netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1hr ago
Sure. I wasn’t fully satisfied with my ramblings during the user viewpoint post, anyway.
Tl;dr The American ethos is classical-liberal individualism by way of the marketplace of ideas. Everyone has certain rights, and if you play along with America’s rules, we’ll enforce them for you. And you should want to play along.
- Enumerate a clear set of individual rights.
- Credibly guarantee these rights to as many people as you practically can.
- Use collective action (military, welfare…) mainly to enforce those guarantees.
- Thrash competing cultures in the marketplace of ideas. Absorb anything that puts up a good fight.
- Maintain confidence in the superiority of the preceding points, no matter what you absorb.
Points 1-2 incentivize cooperation over defection. Point 3 hedges against some of the worst outcomes for subcultures, again incentivizing cooperation. Point 4 is just business, and Point 5 keeps the whole thing running.
Adopting point 2 is probably the hardest part, and it’s one that plenty of other states have fumbled. We really had to believe that there were other people deserving of those rights. Even then, we almost lost it all due to the economic incentives of denying those rights to some people.
I’m willing to believe that our start was only possible due to the combination of British law, Protestant religion, and our particular economic situation. But once the engine was going, we were able to stabilize and adapt when other cultures were collapsing. We handled the development of nationalism better than basically all of Europe. We won the Cold War right as we reassured ourselves of point 5. Our culture works, and I expect it will continue to work.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2hr ago
I did not make those claims. I don’t support illegal immigration, amnesty, opening the borders, any of that. Nor do I deny the expectations and responsibilities of citizenship. Immigrants should arrive and naturalize legally, then assimilate.
I rejected the claim that only “ourselves and our posterity” count as Americans, and I despise the idea that even “polite and law-abiding” “model” minorities are “an aberration which should be worked out.” It is gauche and unAmerican to cast legitimate, legal citizens as “guests”. Note that KMC did not argue that citizens who are socially alien were not Americans, but that minorities were inherently “not American, not native, and don’t belong here.”
Any serious definition of American citizenship must accommodate the 14th Amendment. Ignoring it in favor of one line from the preamble is chicanery.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4hr ago
In what world is that person, in any way, an American?
This world. 14th Amendment, baby. You don’t get to pick one line from the Constitution and ignore the rest. Citizenship is more than a paper guest pass.
You can’t help but equivocate between counting ancestors and “character of the nation” bullshit. I think you’re just parroting any excuse you can find. There is no coherent threshold that keeps the people you like in America while driving out the nasty foreigners.
Maybe you’re far enough up your own ass to have your own Ariernachweis going back to 1788. Which of the 28,000 voters was your meal ticket? Who secured the blessing of liberty for you?
American culture is awesome. I don’t think you deserve it.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4hr ago
I have basically no reason to believe in a Jewish conspiracy to burn Argentina, let alone steal it. The cited evidence is vague and confusing even if one assumes it’s all genuine.
Your hypothetical Anglo is coherent enough. The incoherencies come from all the other assumptions you’re making. Why should this be a question of blood and soil? Is this actually how a conspiracy would choose to achieve any goal? Stuff like that.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
Oh. I guess that makes more sense.
I would still disagree with the suspicion, if only because I don’t see an obvious way to actually fix the problem.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
I think so. I never bothered to watch the movie after learning that was the premise.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
I agree that U.S. intervention is inviting disaster for no real upside, but I think your military comparisons are wrongheaded.
This wouldn’t be a civilian terror bombing campaign as seen in WWII; the civilians are already in revolt. It wouldn’t be comparable to Vietnam or Korea (or Ukraine?) since Iran has no superpower stiffening its resistance. They cannot expect a flood of Chinese conscripts or spare HIMARS.
The goal would be tactical air power. After a certain point, any time the Nazis got too many tanks in one spot, a flight of P-47s would come ruin their day. This had real effects on their ability to organize a defense.
