
Kent Sorenson: The tea party hero who lost everything - orf
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/21/kent-sorenson-was-a-tea-party-hero-then-he-lost-everything-220522
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orf
Political posts are quite rightly frowned upon here, but I think this story is
excellent.

It focuses more on the incarceration aspect than the pure political side of
it, and his views on jail after experiencing it first hand are very
interesting.

The commonplace quid-pro-quo political dealings are also pretty shocking,
especially when you contrast the minimal punishment those involved received
(Kent included) against the people he met whilst in jail.

~~~
lisper
I think it's relevant because it's about discovering truth:

"Sorenson, the Republican state senator and Tea Party superstar with a clear
path to Congress, had heard about disparities in sentencing. He had read about
the statistical inequalities and crooked economics that are foundational to
the American prison system. He had watched the demonstrators on television
chanting about the devastation wreaked on minority communities by mass
incarceration. And he didn’t buy any of it."

This, in microcosm, is one of the biggest problems we face: large numbers of
citizens who believe in things that are not true, and the subsequent
normalization of conspiracy theories and the disparagement of defending truth
as mere _political_ disagreement. Sooner or later, the truth will win, whether
it's about the conditions of our prisons, or the laws of economics, or the
consequences of climate change. The longer we try to deny this the less
pleasant it will be when it happens.

~~~
maxxxxx
This is the problem with a lot of political activists that get into the media
. They get famous not because of their well thought out positions but because
of their charisma. There are way too many people who have a huge following on
TV, Twitter or elsewhere who espouse positions that make no sense. They never
need to examine their beliefs because they have a lot of followers who affirm
them without thinking.

There are quite a few stories about people who publicly had a strong opinion
about something and quickly changed their view once they got first hand
experience with that matter.

~~~
trendia
> They get famous not because of their well thought out positions but because
> of their charisma

Studies have shown that people trust pundits with gumption, not well-thought
out or balanced ideas. Superforecasting, one of my favorite books, discusses
this at great depth: the people with the greatest foresight and ability to
predict future political events are the _least_ trusted or respected, since
they often don't have clear and easily-identifiable positions, but rather make
all sorts of caveats and restrictions on their beliefs. This makes their
arguments more complicated and less easily broken down during a shouting match
on live TV, so viewers don't believe them as much and instead focus on the
pundits with the clear, singular, loud opinions instead. Unfortunately, those
pundits are often wrong, their opinions lack nuance, and their political
forecasts are worthless.

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orf
Not quite sure how I feel about this being summarily ripped down from the
front page, especially given the contents of the article. Was this removed
based on the title alone?

~~~
dtf
It's still on the front page.

~~~
orf
It was re-added. Perhaps it was flagged, but it was certainly removed for a
time.

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patrickg_zill
Note that the the DNC and RNC both participate in this at the national level,
and likely in other states also. And only a few have gone to jail...

