tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post5934342526432202175..comments2024-03-29T00:39:31.629-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: The Immigration Fury: one of many cliches you believe - that are “opposite to true”David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6460968098321055262016-10-02T17:05:20.753-07:002016-10-02T17:05:20.753-07:00As far as songs to reference, I think Chumbawamba&...As far as songs to reference, I think Chumbawamba's "Everything you know is wrong" is a better one to reference than Weird Al's. It's more serious and less rampantly silly.<br /><br />But, same basic concept.Triblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16400566702019688897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23585359514589106902015-08-17T00:50:29.752-07:002015-08-17T00:50:29.752-07:00"In fact, Democrats did nearly all of the maj..."In fact, Democrats did nearly all of the major U.S. deregulations of the last century... except in one industry."<br /><br />The repeal of Glass-Steagal was pushed hard by Bill Clinton's economic team, many of which (with vacations at Wall Street or Harvard) became part of Obama's economic team.<br /><br />http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/wall-street-deregulation-clinton-advisers-obama<br /><br />I believe we're screwed most when something is called bipartisan. That's when you know that the whole ruling class is behind it.<br /><br />redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600098550347299095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57181746370657558462014-07-14T11:16:09.881-07:002014-07-14T11:16:09.881-07:00@Brother Nilhil
"Personally I think the Chine...@Brother Nilhil<br />"Personally I think the Chinese have the right idea, laying low and biding their time."<br /><br />You need to read up more on what China is actually doing. Not laying low at all. They are agressively expanding influence into Africa, and into any resources near to the mainland. They've been actively stealing and importing IP for years.<br /><br />@Locumranch<br />"Change is violence..."<br />Some violence is actually violent though. There is the violence of hurt feelings and then there is the violence of clubs, machetes and guns. I don't have that much sympathy for the hurt feelings of the anti-gay marriage folk for example.Gatornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55730486269668711392014-07-12T10:39:51.433-07:002014-07-12T10:39:51.433-07:00Everything you know is wrong, up is down black is ...Everything you know is wrong, up is down black is white and short is long!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-34618852288326126652014-07-10T10:26:05.638-07:002014-07-10T10:26:05.638-07:00onward...onward...David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39489409838619306362014-07-09T20:40:58.577-07:002014-07-09T20:40:58.577-07:00Alex you are a true aficionado!
Sociotard, yes I ...Alex you are a true aficionado!<br />Sociotard, yes I really should find a place to publish my Avatar essay.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15066292408053537002014-07-09T14:32:14.535-07:002014-07-09T14:32:14.535-07:00who died and made you khaleesi: privilege, white s...<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/24/who-died-and-made-you-khaleesi-privilege-white-saviors-and-the-elusive-male-feminist-who-doesn-t-suck.html" rel="nofollow">who died and made you khaleesi: privilege, white saviors, and the elusive male feminist who doesn't suck</a><br /><br /><i>We repeatedly tell stories about a white protagonist who goes on a journey of self-discovery by mingling with exotic brown foreigners and becoming better at said foreigners’ culture than they themselves are. We eat it up in the form of faux-historical epics, splashy science-fiction special effects extravaganzas, and earnest nonfiction projects about writers paid by their publishers to take exotic vacations.<br /><br />The frustrating thing about being annoyed by the Mighty Whitey trope—and there are a ton of people upset— is that it’s so frequently employed by the well-meaning “good guys.” The whole point of “going native” is that the familiar Western civilization is portrayed as inauthentic, ugly, broken, flawed. The “exotic” foreign civilization is somehow more natural, more primal, more sensual, the way people really ought to live. You know, hearing the wolf cry to the blue corn moon, painting with all the colors of the wind, like you do. Even though the Dothraki in Game of Thrones are painted in a decidedly uglier light than the noble savages of Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas, from the beginning they’re certainly more likable than the conniving, hypocritical Lannisters and Tyrells of the Seven Kingdoms.<br /><br />What’s the root of this trope? Is it just that we get sick of living in modern society with McDonald’s and McMansions and mandatory vaccinations so we develop intricate fantasies about how much better life would be if we had to hunt our own food, build our own shelter, and develop our own resistance to dangerous microorganisms?<br /><br />Sure, that’s part of it. But it’s less common that the “bad” Western civilization in these stories is something to be passively fled, a la Eat, Pray, Love. More often it’s an enemy to be actively resisted.</i>sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45436484217814905022014-07-09T14:29:33.195-07:002014-07-09T14:29:33.195-07:00@A F Rey - P Z Myers is taking on Michael Shermer ...@A F Rey - P Z Myers is taking on Michael Shermer from his Sci Am article. It isn't clear to me why this is "shabby <b>Libertarian</b> statistical games" as opposed to just "shabby statistical games".<br /><br />It will be interesting if Sci Am (now owned by Nature) publishes any reader letters criticizing Shermer's article. Certainly the comments on the online version are almost uniformly -ve.<br />Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41169114718498351222014-07-09T13:39:05.848-07:002014-07-09T13:39:05.848-07:00@David Brin - I see you are on speaker list for th...@David Brin - I see you are on speaker list for the planetary society's Lightsail announcement. I look forward to watching the live streaming tonight. <br /><br />As an aside - I was just looking at my copy "Project Solar Sail" (1990) that I have in my Arthur Clarke collection. I only just noticed after all these years that you were the managing editor for that excellent like book. It seems appropriate that you will be at the announcement after all these years.<br /><br />Hope you have a relevant blog posting shortly.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20843614315305213812014-07-09T00:26:57.353-07:002014-07-09T00:26:57.353-07:00CONTINUING...
