Battlegrounds Watch is a collection of stories and topics in today’s news Chuck & Sam are tuning in to.
Pirate Wires: Reporter Can't Give Example Of "Hateful Speech" After Blaming Elon For It
Today’s must read is based on a short exchange between BBC North America tech reporter James Clayton and Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. Clayton claimed hate speech has massively increased on Twitter since Musk took over, citing a 60% figure that was made up out of whole cloth by a former Twitter employee fired by Musk. Elon, with perfect elan, mops the floor with one simple question: name an example? Clayton could not, merely pointing to things showing up in his “For You” feed that he doesn’t like or agree with.
“The reporter’s goodness bias is so hardwired into his operating philosophy that he isn’t even aware of it. James not only believed hate speech was rampant on Twitter, more now than ever. He truly believed he himself had seen it. You’ll recall stories of young people who, when repeatedly told of invented, traumatic events, develop personal memories of entirely fabricated stories. It’s simple human error. Whatever. Our janky monkey brains are not the problem. The problem is because they see themselves as actual heroes, journalists are fundamentally incapable of humility.”
WSJ: U.S. Inflation Eased to 5% in March
Rising interest rates, limited corporate credit, and a general economic slowdown are finally taking the bite out of inflation, but it’s still running higher than in recent decades, and core inflation is largely unchanged from last month, suggesting either a very long road of higher interest rates ahead, or a sharp drop to come.
“Core prices, a measure of underlying inflation that excludes volatile energy and food categories, increased 5.6% in March from a year earlier, accelerating slightly from 5.5% the prior month. Core inflation, which economists see as a better predictor of future inflation, has stayed stubbornly high in part because of inflationary pressures from shelter costs.”
The Free Press: The Problem of Abundance
Martin Gurri argues that the central conflict of our time isn’t red vs blue, but a conflict between the elites and masses. At Battlegrounds, we agree, and would add that much of the divisiveness being foisted on Americans these days is being done to protect the elites from the consequences of their bad decision-making and self-interested policy agenda…
“VIA BARI WEISS: The SparkNotes version is that the former CIA analyst managed to predict Trump, Brexit, WallStreetBets, Black Lives Matter, the yellow vests protests in France, and more back in 2014. That’s because he saw, ahead of so many, that the central conflict of our era is not between red and blue, but between the elites and the masses, between the tower and the square, between the gatekeepers and the gate-crashers. He makes the compelling case that conflict has a single source: the internet. So if you think we’re going back to normal anytime soon, Gurri argues: dream on. The revolution is just getting underway.”
WSJ: I helped make corporations woke, and I regret it
Corporate political activism is societal poison, and an economic fraud perpetrated on shareholders and employees. Good to see former proponents of corporate activism coming to the realization they made a mistake. (But until Republicans make corporations pay for their support of the left by hanging them out to dry and refusing to ride to their rescue when the left turns on them, it won’t change)
“Corporate activism turns off consumers and exposes C-suite hypocrisy. Companies demand “equity” in America while profiting from human-rights abuses in China. Or underwriting abortions for employees while maintaining anemic maternity-leave policies. Or issuing proclamations of “antiracism” by all-white executive teams.
Institutions’ obsequiousness to left-wing causes has also had a chilling effect on public discourse. An August 2022 Populace study found an alarming prevalence of self-silencing as Americans conceal or misrepresent their private views to avoid conflict and assure colleagues they hold the approved opinion. Self-silencing “destroys social trust,” Populace co-founder Todd Rose notes. “And it tends to historically make social progress all but impossible.”
NY POST: America faces changing tides on global stage
While US media fetishizes the Bragg – Trump drama, global events are dramatically reshaping the world, and not in America’s interest. China and Russia are eating our lunch on the global stage, and even longtime NATO allies are moving away from the United States. Joe Biden will blame Trump, but don’t expect the Dementia Patient in Chief to actually do anything to stop it.
“The geopolitical plates are shifting violently as China and Russia form a new axis of evil and once-reliable allies are moving away from the United States and toward our adversaries. Even a major NATO member is openly rejecting American leadership on Taiwan.”
UNHERD: Abortion is the big vote loser for Republicans
Most of modern culture war politics favors Republicans for the first time in decades. These are good issues for Republican candidates, and critical ground to fight on. Every issue but one. And that issue is costing Republicans elections from coast to coast. Pro-life groups are good at badgering Republican candidates in primaries to adopt support of total bans on abortion, but disappear in general elections, leaving Republican candidates swinging in the electoral breeze of a deeply unpopular position.
“Anglosphere countries’ best chance of beating the civilisational autoimmune disease I call cultural socialism, elsewhere known as ‘wokeness’, is a total reform of corrupt institutions. That goal is only within reach in the United States, thanks to an electorate that has woken up to culture war issues and politicians willing to take on the progressive establishment, notably Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
Yet the pro-life movement is now the biggest obstacle to making that happen. How so? Abortion bans are unpopular, with barely a third of Americans saying abortion should be illegal in most cases. Even 40% of Republicans are opposed.”
GEOPOLITICAL FUTURES: The American Crisis Intensifies
Author George Friedman discusses the cyclical pattern of social, economic and institutional upheaval in American history, and the lessons for today. But Friedman also notes that worldwide and national conditions at the moment portend a particularly violent and deconstructive upheaval this country hasn’t experienced before..
“The brutal social issues, from race to gender to guns, create a public division that affects the functioning of government. Relations within the political system at all levels are increasingly venomous. The financial system has left an economic crisis. As forecast, the technological system will become increasingly inefficient, and the public appetite for its goods will be in decline. The financial system portends economic decline that will breed increasingly desperate and simplistic solutions, further drawing capital out of the financial system. For the first time in history, the institutional cycle and the social cycle will coincide. While wars tend not to influence domestic cycles, the impact of the Ukraine war will likely be magnified. The current political system cannot manage this situation. A solution must emerge now, to be presided over by the next president.”
JOHN STOSSEL VIA REASON: The Media and Politicians Keep Trying To Censor Things That Turn Out To Be True
Musk or no Musk, the censorship industrial complex isn’t going down without a fight, even as the things they claim are disinformation keep proving to be true.