use alt text, though.

wait you have an otter

so I don't understand luggage locks. airport security can open them and the key is readily available. why do suitcases even have them?

Woman taking chicken eggs inside. Chicken taking baby to coop.

birdsrightsactivist has painted human babies and hidden them in the shrubbery.

Universal Grammar? Sorry pal, I think people should have to work for their language

Poetry fans when they hear a bell tolling for them: oh shit oh fuck

If you poll populations, you find that his 5 dimensions collapse into just two: Harm reduction/Justice and Authority/Purity/Loyalty. These are correlated with "support for liberal values" and "support for conservative values", which are broadly independent ideas.

He's speaking his truth.

your last meme saved is your moral philosophy

your last meme saved is your moral philosophy (what happens to people who don't save memes?)

The conservatives correctly intuited a fairly materialist conclusion that reshaping the technological basis of society was dissolving the social categories that they hold dearer than profit or growth. Science and tech are actually turning the kids into blue-haired activists, which imo is great.

Fortunately, no other sector depends on the energy sector, so this shock will be completely isolated

it's kind of a red flag when a businessman starts getting pissy at you after you politely pass on his product

I have mixed feeling because I don't want real bassoons to be disintermediated but on the other hand this is extremely cool.

why am I *not* getting this ad? Oh, I'm not on facebook

Population per capita across the United States

i think that the essential issue is that the Israeli electorate is psychotic to a degree the average American could not possibly understand