J. Nathan Matias 🦣Dec 8, 2024

Watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl, I am struck by how the history of the United States can be traced through a sequence of epic speculations, scams, and crashes.

This country is so much more, but it is forever scamming, forever being scammed, and forever trying to remediate the consequences. The hope and optimism that make us so capable and future-thinking also make us endlessly vulnerable.

Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 9, 2024
@natematias One thing I've learned living here is that Americans secretly (and often not so secretly) love con artists. They're as American as apple pie.
Show threadMichael SladeDec 9, 2024
@klausfiend @natematias The phenomenon of America’s infatuation with conmen is well told in the musical, The Music Man. The difference with our current crop of conmen is that Professor Hill’s arc is in becoming a good man and his con is close enough to the truth he gets away with it.
Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 9, 2024
@michaelslade @natematias 76 trombones is too many trombones, anyway.
Show threadMichael SladeDec 9, 2024
@klausfiend @natematias It was a lie. Would 52 have been more credible?
Show threadklausfiend has moved
@michaelslade @natematias Not unless they wanted to wake the dead in River City!
Dec 9, 2024 at 7:23pmWeb