You know what you could do on this amazing day? Read Five Things and then become a paid subscriber! Awesome idea, right? ✌🏻 Oh, by the way, if you do not want to subscribe to Five Things, Five Things Tech and Five Things Running, you can select which one of the newsletters you want to read in your account settings. Five Things: Trump, Republicans, Normalization, Wargames, RecommendationsYour Sunday Morning starts here. Grab a coffee and read this now!
Hello and welcome back to Five Things! Halloween is over and yet I’m still spooked and agitated by what is to come. In Germany we are following the US elections closely as we understand how big the impact of the outcome will be on Europe and Germany in particular. I cannot vote in the USA, but this election is probably the most important election of my lifetime, but I guess I said that four years ago as well. Also, I’m really glad when this campaign is over and I don’t have to see the headlines about some polls that might favor one candidate over the other if you ignore the margin of error. This really is journalism I could do without. But what I don’t understand at all: how can anyone with just a bit of brainfunction left still consider to vote for Donald Trump? The polls should be 99:1 right now and not 50:50. This is insane and it shows how brainwashed everyone got by Murdoch’s media empire and by Putin’s propaganda. So, let’s hope for a festival of democracy on Tuesday that will forever get rid of the fascist menace of Donald Trump. Please remember that I read almost the whole interweb every week just to pick the five articles that you should read. This saves you lots of time and if you can spare the five bucks, I can treat my kids to lots of pumpkin spice lattes. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles
No sane person can vote for Donald Trump. He was in office for four years and he showed no interest in anyone but himself. On the other hand, there is Kamala Harris who is campaigning on a platform focused on bringing the country together. The choice is clear. My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump
“The powers of the presidency are vast and its responsibilities commensurately immense. It is for those reasons that a president has no higher obligations than to America’s democracy, Constitution and rule of law, the foundational cornerstones of our Republic. Through his words and deeds, Donald Trump has over and again demonstrated his palpable contempt for those cornerstones of America’s grand experiment in democratic self-government. He has proved himself to be an anti-democratic, anti-Constitution candidate for the presidency of the United States.” - I am by no means on the conservative side of the spectrum, but I respect people who are and I like debating with them. This can only happen if both sides agree on democratic values and principles. The Deep Psychological Reason We’re Stuck in This Feedback Loop With Donald Trump
“We can laugh along with late-night TV and leading Democrats about Trump’s dancing, just as we can call how the press is normalizing Trump’s statements “sanewashing.” But these responses are best understood as symptoms of our national neurotic delusion: the delusion that no one can really be that evil; the delusion that our system will prevent him from doing what he says he will do; the delusion that sociopaths don’t really exist. But sociopaths do exist—and in American society they become billionaires. Or they become president. Or both.” - it’s really bizarre that Trump is still allowed to be campaigning for the office of the President. His behaviour has never be acceptable and media outlets are repeating the mistakes all the time: to avoid being called out as biased, they allow populists to say whatever they want. This is ruining our democracies and the media is playing a huge role in it. Call of Duty: Pentagon Ops
Warfare simulation and computer games are awfully close brethren. Are we getting more militarized by playing these games? I honestly didn’t know how deeply intertwined the DOD and the early games industry were, but playing videogames as a kid didn’t want me to join the army. I still served, but for other reasons. The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture
“This recent surge of human-curated guidance is both a reaction against and an extension of the tyranny of algorithmic recommendations, which in the course of the past decade have taken over our digital platforms. Today’s automated social-media feeds deliver increasingly indistinguishable content now sometimes generated by artificial intelligence; in the face of this onslaught, we crave content with evidence that a real person actually stands behind the products or works being touted.” - ha! see, that’s why I am putting together Five Things! I knew I was up to something when I started this a few years ago! I’m fighting the almighty algorithm! Thanks for joining me in this fight! That’s it. Have a great Sunday! If you missed last Sunday’s edition of Five Things, have a look here: — Nico You're currently a free subscriber to Five Things. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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