Speaker Johnson’s Ignominious Betrayal - LewRockwell

BobQuixote · 2024-04-23T10:12:42+00:00

"[The GOP] needs to be splintered into a thousand pieces and swept into the dustbin of history."

I agree, for completely opposite reasons. It stopped being a worthwhile institution as it grew increasingly entangled with Trump. A thousand curses on the party for repeatedly doubling down on its support for him.

BobQuixote · 2024-04-23T04:58:39+00:00

The Toronto Police Service issued a statement Wednesday confirming that an officer made the remarks at a recent community meeting.

The linked statement confirms no such thing.

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T10:05:42+00:00

That's a blog post pretending to be a news article. Here's a news article: https://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/wizards-of-the-coast-president-cynthia-williams-announces-resignation/

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T09:56:45+00:00

Yes. What does this have to do with Reddit? Was this just so you could mention your company in the title?

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T09:51:17+00:00

That isn't, and must not be, how any of this works.

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T09:38:31+00:00

I recommend finding an active Discord server or other community and helping others build their projects while absorbing advice from more experienced people. Then you can also do the same or similar projects. This list won't last you very long.

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T09:31:09+00:00

Relevant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_over_inheritance

Inheriting rarely adds value, especially in comparison to just holding a reference to the class you would have extended.

BobQuixote · 2024-04-22T09:14:37+00:00

Spaces!

However, I agree that the tool shouldn't care.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-10T09:25:47+00:00

That phrasing is the result of me cleaning the labels out of my closet. :-) Libertarian, conservative, classical liberal, radical centrist... They make people think I'm an ancap or a Republican, or just fail to communicate anything.

Honestly I can't imagine it working any differently either. Maybe "every law needs to be justified" is a bit too obvious, to the point that the socialists and the nazis would agree.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-10T06:02:36+00:00

Eh? I really can't tell whether that was criticism, which is bad either way.

What do I want to say? What a wide-open question. I don't want to write a book, at least not all in one comment, but I'm fine with some back-and-forth.

I generally approach policy as a libertarian and end up somewhere in the center. Every law needs to be justified, and every law should be at the lowest effective level.

I get irritated by the pathos rhetoric of the Left broadly, and disagree often with their policy proposals, but I find significant agreement in the ethos elements that would lead me to support restrained versions of those policies.

I can generally piss off people of any alignment. My engagement in online communities tends to be a game of political capital: a few tasty morsels that the echo chamber will agree with, then one strategic challenge, rinse and repeat. Although it has been a while since my communities have been small enough to care; lately that has just turned into how I play Reddit.

Speaking of Reddit, I still have one foot in it. Saidit is sort of a backup plan, to be cultivated so migration would be seamless in case Reddit were to ban me. I saw it mentioned by the gender skeptics (am I remembering the term wrong?), and woah, what a strange assortment of refugees. But Saidit is also an interesting experiment, partly because radically open platforms I've tried before have been truly toxic (impressive that they got me to use that term).

And you? What brought you here, and what would you say?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-09T19:49:10+00:00

My best guess is that the Left tone turned people off, and they might have downvoted if they could just for that. But I have difficulty imagining anyone who signed up for this site actually disagreeing with the point of the letter. I was hoping to get some engagement along the lines of "Hey, we actually agree about something really important."

But I agree about the state of our discourse.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-08T16:11:29+00:00

The most I expected in the way of dissent was just griping about the references to Trump and "right-wing demagogues." The rest is basically the primary criticism of the right against the left.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-07T23:57:32+00:00

Yes, social media is a problem that past centuries have not equipped us to handle very well. My classical liberal instincts seem to result in concentrated bits of society repelling each other. I don't know whether society will be able to continue operating while also tolerating platforms like Facebook or even like this one. At the very least it seems to sadly require censorship; I hope we develop a democratic model that manages to exclude the insanity while not allowing the power-hungry to dominate the conversation.

I can imagine behaving in a similar way regarding the bees, but probably not for the same reason. I know not to piss them off or even move too much lest I get hurt. And I wouldn't be following beavers. :-)

I feel like we lost some of the threads of this conversation, but I don't know how to retrieve them.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-06T08:36:00+00:00

I learned to live in the pre-Internet world first, and while I agree about the external storage I don't see that it has influenced our opinions or behavior in this way. If anything, the external storage seems to mitigate the problem of the old ideas being lost. But I was never fluent in whatever language of nature you're referring to anyway.

Is your concern about COVID basically the superbug? That an arms race of medicines and diseases will eventually produce a catastrophic disease?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-05T20:03:26+00:00

So either you're being deliberately cryptic or you literally believe in some sort of pagan personification of nature. I guess that explains why I wasn't understanding.

