Posting

  • Pres. Trump’s war on all of us

    The Trump administration is in a combative mood, but Trump himself has been on a warpath for much longer. His statements on Truth Social, a social network he’s said to own, are often outrageous in their style, tone, and context.

    He doesn’t hold back. His latest outburst is over tariffs, a form of economic policy that is often used as a defensive measure. Trump is determined to make sure he protects America from every angle. He’s lashed out at the EU in a particular post.

    “The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

    He says the EU is “hostile”, and “abusive” in its taxes and tariff’s. However, he launches his own broadside. The threat is a 200% tariff on alcohol from EU states, a massive sweep at trade. The hypocrisy is evident in the way he says it, and the policy.

    The motive must come from his own advisors, but Trump has a way of making things clear. His business sense is to return like for like. If a prisoner is taken, he takes one too. The trouble is that such humour isn’t shared on both sides of the Atlantic.

  • Our way of thinking is under attack

    The upstarts online are your best friends. They post photos, videos, and graphics to illustrate what they mean. It may be about life. It could be about you. Or it’s about nothing in particular. The point is, however, it fits into your friendship – or overall perspective on life.

    However, social media has got a bad rap in recent years. It rides hot on the heels of public protest-based debate. The fallout is inevitable. The disagreements are riven with bad faith. The altercations are ill-tempered. The complaints socially divisive.

    Social media word ‘cloud’

    It isn’t true that posting online is poor behaviour – or a bad habit. The result of our interest in things – or curiosity – is more nuanced, not less. The cynicism felt by few is not shared by most of us, who, like those before, take things in our stride before we’re riled.

    The dissenters are hard to track down. They exist in the cracks and crevices of life. They speak out to complain, corralling us into different corners. Their evidence is sporadic, and relates only to issues offline. They’re those who take out the meaning of life.

  • The advance of Substack newsletters

    The innovation of “posting” – just putting stuff on the Internet for others to see – is still much the same, years after the earliest forms of it. The standards are vague, the quality is variable, and its creators are often anonymous.

    It makes sense if it fits in, in other words, which is along the lines of academic culture, and office life. “The lie isn’t the point, it’s the reactions, and the narratives that get built”, as a student once said to me, in a Freudian slip.

    The other side are the credible, innovative “keyboard” orator’s who know how to make digital content, like videos, and that sort of stuff. It reaches a grateful audience, who also see it carries weight because of a personality behind it.

    An example is ex-Number 10 advisor Dominic Cummings, who has over 58,000 subscribers. He carries the mandate of public service, and political life, over into his private work. He also writes about what interests his readers.