381–390 of 587 posts
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The fact that people who by all appearances are intelligent human beings, could post things like this... Nero plays his cithara. I am at a loss for words. I guess the real problem with propaganda is getting high on your own supply. edit: As an example, the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference was a decision against un-elected officials making government calls, instead of the law makers, aka Congress. Now, just…
You should read some books on history and foreign affairs. Most of the world hates the “liberal international order” because it’s an excuse for the U.S. to impose its values on the rest of the world. DOGE revealed that USAID was funding political unrest in my home country (where activists recently overthrew the government). The U.S. has finally turned a corner on it only because the deep staters started turning that…
Some of this is bad (war on terror), some of this is good (liberal democracy), and ultimately if you don't like a liberal international order wait until you see what the illiberal one looks like (e.g. Chinese overseas police stations).
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We'll be very lucky if it's a lost decade. One of the many factors that made the US a technical powerhouse were the long threads across disciplines where people could do focused research. you had to reapply for grants but generally could be sure that important programs would stay in place. This breaks all of that. It seems poised to break research as we know it. As one of the many researchers that will likely lose th…
And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?
We’ve been dealing with our own extreme right parties for the past 20-30 years. They generally bounce between 10-25% of the vote depending on where in the political cycle they are. Like all parties do.
Never enough to dictate policy, but enough to influence when at the top of their cycle.
Compare with the US where only ~25% is needed to take over a party due to abysmal turnouts and electoral system.
These 25% can then win an election allowing the extreme right to dictate policy, as we now see in the US.
Notwithstanding the other awful aspects of all of this, there’s a certain vibe of, “people who don’t understand how a system works attempting to act like they know how the system works and are too cowardly to admit they are breaking everything.” This just reads like “Character Limit” except replace Twitter with the federal government.
It reminds me of the Gordian knot myth. All these sages had tried and failed to untie it. Alexander the Great, a true jock, sliced it in half with his sword. Trump and Musk style themselves after Alexander. They see the complexities of geopolitics, security, culture and economics, and they have contempt for that complexity. They give simple, brutal solutions for hard problems: War in Europe? Force Ukraine to surrende…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact that people who by all appearances are intelligent human beings, could post things like this... Nero plays his cithara. I am at a loss for words. I guess the real problem with propaganda is getting high on your own supply. edit: As an example, the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference was a decision against un-elected officials making government calls, instead of the law makers, aka Congress. Now, just…
You should read some books on history and foreign affairs. Most of the world hates the “liberal international order” because it’s an excuse for the U.S. to impose its values on the rest of the world. DOGE revealed that USAID was funding political unrest in my home country (where activists recently overthrew the government). The U.S. has finally turned a corner on it only because the deep staters started turning that…
I used to laugh at the idea of a “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, but now I’m not so sure anymore.
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... which has been allowed and caused by the Republican congressional obstructionism going on since the 90's. Bush, Obama, and Biden could have reduced their own use of executive power, but they couldn't undo it - rather it was Congress that would have had to reign them in and shrink executive power. Just as the current Congress is ultimately allowing Trump's ongoing authoritarian power grabs, rather than passing law…
Are you arguing that only Republicans have controlled Congress singe Bush Jr was in office? Or that Congress held primary decision making authority behind the number of executive orders signed by presidents since then?
Republicans have been able to stop congress from doing anything they didn't like since... 2010.
They can't even get their shit together to pass legislature when they control congress, but they've always been able to prevent it from passing legislature, or exercising oversight. Just like they are doing right now.
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And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?
Given that European countries and the EU except a few outliers runs on proportional representation it is way harder for the extreme right to win a majority. We’ve been dealing with our own extreme right parties for the past 20-30 years. They generally bounce between 10-25% of the vote depending on where in the political cycle they are. Like all parties do. Never enough to dictate policy, but enough to influence when…
Harder, but it still happens. That's why Trump is a big fan of Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party:
Fidesz won a supermajority in the 2010 election, adopted national-conservative policies, shifted further to the right and became Eurosceptic. The 2011 adoption of a new Hungarian constitution was highly controversial as it consolidated power with Fidesz. Having set Hungary on a path of democratic backsliding, its majority of seats remained after the 2014 election, and following the escalation of the migrant crisis, Fidesz began using right-wing populist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Following the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, it currently holds a majority in the National Assembly with 135 seats. It has also held the presidency since 2010, has endorsed the election of every president since 2000, and it enjoys majorities in all 19 county assemblies, while being in opposition in the General Assembly of Budapest. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidesz)
Let's see how the United States will look like in 15 year's time...
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It's a good thing you are "starting to settle" 2025. I mean before 2020 they disbanded federal bodies for pandemic prep and look what happened.
Still, "never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".
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And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?
Populism requires that you're popular. Brexit clones were extremely popular for the right across Europe right up until Brexit actually happened, and then suddenly they all remembered they'd never wanted anything to do with such a stupid plan and began scrubbing praise for it from their materials, back to "reform" and tinkering at the edges. The trick is to be First. You can sell "Just do X and it'll be great" unless…
TBF, Brexit was a particularly bad idea because of the Northern Ireland situation, so others can still feed the illusion that their *exit would be "cleaner"...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?
Populism requires that you're popular. Brexit clones were extremely popular for the right across Europe right up until Brexit actually happened, and then suddenly they all remembered they'd never wanted anything to do with such a stupid plan and began scrubbing praise for it from their materials, back to "reform" and tinkering at the edges. The trick is to be First. You can sell "Just do X and it'll be great" unless…
Why is Brexit perceived so badly in the EU? Economically the UK has done about as well or better than the other big European economies.