“...lots of people think there were sound reasons for considering this period as “Dark Ages.” 

Historians of every stripe have been inundated with “Game of Thrones is real history!” for years now. This article isn’t a reach; it’s a direct reaction to the widespread assumption that GRRM and Game of Thrones present a more accurate portrayal of historical reality than other softer medieval-ish shows (medieval-ish…

People traveled a lot more in the past, even far back into the Neolithic, than people think. There’s an entire prehistorical archaeological meta-culture on the Atlantic seaboard, an area that’s stormy on the sea and tends to be rough on foot, stretching from Scotland to the coast of Morocco.

There’s also a huge tendency to think of Medieval England and France and project that into other regions with distinct political cultures and sometimes wildly different social orders. Medieval Spain undergoes a period of French influence that brings them more into line with what people think of as “Medieval Society”,…

Independents, truly independent voters, are largely a myth. They’re a small fraction of the electorate. The vast majority of people who write down “independent” on survey’s are as partisan, sometimes more partisan, than the people who identify with a party.

Alot of those “non-profit think-tanks” are as bad or occasionally worse as some big corporations. Even some of the ones that do good work have bad internal culture. That’s just a weird hill to troll on. 

FYI, Publius, I’m just going to keep dismissing you. You’re a goddamn troll and I know it. I’m not going to give you the space for your mendacity in my subthread. Piss off. 

I have a political science degree. I’ve interacted with numerous libertarians both in person and online. I’ve tried to make sense of the numerous single-issue groups within the movement. I’ve analyzed the political ideology of the Paulite racists. I didn’t reach my conclusion from lazy ignorance. I think libertarian…

Don’t underestimate the importance of name ID. If Newman lost by that little, presumably with less name ID than her opponent, then she could definitely win this time.

There’s at least one in every political science department at any college. Big, small, private or public. The guy at mine carried a briefcase everywhere like he was a Georgetown kid instead of at a small (though private and well rated) college in nowhere Maryland. I was blessed, his focused on domestic politics and I…

I think the liberal base would be more than happy to point fingers at Republicans. I think that’s potent messaging that shouldn’t be underestimated. Particularly in this moment, when Republicans look more extreme and corrupt than ever. There’s a reason Trump is shedding independents, and for the most part it’s not…

Most of the libertarians I’ve met who weren’t obviously Ron Paul-esque racists were decent people. Their political ideology is a complete mess and their supposed movement is a bunch of single-issue groups and bigots but most of them entered it with good intentions.

I don’t disagree with that. I do think getting some testimony first is fine. I think the problem is Pelosi and a (seemingly shrinking) set of Democrats refusal to consider the concept as valid.

The failure part is a good point, though I think that’s more easily handled by Democrats being clear in explaining the challenges. I also think Republicans will stonewall, which changes the game. Then the failure is more about them than the Democrats, which can fuel the base rather than depress it. The evidence so far…

Impeachment proceedings increase the investigatory powers available to Democrats. I don’t think that’s a valid point because of that.

I don’t agree with Amash on much of anything but his impeachment comments, but I think he may be able to rally. The whole “libertarian” brand is horseshit, it’s an incoherent ideology at best, but it’s a powerful brand nonetheless. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was able to rally a lot of people who self-identify as…

“Manipulate” is the wrong word. The process isn’t something that depends on the skill of the political elite, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. It’s really more about people internalizing the narratives of their own political wing. It doesn’t necessarily correlate with the substantive strength of the arguments. 

I linked to that below. Worth ungreying up here so people can see it. 

Go be a bad faith troll somewhere else. You don’t deserve respect if you state things contradicted by evidence and can’t defend your claims.

FYI, for anyone reading this, I was right about the polling data too.