On the use of the Web; Paul Ryan and the GOP; a historian’s life; an old joke; and more
See if you can relate to this. When I first started using Twitter (now called “X”), about ten years ago, I saw “This may also interest you,” or something like that. They were showing me, offering me, things they thought I would like to see.
“They”? You know: “they.” The great algorithm people in the sky or something. “They.”
I bristled. “Don’t tell me what I’m interested in! I decide what I’m interested in, and what I’m going to look at, and what I’m going to search for!” Big individual and all.
As time went by, I thought: “Hey — they’re right. I am interested in those things, Internet. How did you know?” They were helping me. They were enhancing my life.
I had that experience on Twitter, and I had that experience on YouTube. I’d click on a video. They — “they” — would give me lots of other things that were related. “Thank you, YouTube! I appreciate that!”
These days, I’m not so sure. My disposition is changing — has changed. I am often reluctant to click on something, lest they bombard me with similar items, for days on end.
And I don’t want to be trapped in a world of self-reinforcement.
I think that’s the word Jack Dorsey used earlier this month. He was speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum. And he talked about the danger of the algorithm, and self-reinforcement, and being trapped in an online pattern. (Dorsey is a co-founder of Twitter, remember.)
He was wise.
And I wish to be wise. How to be a saner, better user of the Internet? How to avail oneself of these immense technological riches in a more healthful way?
I am asking these questions, in recent days. If I get any answers, I’ll let you know.
• Here is a headline from the Associated Press: “Trump challenges Biden to a cognitive test but confuses the name of the doctor who tested him.” (Article here.) D’oh!
Look, anyone can make a mistake like that. The doctor was “Jackson”; Trump said “Johnson.” Big whoop. But if you’re going to call someone else gaga — you have to be careful.
It’s like pointing out a grammatical error in someone else’s article — pointing it out in your own article. You’d better be sure yours is white-glove clean.
(I learned that expression from an old boss of mine, a lawyer — great guy. “White-glove clean.” “This has to be white-glove clean.”)
• Paul Ryan, the former speaker of the House, said that Donald Trump was unfit for office. Ryan’s words: “I voted for him in 2016, hoping that there was going to be a different kind of person in office, and I do think character is a really important issue. If you put yourself above the Constitution, as he has done, that means you’re unfit for office.”
A Republican congressman, Troy Nehls, had a response: “Paul Ryan, you’re a piece of garbage. You’re a piece of garbage, and we should kick you out of the party.”
More from Mr. Nehls: “Don’t go spouting your mouth off and saying that you’re a conservative. You’re spitting in the face of the leader of our party. I mean, grow up a little bit.”
In my view, Trump has not only changed politics in our country, he has also changed the way people talk. There is a new coarseness, a new extremism, all over.
The popular conception of conservatism has been twisted. People take it to mean a brutish populism. To borrow from Congressman Nehls: Grow up a little bit.
• Have a look at the below and tell me: Is there not a whiff of North Korea about it?
Tomorrow I will introduce legislation to rename our coastal waters after @realDonaldTrump!
President Trump took several commendable actions for our oceans as part of his work to make America strong, secure, and economically prosperous. Renaming our waters will serve as a… pic.twitter.com/Xj4NT3kqDx
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) June 13, 2024
• About the Hunter Biden trial, there are many things to say, and endless columnists and others have said them. Maybe I can contribute the following . . .
Years ago, I wrote a book about the sons and daughters of dictators. They have lives both fortunate and unfortunate, these people. They enjoy utter impunity (at least for a while). Democracies such as the United States are very different. Don’t let demagogues and blowhards and ignoramuses tell you otherwise. (Though they will.)
• Last Sunday, a senator sent this around:
My father was the CEO of a major car company and a three-term governor. Yet, when I asked him at age 88 what gave him the most meaning in life, his answer was: “Raising you four kids.” His dedication to family has stayed with me my whole life. To all dads, happy Father’s Day! pic.twitter.com/2MxeFOpnCz
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 16, 2024
An interesting, and very American, story, the Romneys.
