This is a fascinating thread which encompasses a lot of interesting ideas – tribalism, how people get sucked further into wilder conspiracy theories, and even whether QAnon is showing signs of moving from a fringe political theory into a full-fledged religion.
it’s conceivable to conceptualize political tribalism (& perhaps even cultism), through an addiction model where there’s a cocaine-like hit on the front end that pulls them in… ….and an opioid-like withdrawal that prevents them from pushing away.
An addiction model may actually explain tribalism, confirmation bias, and even conspiracy theories/Qanon. Let’s unpack….
Several years ago I started observing the parallels between addiction and political tribalism as marriages/friendships/families imploded over politics….1/ https://t.co/jCNGeN42l2
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) June 13, 2021
This little baby is about to graduate Grade Eight in a couple weeks! (And my mask is very fashionable – who knew that fourteen years later, I’d be wearing one every day!) 😉
And yes, the rotating seasonal display in the alcove at the entrance to our house has become a temporary shrine to the grad! 😉
When I started following hockey as a young kid around the age seven or eight, the Islanders were the best team in the league. (Interestingly, I clearly remember friends who cheered for Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Philadephia but no one else seemed to have latched on to the Islanders which is another reason I liked them as they were “my” team.)
Their amazing dynasty won four Stanley Cups in a row from 1980-1983 and featured one of the most competitive, money goalies of all-time in Billy Smith, one of the best pure goal scorers of all-time in Mike Bossy, not one but two outstanding Saskatchewan players in Bryan Trottier (one of the most well-rounded players in the game at the time) and Clark Gillies (who was one of the toughest players in the league but still had top line level skills), one of the greatest defensemen of all-time in Denis Potvin and a strong supporting cast of role players from Bob Nystrom to John Tonelli to Butch Goring to Ken Morrow and more, all under the guidance of one of the game’s great coaches, Al Arbour.
Between that terrible stretch plus the fact that we moved to Calgary in 2001, I became a Flames fan. But the Isles always had a spot in my heart and are still who I consider my second favourite team though I don’t follow them nearly as closely as I used to.
The single best presentation I did in library school was on the evolution of streaming video online and how it’s biggest benefit was how online video eliminates constraints of both time and distance that all previous dominant mass communications mediums – radio, television – suffered from.
Like most 70s kids, I was pretty obsessed with TV. Then, in the 90s, I even ended up with a job selling cable TV subscriptions door-to-door. This was around the time I discovered the Internet too and I still remember obsessively downloading short, grainy clips of hockey highlights and music videos and Simpsons scenes, even before YouTube existed.
I don’t regret much about how my life is gone but admit I often wonder how my life might’ve been different if I’d pursued this area of interest more actively – instead of being a librarian, I might be working for a traditional or new media company.
At any rate, I’m still interested in developments in streaming media but every time I come across a clip like this one, I still think of that original library school presentation I did *fifteen* years ago.
*Literally* the first words of this timeline discuss the central role of various churches in the creation of schools that took Indigenous children from their parents, communities and culture.
For more than two hundred years [from 1600-1800], religious orders run mission schools for Indigenous children, the precursors to the Government of Canada’s residential school system.
I could’ve used this when we lived in Calgary but honestly, this is all I needed to know:
1. Hop N Brew (right next door to where my office was – dangerous!)
2. Drum & Monkey (also down the street from my office – sat there for like ten hours from noon on to hold a table for Game 7 in the 2004 Stanley Cup Final!)
3. Classic Jack’s
4. James Joyce (downtown and I think there was one on 4th? Amazing curry fries!)
5. Ship & Anchor (Many places on this list are gone but the Ship is a Calgary institution.)
6. Kensington Pub (home to a great Saturday afternoon sharing a pint with an 80-year old aunt!)
7. Rose & Crown
8. King Eddy
9. Kaos Jazz & Blues Club on 17th (Special mention as we held multiple Freedom to Read Week fundraisers here when I worked at the Writers Guild of Alberta)
10. Wild Rose Brewery
My old 'where to drink in Calgary' decision tree got onto reddit again today. Seeing that many people were commenting about how out-of-date it is, I updated it for 2021. Here is your new 'Where to drink in Calgary' decision tree! pic.twitter.com/lThzbyPLtN
