HughCaulk
12d ago
Yeah that’s awful. A reasonable compromise here would be giving people who’ve been here for a certain amount of time amnesty and a green card. Hard to support this
HughCaulk
20d ago
Security guarantees are how we got WWII and likely how we will get WWIII. You basically outsource your decision making power to wage war to foreign states, that’s idiotic. Especially when the foreign state is (was) regarded as the most corrupt westernized state in the world (Ukraine).
I also wouldn’t support EU nuke program. It will lead to major proliferation of nuclear bombs when the EU inevitably breaks up; now all the random countries in that union get a few bombs each? Yikes…
HughCaulk
20d ago
Sure, but at least states have competition. If some state has bad policy, people will leave to a better managed one. I strongly believe in competition and some sort of free market here, where bad states fail, good ones succeed and grow, and then regimes will change and improve in bad states.
Not even about social security, what about all this immoral shit that the government does, or corporations use government to do? Like regime changes, war mongering (and how fucking profitable war is), immunity for vaccine manufacturers, all this is shady as fuck and the right seems bent on tearing it down and stopping left-wing grifts. When the left gets in power, I’d love to see them reveal and tear down right wing grifts (there are many) and after a few cycles of this, government is dramatically smaller, less grifty, and more moral.
HughCaulk
20d ago
Obviously not 100% of people will be convinced but this does a lot to discredit the legitimacy and even constitutionality of our current government. If the government is only legit when progressives win, well it’s not legit about half the time. So you’re halfway there.
To correct for this, some will want to rig elections so that their side can’t lose. Well doesn’t that make it even less legit for everyone else?
Finally, there are other forms of government or organization that are not extremely top-down federal level OR full corporatocracy. State, local level? The Federal level is fucked and a money grab, we can all see this.
HughCaulk
20d ago
Great post. As someone that leans more libertarian, it does seem like government programs do more harm than good, especially w.r.t. second order effects and longer term unintended consequences (ie: nanny and welfare state slowly destroying the family unit, esp in poorer communities).
So yes, Musk, Trump et al. acting brash, irrational, and abusing power might be a great thing, if it reduces the government loving progressive caucus’ trust in the whole apparatus.
HughCaulk
25d ago
Yeah these Trump hysteria takes are so weird and just discredits the left and Trump opposition.
There are obvious negatives to deploying large amts of troops to the border and in southern states. But let’s debate that, not immediate jump to him suspending elections?
Its so dumb and you just push people away from supporting your side when you’re inevitably wrong, again
HughCaulk
26d ago
Canada seems to have a much more reasonable immigration policy. Generally it’s based on a points system right? And in BC it’s a lot of high skilled Chinese and other Asian workers who bring a lot of money and investment. Vancouver looks nicer than any American city. Sure there are some drugged out homeless but we are talking about a west coast city here…
UK seems in a death spiral. Punishing taxes, industry hollowed out, and not sure what their obsession is with Muslim immigrants but I hope the transition from their old demographics to the new is at least peaceful.
Another major issue with the UK is the serious brain drain to the US. Any smart or high achieving Brit leaves for the states. Likely all the (mildly) conservative ones too. So you get a socialist hell hole with vanishing middle class jobs
HughCaulk
26d ago
I mean it’s literally true that most European countries don’t have much of a military or military equipment manufacturing, no? Europe is grand standing that they are going to keep this Ukraine stalemate “war” going, but lack the equipment and soldiers necessary to do so (as Ukraine seems to just be running out of men).
Is the truth insulting? Then perhaps European countries should spend less on welfare and more on their militaries (as they are obligated to do under NATO). If they aren’t willing to do that, then give up on Ukraine and make a peace deal.
HughCaulk
27d ago
Seems like he took office with the goal of ending the war (something his supporters loved on the campaign trail). And he’s willing to turn some screws to get this deal done. Doesn’t really seem impulsive, since he talked about ending this crazy war for the last year.
Crazy how Trump is compared by libs to Hitler, meanwhile he’s already ended the Gaza thing, and likely to get his way here and end this horribly destructive war shortly.
Real question is: how much have American weapons companies and Ukrainian oligarchs profited off this war already?
HughCaulk
28d ago
Yeah agree. Surprised you don’t see this mentioned more. Ukraine used to be ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and now we are sending them hundreds of billions of aid dollars?
Surely Z and his top guys have hundreds of millions to billions stashed away in offshore accts by now
HughCaulk
29d ago
No I truly believe euros think that “hate speech” doesn’t qualify for free speech protections and that insulting a politician is acceptably “hateful”.
