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We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

erikmcclure.com

371–380 of 421 posts

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bazelel Smotrich is a fringe right-wing character, reviled by a significant fraction of Israelis and even more so by Jewish people in the US. Along with Itamar Ben-Gvir, he found his way into Netanyahu's cabinet after Netanyahu lost support from a significant chunk of conservative Israelis in the wake of legal scandals, which included a recently-repudiated attempt to disempower Israeli courts in an effort that was in…

I appreciate your context but not really sure what it adds. I know who all the players are and I know how many left-leaning Americans and secular Jews feel about religious people, I think you are presenting a very one sided view of things, but that's not really relevant. I was interested in what johnnyworker was really trying to say, as it's not really coherent at the moment.

My interpretation of their subtext: that you may believe Gaza is/was ruled by Hamas, but it doesn't count, because Netanyahu's governing coalition found Hamas preferable to the PA, to the point where they arranged some amount of funding for Hamas. Thus, in reality, the governing authority of Gaza was Israel.

(I do not buy into this narrative).

I'm only adding this because you said you didn't know what I was trying to add before. It's totally reasonable to want 'johnnyworker to just tell you in their own words what they're trying to say.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#372
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every major operating system has a capability model (eg SELinux or Group Policies). Mobile operating systems have had capabilities from the jump, but still get hacked. (That being said, capabilities are great, we should use them and they do help. If you're not familiar with this pattern, look it up, it's worth knowing.)

I don't believe that Linux capabilities are correctly named. They describe an ambient privilege, whereas capabilities represent explicit authorisation i.e. one invokes a capability to use it, and this is why entire classes of security vulnerabilities aren't possible in true capability-based systems. Unfortunately capabilities have long been misunderstood as equivalent to access control lists, and therefore ignored or…

Hmm, I'm not sure we share an understanding of "ambient." Smartphone permissions are scoped to the app. It's been a while since I've messed with SELinux, but iirc, the rules can be scoped to an executable.

Whereas in my mind, an ambient permission is scoped to a broad category, like a user or group.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#373
post #283
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who buys those useless microwaves? Most gadgets I ever bought were far above legally required minimum requirements. Ie those minimum requirements were not a binding constraint. Why would that suddenly change?

Who said useless? Just not as useful as it used to be.

> Who said useless?

You did?

> Yes, but then we get useless microwaves and in the end dangerous microwaves.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First let me say, I'm not trying to make a policy prescription. I'm pointing out what I thought was a misconception about how terrorism works. But to answer your question, I have absolutely no idea. I follow a military news YouTuber named Ryan McBeth, and something he says that makes sense to me is that effective strategies present adversaries with dilemmas rather than problems, where each option is terrible but you…

When I initially engaged with you in this conversation I did so because you appeared to be discussing things honestly but based on other comments you've made here its clear you are in fact trying to push an agenda that denies reality and instead excuses murder.

Pardon? When did I do that?

Murder is inexcusable. Terrorism is inexcusable. I don't see where I ever implied otherwise.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't think much of my clothing. I've never owned a car. My grooming is minimal, my appearance just doesn't cross my mind. But I do like a nice cookie. I behave selfishly sometimes, no question. Does that really define the entirety of who I am? Why would it define me more than, say, when I feel bored, or when I behave generously, or when I do things on impulse? Afterall, I try to avoid behaving selfishly, so I…

> I try to avoid behaving selfishly Why?

My values include empathy, generosity, and kindness. Selfishness is most often incompatible with those values.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, no, they are not the "ruling body," I think you should revisit the fundamental facts of the situation and reevaluate your perspective. To be frank your comment has a really disturbing undertone of bloodlust. I don't know a nice way to say that. You should really reexamine what your attitudes are here and how you came to them, this is not an appropriate way to discuss the deaths of thousands of people.

Hamas is the ruling body in Gaza.

My mistake. I got them confused with the Palestinian Authority.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you distinguish this from, say, the US which runs a trade deficit of around $1 trillion? Is your problem with Isle of Man the specific industries or businesses that drive revenue there, or the siphoning off of money/labor from other places?

US does the siphoning with quite a different method, mostly by enforcing the petrodollar using the huge military. It could probably use this money a lot better if wellbeing of the citizens is the benchmark. Sleazeball havens like Isle of Man (and many others) by the merit of creating international legal loopholes. West in general siphons off money/labor from other places. Not a fan of these, but this wasn't really th…

They literally just charge a flat tax rate and no corporation tax. It's not really a legal loophole.

There are hoops they make people jump through - if you're a company wanting to relocate then you must have one Manx director. If you're a person then you must actually live there.

The Manx used to make their money from smuggling. This is cleaner.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in a few places around the world. By far the best-run one was the Isle of Man, which (when I lived there) had a population of around 30K. It has an independent parliament (Tynwald, the oldest continuous parliament in the world), and it makes its own laws. The government has very little graft. Politicians seemed to genuinely work for the benefit of their constituents [0]. I always attributed this to the fac…

Is the secret in the running of it? The policies? Or is there a source of funds in the Isle of Man that is not applicable to the rest of the world? Like, if it was applied to the rest of the world the funds would stop going to the Isle of Man? Is there also something not present in the Isle of Man that elsewhere is a sink for money? Something you would have to stop incentivising in other places if you want to have th…

The main thing is that when you impose a tax on people in order to achieve a goal, that income is not then put into the general taxation pool for politicians to spend as they wish, but kept in a separate fund that can only be used to fund the thing it was levied for. If we had more of that we'd have less problems like the NHS.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I try to avoid behaving selfishly Why?

My values include empathy, generosity, and kindness. Selfishness is most often incompatible with those values.

Does that mean you get good feelings from being unselfish?

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#380

If your solution would work except for some reason, then you don’t actually have a solution . A drill that works in space except for all that vacuum and radiation isn’t actually a space drill. It’s a space drill for some alternate reality, meaning the one you’re not actually in. You haven’t solved the problem. You’re not as good of a problem solver as you think you are, sorry. Stop acting like you’ve solved it. You h…

I think it’s worthwhile to be able to say “we could solve the problem if it weren’t for X” so we can talk about why “X” is the way it is.

That is, the job of philosophers is not to solve problems, but to articulate a way of looking at problems which may lead to solutions.

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