• Peter Brown is a historian, born in Ireland in 1935. He is a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is a major figure in the field of “late antiquity.” From what I understand, he practically brought that field into being.
For The New York Review of Books, Nawal Arjini conducted a fascinating interview of him. If I start quoting, I will go on for pages, or the online equivalent. Maybe just two questions, and their answers?
Question: “You’re a great and committed traveler. How do you approach travel, especially traveling abroad — as a researcher, a pilgrim, a tourist?”
Professor Brown:
I travel because it always surprises me. Places and monuments, works of art and landscapes are never quite what one imagines them to be. Nor are people. Some of the languages useful for my research abroad are what we call “dead” languages: Latin, Greek, classical Hebrew, Coptic, Ge’ez (Ethiopic), etc. These are keys to entire past civilizations. But even in the modern world, languages are a reminder that all societies have their own surprises. To attempt to read and use languages other than one’s own, even if only a few phrases, is a mark of respect for the otherness of other people.
And so on.
Okay, one more question: “What, if anything, can or should historians do to prevent their scholarship from being conscripted into demagogic agendas?”
Professor Brown:
Historians are there to discover and to uphold the truth. From ancient Greece onward historians have stood out against public opinion by offering more truthful versions of what really happened than what was passed on by rumor, prejudice, and popular excitement. This was never popular. Herodotus, known as “the Father of History,” was also called “the Father of Lies” by his opponents, because he went out of his way to study and understand non-Greek societies such as Egypt and Persia.
A rich and adventurous life, Peter Brown has had. I doubt he is ever bored. (Bill Buckley said his greatest fear was to be bored. I think he seldom was.)
• A few days ago, I had a memory. You know how a “cold call” can be jarring, intrusive, and weird? What I mean is: a call that comes in without a text or other written message first. Well, I remember a time when people “cold visited.” They just dropped by, when they were in the neighborhood. There was nothing unusual about it at all.
I mentioned this on X, and someone sent me this clip, of the comedian Sebastian Maniscalco — who addresses the point. Good stuff.
• Let me relate a scene, not very pleasant. I witnessed it last week. A man was picking through a garbage can. He was a “street person.” In a wheelchair. Shirtless and emaciated. An elderly woman approached him, offering money. He exploded at her. A burst of rage came from him. He sort of barked and howled and snarled. The woman shook, from surprise and fright. She turned around and walked away, trembling all the while.
I felt great pity for her. And for him.
• Over and over, you read about religious leaders, or religious figures, who are sex offenders. Often rapists of children. (I read about one a couple of days ago.) One part of your brain says, “Think of all the religious leaders who are not sex offenders! Every profession or avocation must have some percentage of sex offenders.” Another part of your brain says, “So true. But still. It seems like so many . . .”
• A language note. Have you noticed what I’ve noticed? For the past ten years — something like that — Americans have been saying “moreso” when they mean “more.” They might say, “It was for personal reasons, moreso than for professional reasons.” This is like a weed, grown up in our garden.
Here’s a traditional way of using “moreso”: “She’s as talented as her dad, maybe moreso.”
• I heard an old joke the other day and thought, “Would anyone get it today?” The gist of the joke: A very old man has a very young girlfriend, and he’s getting married to her. Someone asks, “Why would he want to do that? Why would he want to get married at his age?” Someone else answers, “What makes you think he wants to?”
See?
(Maybe I had better offer an explanation. The girlfriend is pregnant. In times gone by, it was thought that a couple should get married under such circumstances.)
• “What is so rare as a day in June?” Where I live, the weather has been glorious, and I hope it has been the same for you. With my deep horticultural knowledge, I know that these are called “little purple jobbies”:
I happen to know that these are red poppies:
(The Red Poppy is a ballet by Glière. If you’d like to hear a suite from it, go here.)
How about this orange jobbie?
My picture doesn’t tell you, but the bees were having a field day in these white blooms. They were buzzing their hineys off. There is a piece of music, a “light classic,” called “Bugler’s Holiday.” A phrase came to me: “bees’ holiday.”
Later on.
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