General Discussion

I was concerned recently to see that one of the few media figures I trust and respect: Yasha Levine seems to be having an existential crisis.

And is even talking about going to med school. That alarmed me. We already have honest doctors and scientists. It’s honest journalists -that too ones specifically dissecting this media environment-who are missing.

If it is not directly like being Reporters without Borders-it’s no less important. What should be absurdities seem to having a disproportionate real world impact. Just logging off alone won’t stop that without someone (like Yasha or Evgenia) addressing it.

I wouldn’t bother with fawning on a media figure if I didn’t consider their work important. (well it’s hard to not like Yasha-he is a good man. But in our shallow social media fueled heart and love and like saturated culture I have become reflexively wary of having anything serious denigrated by superficiality. I remember when i had to write a rec for my postdoc mentor I deliberately tried to sound as dispassionate as possible though he was one of the rare people who roused me to something almost enthusiasm adjacent).

I don’t post Yasha’s stuff here because it could violate TOS. Not because Yasha is a Trumper or anything. But he is pretty independent and a journalist. He really doesn’t spare anyone and is not very bullshit friendly.

I respect DU’s TOS and in a one party state like the US understand where the admins are coming from.
But after the election EarlG wrote that its gaming of algorithms that’s shifting society steadily rightward and it’s tied to the stuff Yasha works on related to these technologies.

It’s never going to be a pleasant job. But it’s nothing like being whatever the hell an influencer is. It’s just that he won’t be hired by what passes for the media.

Yasha is never going to not be independent. But he gets so much and I have a lot of faith in him and I was alarmed to see him start to have self-doubt.

He is one of the few honest and disinterested voices out there and he needn’t worry that he will become a “sell-out”. I don’t think he can.

I have seen self-doubt in scientists and doctors too and feel impatient and exasperated a bit.
The last thing you want is have the few remaining people who are sources of trust give up.

I have self doubt all the time because it’s entirely valid and not some sort of out of control imposter syndrome. I really barely pass many tests beyond basic self awareness as a professional. It’s why I sneer at authenticity and stuff that is all about people’s opinions and disconnected from any objective reality.

People’s opinions don’t count for shit (well okay I didn’t mean to put it quite like that). Objective realities count and the things that are making them spuriously harder to find consensus around are worth inspecting..

You can’t “game” objective realities..still it is true that this is rough world..

But it is not a good sign when the remaining adults and honest and functional people start falling prey to ridiculous notions like they are part of the system.

I respect that and all. It’s part of what makes people sources of trust. But if everyone gives up then the rest of us are stuck with only with these creeps. And the creeps are good at manipulating anxieties people have over being human.

I am worried that as society becomes more unequal it will be the best people who continue to be picked off-due to their own internal quandaries and conscience etc while the truly shameless or brainless will be fine. That’s not helpful.

I don’t know where that line is but it definitely is very far from Yasha or most scientists and doctors etc.

I keep hoping everyone decent who is still managing continues to do so.

It isn’t the time for: The Best Lack All Conviction While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity

One problem with seeing everything from Trump to ChatGPT be confidently wrong all the time is that it makes people who at least think about stuff like that more dubious about their own bs.
If you are human you will have some bs about you and in this hyper surveilled reality, it will disproportionately affect the least shameless and least overconfident people.

And as much as I wish the internet was less of a presence in our lives, when it is, at its best it has people like Yasha and Evgenia. So I hope they continue their work.

In my experience, science, education and medicine are some of the few honest professions out there and in science and medicine at least it’s not very political. All said and done the training that makes you uncomfortable with lies has an effect.
But journalism isn’t like that apparently and it is showing..