But no, I'm really not concerned about Gaia knocking over our Tower of Babel. We should really be more careful about how we exploit the world (climate change, ecological collapse, etc.) but I don't think there is any intelligence that might deliver a reprisal. And if we do completely trash the world humans will be fine very far into that process.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-05T11:44:36+00:00

I really have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't understood either of your posts at all.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-05T11:39:39+00:00

Well, I appreciate the extensive reply; I did not expect an attempt to fill out that evidential support.

I've started watching the video, but it's so long I replied before finishing it. I'll resume it later. It is at least better than what I saw for PizzaGate when that came out.

I'm pretty sure there is corruption involving some sort of sex-related activity (per Epstein's death), but I'm not convinced it has infected essentially the entire government, or that it involves a vast human trafficking network, or that it has anything to do with something so cartoonish as Satan worship or cannibalism.

I'm not sure my answer to all this, if I were to end up agreeing with you, would be not voting. The two things I can think of are 1) no change - there's nothing to do until something shakes out so you know the enemy, or 2) work in politics as an aide, or get some other job close to the suspects in order to shake something out myself.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-04T06:16:09+00:00

Well shit. That is quite a multi-layered bungle. Thanks for the info.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-04T06:02:51+00:00

I looked at King's Wikipedia article and don't see anything that fits your description. Even so, King and Epstein would not be enough to support your claim.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-03T23:00:35+00:00

That's not the story I see when I look into it, but maybe I don't have sufficient visibility into specific states or something. Can you link such a story?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-03T22:58:35+00:00

Given that this evil includes clear child exploitation and murder

What are you referring to?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T20:48:24+00:00

Just change the pieces to red and blue. Chess players will love how it makes the game look less dignified.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T20:46:13+00:00

India is having a major controversy along these lines right now. The term is "colourism".

Thank you for calling bullshit.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T20:33:46+00:00

What does Brenton Tarrant have to do with your point?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T19:39:20+00:00

But Syria's representative said Jeffrey's demands promoted Israeli control. Those demands seem to only be for constitutional democracy.

For all the rest, yeah, that's terrible. I don't see why we give such a big shit about Assad. He's a tyrant, but we usually just wait for those to die unless 1) they threaten something, like having nukes or whatever, or 2) we want their stuff. In this case it might be some #3 if Israel is the real shot-caller.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T18:51:00+00:00

It's back.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T18:37:43+00:00

Diversity is a strength, although 'greatest' begs the question.

...Do people attempt to convince kids that they (the kids) are gay? I'm not sure what else you could mean by this 'pushing'.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T18:21:02+00:00

The source said, “These statements confirm once again that the United States is looking at the region with Israeli eyes, because the demands that Jeffrey talks about are old and renewed Israeli demands to impose their control on the region.”

Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas revealed Jeffrey’s offer, noting that “it requires going to a political solution to implement Security Council Resolution 2254 and the cision, and ompletion of a new constitution and holding elections under U.N. supervision after achieving a safe and neutral environment and acceptance of international decisions,” stressing that Washington’s offer is Assad’s commitment to the “Geneva 1” statement, which he says is not possible to stay in power.

How does this enable Israeli control?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T17:32:39+00:00

It is a stretch that BLM is Marxist. No goalposts are in motion. I highly doubt you could put even a large minority of it in that bucket.

And you never did point out where their website advocates tearing the country down.

Their website is full of neo-Marxist drivel like "dismantling the western prescribed nuclear family".

And they mention in the same section that this means they regularly associate with more-extended family. The horror.

Yet, you're still happy to defend them. I'm starting to get the idea you simply share their ideology.

sigh I approach policy as a libertarian and arrive at roughly centrist conclusions. No, I'm just sick of people vilifying each other rather than attempting to see how they can both be satisfied.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T16:36:47+00:00

I agree with all of that, except my path has been different (and shorter). I was raised as a Republican, a conservative. Now I take a libertarian approach to policy and arrive at roughly centrist conclusions.

While I was moving away from Republican orthodoxy, the party moved in the other direction. It is now fully, and was already partially, the other party of big government.

Not only that, the GOP is now deliberately running against institutional norms to gain power, undermining the rule of law in the Supreme Court, and attempting to disenfranchise those who would vote for opposing candidates. This is not my conservatism.

Yes, leftists are, by and large, self-righteous, and many of their ideas are broken. They are enabled in their self-righteousness by the Republicans clearly gripping the wrong answers. And the worst part is we only have two options. Reasonable people will be found picking each of them.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T16:01:22+00:00

A stretch? One of their founders literally came out and said “we are Marxist”.

Do you think that applies to everyone involved in the movement? I very much don't.

Do you think they're actually aiming to replace the federal government? I'm sure they'd like to, but I doubt they expect to.

If you read their website it’s like the new communist manifesto - they literally want to burn down the country and destroy “white culture”. Those people are the enemy of civilized society.

