emanation of psyche

In the media at least, anti-Trump politics has generally progressed haltingly through focusing events. This child-separation policy appears to be a classic case

Political and media entrepreneurs are always out there testing and searching for issues and arguments that stick in the public consciousness, and blow up into big stories

When one does become a major scandal, it's natural to tell a just-so story that explains why *this* particular one is different—why it's especially egregious, important, etc

But the fact is, it's really hard to determine if a Trump scandal blows up because of its underlying badness, or because of other unrelated factors ("luck")

I suspect that this uncertainty is unsettling for people who are really invested in a narrative about why *this* one is special

Politics works in large part through focusing events for a reason: you need people to get emotional and motivated Human cognition and attention is what it is

But it's good to try and remember that activism and understanding are different, and require different modes of thinking

Activism sees an issue blowing up, and thinks, "I'll take what I can get, let's roll!" But just because something does well memetically does not mean it has more underlying importance or merit with respect to your moral evaluationshttps://twitter.com/willmuessig/status/989258844034527233 …