So, There's This....

Does anyone want to publish my take on the realities of string theory? on the impact of 13th century Islamic art on Euro architecture? on the cinematic quality of 1970s dystopias?

No. They shouldn't.

But anyone can get their take on crime policy and politics published anywhere.

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) June 7, 2022

Just bc crime policy is a Really Big Topic right now does not mean that everyone has to write on it.

It's not just noise. Often, it's misguided oversimplifications published in some of the most valuable writing real estate out there.

It likely makes policy worse. pic.twitter.com/IV1DODtBTH

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) June 7, 2022

I'm not one for narrow "stay in your lane"-ness. Hedgehogs, foxes, cross-fertilization and all that.

But even foxes and cross-fertilizers have broad areas they tend to stick to.

Anyway, crime policy is hard. Those who study it full time barely get it. Just keep that in mind.

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) June 7, 2022

A brief but spectacular discussion on people completely ignorant on a topic being convinced their ignorance is strength and gives them the right answer every time! To which the responses are, well....this:

Maybe because in a democracy, politics and policies are supposed to be everyone's business, unlike theoretical physics or art history.

— LC (@lcinwdc) June 7, 2022

Which misses the point in the third tweet (because, you know, thinking is hard! It's hard!) Or this, along the same lines:

The internet is certainly full of unqualified and irritating opinion monsters, but we're all free to ignore string theory, art history, and cinema if we so choose.

But if we ignore crime policy and politics long enough, they come and find us in our homes. And, well, schools.

— Doug Warren (@DougWar40K) June 7, 2022

Which takes the first tweet wrong and takes a flying leap into traffic from there.

I've pretty much ignored crime policy all my life, except maybe to express my personal disagreement with things like harsh prison sentences, period (or prisons at all, for that matter.  I'm rather radical on the subject, but I haven't thought about it enough to even post something here).  Somehow my not paying attention to it hasn't brought crime to my doorstep or in my schools (I've attended 8 schools as a student, taught at four more, and have yet to have crime find me there, either; except for the reports I've gotten of cars being broken into on some campuses of the community college where I taught for 20 years).  My mother was mugged in New Orleans once, and her purse stolen.  I guess she should have paid attention to crime policy, huh?

The internet is a perfect example of the witlessness of democracy.  Whitman was right to just speak of the people generally and non-specifically.  Jefferson's ideal of the "gentleman farmer" was always a fantasy unsullied by reality.  Democracy is the worst system of government, except it's better than all the others.  That's the most you can say for it.  You can't really say you find a lot of hope for it, or a reason to believe, in the ideas you find bandied about on Twitter; where obtuseness reigns supreme.

The immutable truth is:  you can't fix stupid.