...science and flat, horizontal str...CONTINUING...<br /><br />...science and flat, horizontal structures and positive sum games... these have been tried, rarely, in the past, but they are clearly abnormal. <br /><br /> Moreover I cannot guarantee they are sane. Certainly the Chinese, Russians, confederates, Shiites, Sunnis and so on all consider the enlightenment west, especially America and especially California, to be completely insane.<br /><br />But is it "arrogant" to point to outcomes? In fact, no society ever accomplished as much. Not COMBINATION of other societies created as much new wealth, raised up so many children out of poverty, around the world, discovered so many truths of nature, delivered as much flat-equal justice, or engendered as much art or fun.<br /><br />We ALL are "arrogant" in praising the things we like and disdaining those we don't. Nihil and locum are welcome to their own very angry and aggressive kinds of arrogance. Subjectivity is a bitch.<br /><br /> But there is one Objective thing and that is measuring outcomes. And by any metric you choose, that can be backed up with statistics and fact... things are vastly better in the world led by Blue America, than any parallel realms where any version of the confederacy prevailed.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72932541200019168872014-07-09T00:19:00.323-07:002014-07-09T00:19:00.323-07:00Jumping jujubes. Anger-addicts will always interp...Jumping jujubes. Anger-addicts will always interpret other people as being similar to them. In fact, I bear no ill will toward my countrymen, for falling for traditional ways of thinking, that were once normal, in 99% of human cultures. Nostalgia, romanticism, traditionalism, loyalty to hierarchy, zero-sum thinking... these are normal. <br /> Our future-oriented notions of open competition/cooperation, negotiated pragmatism, scienceDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56083180394778650482014-07-08T22:47:13.219-07:002014-07-08T22:47:13.219-07:00Like most progressives, most of you are defining t...Like most progressives, most of you are defining the term 'violence' in too limited a sense, partly because you imagine change to be both gentle & gradual even though it is not, meaning that 'change' (even of the most progressive sort) is 'violence' in that it inflicts injury upon the old (majority; order; system) in order to favour the new.<br /><br />Back in the day, Genghis Khan pioneered the newest wrinkle in illegal (underage) immigration: In perhaps the most egregiously violent military technique ever devised, he drove women & children before his invading armies and used the weak & defenseless as a shield to gain entry, advantage and victory.<br /><br />As evidenced by the Declaration of Independence, the Meiji Restoration, the 13th Amendment and the Treaty of Versailles (even TWODA & the Mayday superpac) to name a few, Change is violence, howsoever you choose to define your preference for it. At your own peril, never forget that (1) Violence begets Violence and (2) Push-back is inevitable, the greatest lie being that you commit that violence for someone else's 'own good'.<br /><br />To the tool shed with you, for by whip or by switch, I intend to teach you the error of your ways until you (SMACK) think just like me ... how progressive of me.<br /><br /><br />Best.locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51443333866594400452014-07-08T22:35:15.339-07:002014-07-08T22:35:15.339-07:00The main problem here is something Dr. Brin displa...The main problem here is something Dr. Brin displays in nearly every post: ARROGANCE.<br /> <br />The arrogant “Yankee” desire to meddle in every culture, both domestically and internationally, is what drives most of this hostility toward American elites. I'm not a Tea Partier; I'm educated and I've been all over the world, but I do sympathize with them, as I do with any culture that wants out from under this oppressive American cultural imperialism. What you guys call “progress” is for vast numbers of people on the planet a dystopia. Despite the best efforts of America's cultural-propaganda apparatus to convince the world that history ended with the invention of America progressive capitalist democracy hasn't succeeded. So the battles will rage on, until the Yankee empire finally succumbs to its internal contradictions and unsustainable ideology.<br /><br />Personally I think the Chinese have the right idea, laying low and biding their time. Pax Americana is still strong enough to put a lot of hurt on anyone that gets too uppity. But for how much longer?Brother Nihilnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35377659207783855462014-07-08T20:42:43.156-07:002014-07-08T20:42:43.156-07:00Congrats to Larry Lessig's success on his PAC!...Congrats to Larry Lessig's success on his PAC!