I hope its acceptable to take a moment and deviate from my brand of bad puns, worse food takes and low-brow dad humor to post something that has weighed on me increasingly. Mute me for a few minutes and I promise to return to regularly scheduled broadcasting… 1/n

Emotions run high on this site. Today, more than usual. Tomorrow, more so still. The problem as I see it is passions can have us run past our principles, & we get tempted into indefensible positions. Once there, it seems we as often dig-in as we reconsider and withdraw. 2/n

To my core I believe the only filter that works in insulating against the onslaught of social media insanity is a robust sense of humor. But I felt the following thread be shared so that no one reads anything unintended in content I post or circulate. 3/n

Recent DM exchanges revealed to me that perhaps there was something I needed to say to those masochists who insist on following me: I appreciate you… unqualified, w/o conditions. The views and opinions of the people I follow run the gamut of progressive to conservative…. 4/n

…and I value the contributions and the challenges each offer that prevent the hardening of my priors or bring attention to my blindspots. I appreciate that you allow me to do the same. 5/n

You can let this site radicalize you, or you can harness it to make you better and stronger.

The latter is hard. 6/n

I’m old enough to remember where people of different philosophies could set it aside to remain friends, to help each other, to enjoy beer, sports &entertainment together. 7/n

Now there seems to be earnest insistence that we be balkanized, that friendships and families should fracture if members of such aren’t compliant with the prevailing right-think. 8/n

I grieve that we yield the gainful competition of ideas and surrender to a zero-sum, “shoot the prisoners” ecstasy of hate, one in which we feel that a country can operate better with only half a brain when every known organism cannot. 9/n

Anyone on fintwit probably understands being right 51% of the time can be sufficient to be wildly successful in trading, and yet we are self-delude sufficiently to believe we bat 1.000 in political matters where the feedback for bad ideas is nebulous at best. 10/n

I’ve resigned myself to the expectation that we won’t return anytime soon to that better state, that twitter won’t pivot, that the election will be a contentious disaster. It’s now a matter of how much we decide to lose of ourselves in the realization in that scenario. 11/n

I pray to not let my passions exceed my principles. I hope to preserve friendships & relationships from the ash heap, even on twitter. 12/n

I hope to learn and get better, always, and not let the rigidity of age and experience harden me. I also want to prevent rashness from destroying what is objectively good, if not historically singular, about our country and community. 13/n

Before things further descend into ideological and partisan battlelines, I wanted to indulge in this statement so that everyone knows where I’m coming from with my tweets &retweets. As most of you know, I like to poke fun at myself at least as much as I do so of others. 14/n

But I hope my humor never inflicts pain among those who live their values as opposed to its intended target, those who profit disproportionately by values of convenience. 15/n

In interest of personal improvement, I keep DMs open. If I appear to be missing facts & context on an issue, I invite you to share it. Please keep it factual as I’m not persuaded by pathos; even ethos has been warped to support sophists. I appreciate rigorous logos the most. 16/n

I cannot thank all of you sufficiently for the laughs, encouragement, and improvement you've offered me that I have scarcely repaid. Bless all of you.

I shall now return to my usual jackassery. Thanks for reading!

-Tim

Hank and I can now rest a bit. Enjoy your Sunday!