Oceans Yet to Burn

ranma-official

unknought

If you’re arguing about whether the U.S. should weaken protections of freedom of speech, I’m likely to find you a lot more persuasive if you examine other Western nations with weaker free speech protections (i.e. most of them) and the observable consequences of that, than if you expound on the most horrifying dystopia that you can imagine resulting from the opposing side.

femmenietzsche

Yeah. As someone who’s innately a free speech absolutist, it’s hard to admit that moderate limits on speech aren’t necessarily very onerous and can be maintained for decades (at least) without spiraling into anything much worse, but it’s pretty obviously true. Doesn’t mean the restrictions pass a cost-benefit test, but it’s pretty obviously true.

rendakuenthusiast

I do actually think that European and Canadians restrictions on speech are already onerous, and American 1st amendment jurisprudence is the one major thing that is genuinely politically superior about the US compared to those countries. I keep seeing stories about the cops being called on people for hate speech tweets in the UK that would be unambiguously constitutionally protected in the US, and thinking I’m glad my servers are here and not there.

If I lived in one of those counties I would consider it politically important to move local law more towards the US model, or barring that preventing effective enforcement of censorship law; since I live in the US, I consider it politically important to prevent the state of 1st amendment law from moving even a little bit in the direction of Europe and Canada (which I agree are not dystopias).

thefutureoneandall

It’s also worth recognizing that with the advent of the internet, European nations get a lot of benefit from American speech protections. There are lots of things put online by Europeans which would be taken down by lawsuit except that they’re hosted in the US.

Of course, European nations were hardly dystopias before that, but things like bringing legal action against critics of Erdogan really do frighten me.

ranma-official

and there are things hosted in Europe that would be taken down within seconds if they were hosted in America. really the internet strongly benefits from hopping around trying to be a neutral waters territory

mitigatedchaos

I hope people realize that having a single, unified, global government is a terrible idea before it gets locked in as inevitable.

It’s actually beneficial to have a diversity of legal regimes. That’s contra much modern Progressivism, though, which pretends to universality.

Source: unknought politics

mutant-aesthetic

politics

reasonandempathy

Source: taliasturm shtpost politics

ranma-official

afloweroutofstone

>“Social democracies like Norway only work because they’re ethnically homogeneous and swimming in oil money”

>Small island nation of Mauritius has highest standard of living in Africa

>No natural resources

>68% Indo-Mauritian, 27% Creole, 5% other

>(Religion also split between Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim)

>Leftist parties make up vast majority of parliament

>Free healthcare and education, including college

>Right-wing Heritage Foundation still lists their economy as 15th “freest” in the world

>Ranked more democratic than the United States by the Economist Intelligence Unit

>mfw

mitigatedchaos

The family planning programs’ success was due to support from the government and eventually the traditionally pronatalist religious communities, which both recognized that controlling population growth was necessary because of Mauritius’ small size and limited resources.

Tight feedback loop, effects of policies more immediately obvious because there is no where to go, and percent control of the polity per person is higher.

Downturns in the sugar and textile industries in the mid-2000s and a lack of highly qualified domestic workers for Mauritius’ growing services sector led to the emigration of low-skilled workers and a reliance on skilled foreign labor.

Hmn, I wonder what impact that might have.

Since 2007, Mauritius has pursued a circular migration program to enable citizens to acquire new skills and savings abroad and then return home to start businesses and to invest in the country’s development.

This is Nationalist. An Internationalist program would involve them leaving the island permanently.

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2016 est.)

Huh. Doesn’t sound like mass migration to me.

Of course, many of the objections to the United States becoming Singapore are based on things like its size, relative concentration of population, and so on. …criticisms which could also apply to Mauritius.

So, OP, do you agree that the United States could become Singapore?

It seems what we have here is not an argument for Open Borders Neoliberal World™, but rather, an argument for small countries which have tight political feedback loops between policy and its effects, and high percentage of political control per person. (Something I have been considering myself.) This means people have to live with the consequences of their political decisions and have the ability to do something about it.

ETA: The real question here is, can we find one of these that’s big? Japan (127M) and Korea (50M) both fare reasonably well despite being over ten times the size of Norway (5M) and for Japan, about 100x the size of Mauritius (1.3M). …but they’re those evil ethnically homogenous type nations we’re all supposed to hate.

Source: afloweroutofstone politics

Cutting budgets does not actually improve programs, and spending more does not necessarily improve programs. Where is the option in which we create better programs?

politics policy

collapsedsquid

inthesetimes.com

BREAKING: Wisconsin May Bring the Koch Brothers One State Closer To Rewriting the Constitution

Legislators are debating whether to call for a constitutional convention, a prize of corporate interest groups.

collapsedsquid

As Simon Davis-Cohen reported for In These Times in 2016, a constitutional convention has long been a prize of corporate interest groups and states-rights advocates. While the Maine House rejected a convention proposal last week, 12 other states have recently applied to hold one. Combined with 16 states that passed resolutions during a conservative push in the 1980s, that brings the total to 28—just six short of the 34 needed to trigger the confab.
As Davis-Cohen documents, ALEC—the Koch-brothers-funded dark money group—has been a major force behind the bills, distributing model legislation to friendly state lawmakers. The group hopes to use the convention to shift power to the states, proposing amendments to “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government” and repeal term limits for federal officials and members of Congress.
ALEC may be close to getting its wishes granted. After the November elections, Republicans now control both legislative chambers in 32 states. In 25 of those states, they also hold the governor’s mansion.

This shit makes me want to find the looniest group of California separatists I can and join them.

mitigatedchaos

Ah, so others are starting to notice that the the Democrats have allowed the Republicans to get within striking distance of constitutional convention.

It does worry me.

But then, what did one expect to happen?

politics

gcu-sovereign

argumate

GiveWell is like a test case for a centrally planned and managed economy; if they can accurately assess the return on investment and direct funding in the most socially profitable direction in a non-market driven way, then that demonstrates that at least some economic activities are amenable to this approach.

gcu-sovereign

Disagree on the first sentence. Givewell’s planning is not substantially different from the planning executed by any ordinary firm, as the crucial distinction between a planned economy and market economy is use of force. Givewell has no guns, interest in using coercive force, or a democratic mandate, therefore it is not a prototype for a managed economy.

mitigatedchaos

The distinction is perhaps more that more unprofitable organizations die and profitable organizations are rewarded. That’s the real magic. Property is defined by control and exclusion through force, that’s how it exists in the real world. Force was not actually removed, just moved a step back - the case with all law.

Source: argumate politics the iron hand the invisible fist

mutant-aesthetic

I know he’s the president

ileneindumbo

but he lies. He never tells the truth. So, why do newspapers put everything he says in the headlines? It’s not true. We know it’s not true and even if some thing true was accidentally said, how would we know?

The boy who cried wolf (in Russian).