I think it will keep getting worse and worse there until the euros completely freak out and swing towards ethno-nationalism, remilitarize and start WWIII. Doesn’t seem like they are good at moderating their political fads and always bring it too far in one direction
HughCaulk
30d ago
I think Vance’s speech was more for Americans back home. As an “American back home” it was pretty epic and satisfying. Euros do need a wake up call. We are expected to contribute more than required to NATO, and the countries we are allied with don’t even support our most basic freedom of free speech? I’m not sure about that anymore…
HughCaulk
30d ago
The UK seems to be in a really horrible and sad spot. Personally I would leave. From banning encryption, kitchen knives, to spending the money from an outrageous tax system on bringing in Muslims who don’t care a lick about western society. The weather isn’t even pleasant!
Is this was happens in Europe though? You go from turbo hivemind cucked socialism and then going to swing aggressively right into strong ethno-nationalism and provoke WWIII? History would make that seem so
HughCaulk
30d ago
Good observation and a wild one. Humans clearly get a high from moralizing and climbing social hierarchies (ie: “own the libs”) versus actually achieving more material or physically grounded success.
His example of taxes is a good one. Especially on the west coast, most people think logically that taxes are too high, they make the cost of living extremely difficult in California, etc. But when it comes time to actually endorse or vote for a new tax hike, the moral framing is like catnip and people cannot resist. More money for schools! Homeless need housing! Screw the 1%!
From an evolutionary perspective, it must be such that “status in tribe” > “status of physical possessions”, since this trait seems engrained in nearly everyone, to varying degrees.
Climbing the social ladder is truly the most Lindy conflict game that exists
HughCaulk
1mo ago
I think the immense propaganda to get vaccinated and stfu should tell you something, and a curious rationalist should wonder why there is this pressure for vaccines and no other medical intervention or medicine?
If I say “I don’t believe in antibiotics, I won’t be giving my kids any” generally people are like “lol weird but ok”. “I don’t believe in braces, teeth with straighten themselves out over time” … “haha ok good luck”
Why is it totally different about vaccines? I believe it’s because there are way more side effects than stated, and pharmaceutical companies make more money than god by mandating they go into everyone’s arm starting from birth. Therefore requiring heavy propaganda and narrative control campaigns.
Last thing I’ll say: clearly you are the type of person who strongly enforces the “right” point of view and socially polices other people’s takes on vaccines. If I had a vaccine side effect and you were my friend, I’d probably be mum about it
HughCaulk
1mo ago
I think you can use this sort of pseudo-science to justify vaccines post hoc. You can also use the same pseudo-science to justify not taking them at all.
I know quite a few people who got lasting side effects from the Covid vax, and it’s nearly heretical to talk about it. (These are people I know IRL, not internet reports) That alone makes me extremely skeptical about anyone saying how there are ~zero risks from any and all vaccines. Why is there a giant propaganda campaign to cover up the risks? Am I just some crazy statistical outlier who knows 3+ people very closely who’ve been vaccine maimed, even though it “hardly ever occurs” in the general population? I wouldn’t bet on that
HughCaulk
1mo ago
Twitter turned into giga rage bait recently. Avoid! I say this as someone mildly sympathetic to many current day right wing causes too…
These social media apps need to have user-customizable algorithms. I want to see mostly non-political niche hobby content. Not mass engagement rage slop. I’m sure in the short term this maximizes user-seconds, but at some point people just quit. Does anyone really need to be on twitter?
HughCaulk
1mo ago
” the real community of rationalists has a high fraction of people who are not quite the independent thinkers resilient to social pressure they make themselves out to be“
… just figuring this out? I love the rationalist movement and read a lot of blogs/forums, but it totally falls apart once they start dealing with anything politically charged or that’s socially highly controversial.
A good example is Scott Alexander’s post after the election, where he basically said “I adamantly refuse to believe polymarket was correct by giving odds at 60-40 and the true odds were 50-50” really showed this to me. After the biggest right wing blow out election in recent history, you can’t accept one party had the odds going into it?
…anyways, many such examples, but it’s important to see this movement for what it is. Just so happened that the Rationalists, from Berkeley, rationally thought themselves into taking left wing stances on most all the controversial issues of ours time… right
100% this
Private organization clearly does not mean what I think it means if you are funded wholly from public funds. “Independent” lol, how can I get one of these organizations for myself?
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