But, as you pointed out, that only works with troops to press the advantage. I have seen little evidence that such organized opposition exists in Iran. Without a strong horse to back, air intervention goes nowhere.
Trump shouldn’t make these rash proclamations
Well, I’m not going to argue with you there. His vibes-based policy is not suited for an actual lose-lose situation. Unless an actual rebel army forms, his best bet is to stay out.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
Sorry, court dates?
Who do you think is calling the shots in this scenario?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
If.
I don’t think he can do any of those things. At best, he can create power vacuums. Trying to actually replace a regime is the kind of blank-check commitment that he knows to avoid. No exit strategy.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
They…aren’t?
I imagine
There’s your problem. You’re speculating from a pretty incoherent starting point. Garbage in, garbage out.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
Describing Lovecraft as “conscientious” without mentioning neuroticism feels like burying the lede. You can’t separate his outlook from the absolutely miserable time he was having with his family and his finances.
I think Americans are the same way. Xenophobia comes from uncertainty. When times are good and people are optimistic, we’re all more willing to be cosmopolitan. As times get harsher, more people hit their personal neuroticism thresholds. Those with high conscientiousness are squeezed towards authoritarianism. Their less conscientious counterparts favor anarchy.
This is why Trump populism has outcompeted Tea Party libertarians. It’s why he keeps embarrassing neoliberals, whose radicals despise them, too. He is rewarded for playing the strongman in a way that a progressive cannot.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
it's not really Culture War Classic material.
What are you saying has changed? I’m having a hard time finding the Deomcratic Party line—I mostly get results from last summer—but Trump blustering is par for the course.
Look at George W. Plenty of tough talk, minimal actual intervention. There was no reward in the risk. It’s entirely possible that we’re in a similar scenario.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
Maybe they’re being more efficient by getting high-earning jobs in America, then sending that money to fund guerillas?
Effective insurrectionists.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
Any proposed amendment will immediately draw commentary from clout-chasing partisan hacks. Any such hacks will draw countersignals from their opposite numbers. I don’t believe any level of rationalist intent can deter this.
I’m not convinced that scaling down the Senate actually helps, either. We already form subcommittees of 15-30 members. They’re fine at getting stuff to a vote; the perverse incentives come after.
Returning to some form of indirect election is more plausible. If you can’t win a direct election as a moderate, maybe you can win it by getting along with your entire legislature. But isn’t this just as vulnerable to partisanship? If the Speaker of the House elections are any benchmark, asking a bunch of partisans to give you a leader doesn’t get a moderate.
It’s the change to voting rules that does all the work. As I understand it, that doesn’t require an amendment. The Senate can just adopt a different voting schema. I think that’s much more plausible than trying to get national support for a permanent structural change.
But then, I’m rather biased towards Literally Anything But FPTP. So if this gets more states to do STV, approval, anything, I’m in.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
Come down to DFW. It sucks here but there’s a whole lot of STEM work. We’re basically trying to underbid California.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
No, it’s a great example. It’s an inferior good. There’s no direct alternative to natto other than just…not.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4d ago
Escaped from Duckov today. Cute game that makes for a good alternative to the strategy games I usually play. On that front, I keep getting sucked into Total Warhammer now that CA gave me the third game. It’s really the perfect set dressing for the series.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6d ago
Yesterday I wanted to reserve judgment until I saw body cam footage. If ICE was conducting an “enforcement action,” their policy is supposedly to have cameras on. It should make the direction of the car obvious.
I think we started from similar assumptions about the role of the officers. ICE has the funding, the manpower, and the operational initiative. They ought to have a better plan than having some guy stand out on a frozen road. And if that really is the best they can do, they should at least be able to cover their asses. Do it by the book. Show us the book. Release the footage. Not this tight-mouthed bullshit.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6d ago
I got the impression “legal observer” wasn’t a job title, but a claim that she was observing the protest legally.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6d ago
I think it’s someone who bombs both child soldiers and suicides.
Ha. We went in completely different directions with our answers, but yeah, I’d endorse this one.
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