<br /><br />I support his goals.<br /><br />My only note is this:<br /><br />My understanding is that "More than 50,000 people have donated $7.6 million to date." <br /><br />http://time.com/2967157/lawrence-lessig-campaign-finance/<br /><br />And this is a good thing... Clearly many people want to see reform.<br /><br />But from these rough figures that an average contribution of $152. <br /><br />(the distribution would be helpful but I suspect that there were some biggies in there)<br /><br />There's nothing wrong with that... but I note that he also suggests a need for systems for small donations.<br /><br />Whether its 25 cents or $1 or whatever... a one-click capability will make a huge different in click-through and therefore levels and frequency of participation.<br /><br />And perhaps even more importantly, I believe it alters the belief of the individual in their ability to (even in some small way)influence how they are governed... which is lacking without that belief that they and their fellows "add up to something".<br /><br />Again congrats... I'd just like to see him aware of (and hopefully supportive of) a one-click contribution method as part of such a system.<br /><br />Which as you know can have other interesting potential uses as in journalism.<br /><br />Connecting it to a utility in politics may be useful in moving it forward for these other purposes as well.Tom Crowlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04444476865484424912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36240567145463479702014-07-08T20:11:25.255-07:002014-07-08T20:11:25.255-07:00Guys please don't use "tea baggers."...Guys please don't use "tea baggers." It just ain't necessary. It is enough to know the irony, that the Tea Party consists mostly of confederates who believe in owner-lordship. In 1776 they would be the tories, loyal to king and the barons.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39094250134040238642014-07-08T18:58:49.270-07:002014-07-08T18:58:49.270-07:00Brother Nihil:
Show me a successful political mov...Brother Nihil:<br /><i><br />Show me a successful political movement that didn't have the threat of violence behind it.<br /></i><br /><br />First of all, how about gay rights?<br /><br />More to the point, you are willfully equating violence as a reaction to opression with violence in <b>service</b> of oppression. You're essentially arguing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws for the cheating scum--they have the right to use violence to "defend" themselves against their victims whose understandable reaction to their cheating threatens their well-being.<br /><br />Meh!LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69389210458061767972014-07-08T18:43:17.373-07:002014-07-08T18:43:17.373-07:00Brother Nihil:
The reality is that this demograph...Brother Nihil:<br /><i><br />The reality is that this demographic is under a relentless assault by almost the entire American elite class, but if you haven't walked in their shoes, you probably don't see it. It's a two-way street; they are attacking those who attack them. <br /><br />The vile treatment of "tea baggers" by people in the liberal media should make this all-too apparent. It's a legitimate revolt by people who have been ignored and denigrated for a long time.<br /></i><br /><br />"I know you are, but what am I?"<br /><br />I suppose that if I walked in the shoes of the privileged class, I would understand that it's not enough to have <b>most</b> of the games rigged in my favor--that any attempt to level the playing field is an attack on me. Then maybe I'd understand why Tea Party types can feel abused by the media when every news outlet (not just FOX) fall over themselves to report on a gathering of 300 or so Teabaggers and let pro-union rallies of thousands in Wisconsin go unreported. Maybe I'd understand how cities and states all over this country enshrine Christian supremacy into law and not a single one does so for Jewish or Muslim or Hindu (let alone atheist) sensibilities, and yet Christians can feel themselves to be a beleagured minority fighting for survival.<br /><br />But that's the right-wing strategy these days--turn everything around so that "standing for a level playing field" becomes an <b>attack</b> on the cheaters, collective resistance to bullying becomes an <b>attack</b> on the bullies' <b>freedom</b>, and a rising tide that lifts all boats means that the boats actually owe rent to those who claim <b>ownership</b> of the tide.<br /><br />Nothing new here.