OK, I don't know where you're getting this from.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision

I don't see anything about that.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T15:13:38+00:00

Marxism is a bit of a stretch.

Racial anger, certainly, partially justified but poorly directed at the offending problems. Hatred is surely mixed in there, but I don't expect to see any white pogroms.

And yes, the whole thing has been coopted by someone, probably the DNC but maybe just the BLM heads, for political power.

But there are real underlying issues. I wouldn't expect leftists to drop support for BLM until they are addressed, although I'm sure there is some line where the consensus would break down and BLM would start losing support. I have no idea where that line is.

Democrats and Republicans each have their groupthink, and reasonable people are just left to resist it.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T04:36:32+00:00

Eh, that applies to a subset, sure. Plenty of leftists are level-headed and not looking for Nazis to punch. You just don't generally hear about the reasonable people on the other side, same way they mostly hear about the sensational nutjob right-wingers.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T04:11:59+00:00

The fact that disinformation works shows that interfering with communication isn't necessarily nefarious.

I love free speech, but we seem to have an echo chamber already.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:37:39+00:00

Some alt-right opinions tend to run off more than just the leftists. Some of those places have such a thick stench I won't touch them either. When a platform is flooded with nonsense it's just a waste of time, and painful, to try to pick through it.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:32:33+00:00

the true nature of natural relations

What? I think we're here for completely different reasons.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:25:44+00:00

Another post suggested optional moderation. I prefer that over both of these ideas.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:24:38+00:00

What? Why?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:17:09+00:00

Jail would help by putting a wall between him and everyone else. For a little while at least.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:14:22+00:00

I actually think it does, except that decriminalizing drugs will get controversial fast once we get beyond pot.

TV cops go after pedos, murderers, and rapists when the writers want a clear-cut morality tale.

And next-to-nobody actually wants to eliminate police funding. Even most of the people saying "Defund the Police" are deliberately bullshitting because it's a catchy soundbite; they actually just want to restructure departments to make cops more accountable.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T03:04:44+00:00

Prosecutorial discretion is what makes it possible for your torrenter to not get such an inane charge.

How would you design the system instead?

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T02:53:37+00:00

You're probably referring to how they used to poop anywhere and let the 'untouchables' clean it up. Pretty sure both of those hardly happen now.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T02:37:56+00:00

And sometimes for the same reason but in reverse: It would be a waste of time to debate such a retarded idea, if it doesn't have such wide purchase.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-02T02:16:18+00:00

Well anything I supply is just going to be the result of me searching in the same way that you can. And I have no background to be judging such material, but here you go anyway: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent

BobQuixote · 2020-07-01T21:19:58+00:00

There is nothing morally wrong with the statement, "We must secure the existence of our people, and a future for white children." - unless you think the extinction of White people is a moral imperative.

I was just going to lurk in this conversation, but this looks like a good hook to ask a question (or a suite of questions, actually) that I don't usually have a context for.

Why does any particular skin pigmentation have a moral value? Why are the only two options "white good" and "white bad"? Why can we not simply secure a future for children?

I don't really care that I'm white, and I think that is the morally proper position. I get pissed off when people want to mistreat me for it, but that doesn't affect my ideas on ethics.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-01T20:51:44+00:00

So did Jack Bauer. I understand he's not shying away from outright torture. Once he breaks it, we can start producing the cure.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-01T20:32:43+00:00

By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain

So? I've never heard anything about viruses mattering for the brain, specifically. It seems like they're always talked about as if getting infected means your body is (for all intents and purposes) immediately permeated with the virus, though I don't know how accurate that is.

Your other bullet points are about the wisdom of wearing masks for people in specific groups, which is not interesting to me in the context of whether people should generally wear them.

We are not gaining anything by wearing masks and having the healthy isolate. Doing so only prolongs the amount of time we develop herd immunity and generally keeps our immunity low.

That is a different approach based on different priorities. Society, or influential players within it, have prioritized minimizing our casualty rate, rather than accelerating the end of the pandemic. This is an example of "all lives are sacred" winning out over "the needs of the many." And it seems disingenuous to dismiss that so casually, as "we are not gaining anything."

BobQuixote · 2020-07-01T20:04:30+00:00

I'd go to say that any man who does not call out the influence of those men is complicit, as he still benefits from the system.

I was tracking until this. Give me a target and I'll make the decision myself. If I disagree with you, I can understand the charge of complicity. But if I'm supposedly complicit for being ignorant then I don't want what you're selling.

BobQuixote · 2020-07-01T19:36:27+00:00

Yeah, I actually thought Reddit's basic system of letting a sub's mods rule their little fiefdom made a lot of sense. I guess it was getting abused more than I knew.

Maybe give the mods something like that free reign but impose community oversight. Enforcing topicality and civility should be OK.

BobQuixote