Long, but clarifies a useful distinction between an “echo chamber” and an “epistemic bubble” (or “filter bubble”). Unfortunately, the prospects for escape from an echo chamber are slim…
Originally shared by Gregory B. Sadler
Here’s an interesting piece that has been making the rounds. I do like the distinction made in it between “echo chambers” and “epistemic bubbles”. For my own part, I do block – or disconnect from – some people who out themselves as bad conversation partners on social media. More on YouTube than anywhere else. . .
Tammy Duckworth became the first senator to give birth while in office when she welcomed a baby girl Monday.
The new baby’s name is Maile Pearl Bowlsbey (pronounced MY-lee, according to a statement from Duckworth’s office). “We’re also so grateful for the love and support of our friends and family, as well as our wonderful medical teams for everything they’ve done to help us in our decades-long journey to complete our family,” Duckworth, 50, said in a statement. She and her husband Bryan Bowlsbey also have a three-year-old daughter.
Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, is just the tenth woman to give birth while serving in Congress, and the first to give birth as a sitting U.S. Senate.
Her office said she is “recovering well” from the birth.
“Parenthood isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s an economic issue and one that affects all parents—men and women alike,” Duckworth said in her statement Monday. “As tough as juggling the demands of motherhood and being a Senator can be, I’m hardly alone or unique as a working parent, and my children only make me more committed to doing my job and standing up for hardworking families everywhere.”
Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran who lost both her legs and injured her arm in 2004 when a helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a grenade. She received a Purple Heart for her service. She went on to serve in the House of Representatives (where she gave birth to her first child), and was elected to the Senate in 2016.
“And what’s noticeable in all this is the irrelevance of the Senate. They refuse to reclaim their treaty-making powers with respect to trade (they could end Trump’s China shenanigans overnight); they have abdicated any influence on foreign policy and war just as they have done nothing to protect the special counsel. They are just like the Roman Senate as the republic collapsed. The forms survive; there is nothing of substance behind them.”
Originally shared by Gregory B. Sadler
Provocative essay here, using Plato’s analysis of the slide of democracy into demagoguery (which both left and right have indulged for far too long) and then into tyranny. I have to say that, unfortunately, I agree with Sullivan.
