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PaperclipPerfector  13d ago (text post)   2713 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Surely the question is whether those political goals are aligned with the country's

Are you implying there's some objective definition of "the country's goals", distinct from its democratically elected leadership? Where does that definition come from?

The claim is that Biden was furthering the US's political goals while Trump was furthering Trump's political goals.

Of course, the partisans always claim they are just worrying for the country and the other guy is only worrying for himself. This is regular political rhetoric and there's no reason to attribute any substance to it.

but that distinction is essential to determining whether an act is corrupt.

Sure, but where that distinction would come from? There's no some magical divine oracle that you can go and ask for "what are the interests of the US" outside of existing democratic procedures, i.e. electing the representatives that would represent those interests. Some people claiming they have exclusive right to represent these interests, outside of the usual processes, are just some people lying.

Are you implying there's some objective definition of "the country's goals", distinct from its democratically elected leadership? Where does that definition come from?

... yes? Sorry, I'm not even seeing how there could possibly be disagreement on that point unless you completely do not believe in the concepts of corruption or embezzlement.

"yes" is not an answer to the question "Where does that definition come from?" If you believe there are some objective "country goals", you should explain who is entitled to set them and how. I mean, "country" can't speak to us and tell us what the goals are. So what is the mechanism by which we know what are the objective "country goals"? How would one make sure, for example, that investigating corruption by somebody named "Donald Trump" aligns with "country goals", but investigating corruption by somebody named "Hunter Biden" contradicts them? Please describe the decision chain here that allows to make an objective decision not reducible to political power balance between competing partisan fractions.

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