Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@BabyAlchian @jordanbpeterson If there is one job, and the set of people with the highest qualifications includes just one left-handed person, and 10 right-handed people, then mathematically, one could restrict the pick to left-handed people and still get a pick of unsurpassed qualifications. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@BabyAlchian @jordanbpeterson And Biden's nominee has more experience than a federal public defender--not only more than your preferred but more than everyone on SCOTUS combined. I say that gives her the experience edge. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @juliaioffe: I'm just curious, how do you come to stake out a position in which you are so anti-imperialist that you are more worried th… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@paulhcassidy53 Paul, who is the strongest of the sitting SCOTUS justices? Or the Yale Law faculty? There's just no coherent way to pick a clear winner — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@BabyAlchian @jordanbpeterson You say Srinivasan was a stronger candidate but that's a totally subjective judgment. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@LeonardoCostel5 Why would I let anyone else's motives affect my due diligence? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Their self-conception of their anxiety is *empathetic concern for others is traumatizing me and doing the work requires that I don't burn out* not *I need to prioritize self-care now* so they don't realize that it comes off as narcissistic and callous to others, — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@bljacka Yes, I agree that in the short term Russia will very likely win. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

That yacht would make a nice home for refugees, as would various estates. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

No, the U.S. should not put itself in the position of shooting down Russian planes--that is to say, a hot war with a nuclear power--because alternative options that don't significantly raise the risk of nuclear apocalypse are ***obviously*** preferable. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@mysteriouskat I agree that his rhetoric was unwise. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

In my time on TikTok I've always looked for a CCP thumb on the scale and never discerned one. I wonder if that will change with respect to Ukraine. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@AnAltExp @jons6111 That is the point I made. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@maxboonen Who has an eye trained to discern these things in such a fine grained way as to identify the jurist of number 1 strongest character? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I will be reading the nominee's legal opinions and other work in the profession in coming days to come to a more informed conclusion, but I won't be delving back into her high school years, which strike me as irrelevant to the kind of jurist she'd be on the court. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Also, insofar as I'm okay with therapeutic interventions in public life, I'd rather it didn't come from news organizations — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, *go exercise* is extremely good advice for anxiety or depression. On the other hand, the constant *YOU'RE FEELING TRAUMATIZED FYI WE HAVE A SAFE SPACE* messages seem like they're making people more anxious, not less anxious. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Similarly, "character" and "dedication to the rule of law" isn't like marathons where you have the world record holder and runner up and a list of times beyond that. There's a group of people of high character who one can't rank and decide on whose is strongest. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Take credentials. Harvard and Yale law diplomas and SCOTUS clerkships are considered "the strongest." Lots of people of every race and gender have one, including this nominee. Who has stronger credentials, @jordanbpeterson? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Dr. Peterson's logic here is flawed. There are people of every race and sex who have "the strongest credentials, record, character, and dedication to the rule of law." On each of those metrics, there are lots of people at the top whose strength on each is indistinguishable. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

whether it is the role of media organizations to anticipate or make presumptions about how the audience is *feeling*, which left of center sites seem to do more and more. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I suspect their thought process is closer to *what should our health desk do today with Ukraine dominating the news? Ah, a reminder about best practices for high anxiety news cycles.* And I suspect part of the blowback is rooted in a divide about — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@karlbykarlsmith @DouthatNYT Ah. That's helpful, thanks. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DouthatNYT It's *the data suggests these practical steps reduce anxiety* more than *to counteract war we need to change the energy in our own lives* — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DouthatNYT I agree, but also, that NPR thread seems closer to the "we are on the side of science" than the "something more" to me. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DouthatNYT You: "If Trumpism spoke to an underground, often-conspiratorial populism unacknowledged by the official G.O.P., Williamson speaks to a low-on-data, long-on-feelings spirit that simmers just below the We Are on the Side of Science and Reason surface of the liberal project." So, — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DouthatNYT Do you mean that those ways of coping are rituals with analogs in most religions or something more? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

The quote tweets to this thread illustrate the part of the U.S. culture war that has nothing to do with racial or religious or gender or partisan identity, turning instead on different, possibly competing, seldom articulated comportments toward therapeutic culture. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Russia not only placed missiles on Ukraine's border, it then invaded Ukraine. Why have you exempted them from your standard? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I'll grudgingly look past yet another Harvard Law alum on the court--no Harvard or Yale next time!--only because a public defender on the court is so enticing and long overdue. — PolitiTweet.org