We Only Have Hours Left to Stop the NSA Expansion Bill

I agree that biodiversity is a source of joy and education for me, and I'd add that it's also because we know something about ourselves--we know of the insatiability, the psychopathy, and the destructive nature that comes hand-in-hand with classical capitalism. Many of us see our conservation efforts as a necessary opposing force and as a way of saving ourselves from ourselves.

It's hardly so black and white, and people's failure to recognize this and operate in a respectful middle ground is a large factor in our current situation (which is worsening).

We've assimilated so many political positions into our cultural signaling subroutines that almost every issue is seen as "identity politics" nowadays. This occurs by design, because political profiteers are profited by creating clear boogeymen and corralling "their side" by shaming them for even considering the other side's POV.

We need to get back to a political ethos based on mutual respect, and an understanding that the "other side" is not an evil, but rather a check that is necessary to keep things balanced and smooth. Conservative principles do not arise out of the liberal caricatures that Republicans hate the poor, and liberal principles do not arise out of the conservative caricature that Democrats are communists vying for totalitarian economic control.

We cannot see each other as separate tribes and expect to succeed. We have to see each other as people of goodwill, on the same team, working for the same ultimate purposes.

Politics has been commoditized into television entertainment. There is no better indicator of this than TV showman Donald Trump employing those tactics to win the presidency. And like everything else on TV, what start out as mild differences gradually become "Flanders-ized" [0], and we hardly realize it until we look back to see how it was.

There are going to be winners and losers in any political action. That's a reality of political life and it's why we have the carefully-designed representative government systems that we have.

We need to acknowledge and weigh the costs on both sides instead of ignoring one side of the equation and saying "This bill ONLY exists to hurt Class Y!" or "This bill is great and has no negative consequences for anyone!"

Regardless, changes in technology including air travel, telecommunication, and 24-hour live news have permanently shifted our political landscape. We should think about how we can change our processes, our use of this technology, and/or both to ensure that we maintain a coherent and peaceful union, and stop the polarization. Polarization only serves the interests of pirates and opportunists.

[0] http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization

The big question is "damaging to who?"

Laws that give the government broad surveillance power give money and power to defense contractors (reliable political donors), and give power to the political group that currently holds power.

These laws damage freedom for all citizens, and they undercut political opponents.

As such, the laws might be harmful to democracy, but are valued by those who have power and wish to further consolidate it.

You dying at mid 30s instead of living until your 80s and 90s is also a natural thing. It's not desirable just because it's natural.

But putting in practical terms of "what do I have to gain?", let me say this: every species is carrying unique genetic information that we can learn and employ to our advantages. Maybe a particular species doesn't have anything we can use right now, but might have in the future. Letting it be extinct mean we lose that information forever.

Genetic information is like nature's source code. Now imagine we can't write code, we can just use what's already out there. Every time a species dies, it's source code forever lost.

Like... plants in the Amazon forest. A lot of them served as the material for medicine. We used their "source code" to fight diseases, and fix human problems. And we are losing genetic source code we never even had time to analyze yet!

There are animals that can kind of rejuvenate, and they never die of old age. Imagine being able to "steal" their code and use it to make our health better! If they go extinct, we lost that source code. Forever.

There's no going back, no un-extinction. And we can't go to other planets to analyze their animals, since we haven't found alien life yet. All we have is the life that is available, and we're getting rid ot that life fast.

Is that why women and black people can vote, because what citizens think and their voices don't matter?

Is that why gay people can get married in the US (but not in 160 other countries), because what US citizens think doesn't count? (the majority in the US support gay marriage)

Is that why the house and US Senate recently voted almost perfectly in step, overwhelmingly in favor, of rolling back civil asset forfeiture abuses? Congress has nothing to fear from it, they do however know their voters are angry about it.

Is that why the Obama Admin put net neutrality into place, because votes & voices don't matter? It was in fact overwhelmingly demanded by Obama's voters. Votes, of course, matter in a big way as it turns out: had Hillary bothered to fight for the blue wall state voters, we'd still have net neutrality.