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43860382120787821012014-07-08T18:16:25.677-07:002014-07-08T18:16:25.677-07:00At the risk of both prolonguing things past their ...At the risk of both prolonguing things past their best-before date here <i>and</i> arrogantly speaking in defense of those who can speak for themselves perfectly well: Dr. Brin is <i>not</i> going to admit any such thing because it wouldn't be true. <br /><br />(Just thought of a third risk I'm taking here: that I'm replying to an act of sarcasm. Acceptable risk, and one previously survived.)Dwight Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14389833479219422837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-5272993474242259902014-07-08T17:54:21.313-07:002014-07-08T17:54:21.313-07:00Brin, why don't you just admit you're a Co...Brin, why don't you just admit you're a Communist. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44813896439194933442014-07-08T17:53:26.640-07:002014-07-08T17:53:26.640-07:00The Mexicans were challenged by the building codes...The Mexicans were challenged by the building codes. Say what you like about North Carolina but Charlotte fully integrated with the International Building Code (primarily a U.S. effort.)<br /><br />The thing that's dying is ignorance in all scurrying forms. Nowadays you can find on Wikipedia 100 ways dishonest rhetoricians skew debates. I love this access.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64678677434678628292014-07-08T15:49:39.031-07:002014-07-08T15:49:39.031-07:00I suspect there is a non-violent way out of the cu...I suspect there is a non-violent way out of the culture war, but it takes time. It is the Hapsburg path to assimilation and the more we implement it, the more the loser in the fight should splinter into those who recongize the need to surrender and those who turn to fundamentalism.<br /><br />We out-number them. Marry them and compete for how their children are raised.Alfred Differnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80923045838178219242014-07-08T11:09:31.132-07:002014-07-08T11:09:31.132-07:00Dang, Matthew, you are on, today.
In fact, I have...Dang, Matthew, you are on, today.<br /><br />In fact, I have long felt that one key driver of culture war has been fellows like you. In small towns across America, the high school is the center of life. And everyJune, at graduation, rural folk must watch the brightest sons and daughter hug friends... then skip town for the bright lights and (almost) never come back. <br /><br />That implicit rebuke must sting! I believe it underlies the War on Science that has become hatred of all smartypants.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71604772543723632002014-07-08T10:48:56.404-07:002014-07-08T10:48:56.404-07:00This is one I missed, pointed out by Phil Plat at ...This is one I missed, pointed out by Phil Plat at Slate. In late May, the Republicans in the House put an amendment in the Defense Spending Authorization Bill that forbids the Defense Department from spending any money preparing for the political consequences of climate change. <br /><br />http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/22/3440827/mckinley-climate-pentagon-climate-change/<br /><br />The Bill is now in the Senate.<br /><br />Our military wargames all kinds of scenarios. Preparedness is part of the job of our military planners, and having a plan prepared is the first step to winning a fight. I expect that somewhere the US military has a plan to deal with a threat from just about any conceivable direction. Oh, but not waves of hungry and thirsty refugees from all over the world, not that. We cannot plan for that contingency. <br /><br />Absolute treason. Ideologically-driven treason. There are no words to describe the depth of maliciousness at work here. <br /><br /> matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45598279703537847502014-07-08T10:26:37.582-07:002014-07-08T10:26:37.582-07:00Brother Nihil says "The reality is that this ...Brother Nihil says "The reality is that this demographic is under a relentless assault by almost the entire American elite class, but if you haven't walked in their shoes, you probably don't see it."<br /><br />Well, I was raised around white supremacist survivalist types as a kid. David would call them "Holnists" in The Postman, and put their dark homeland in southern Oregon. I grew up in that exact tribe, in that exact place. At 12 years old my left ear was pierced using an Hudson's' Bay awl when I got my mountain man name. David got a lot of the details just right in his dystopia. <br /><br />I lived my teenage years in rancher country on the border between New Mexico and Texas. I heard people griping about BLM grazing fees 30 years before Fox tried to make it a cause. Sovereign citizens, jury nullification, militia freemen. I heard it all growing up. You are re-hashing arguments I first heard and rejected many many years ago. <br /><br />I have "walked in their shoes." That does not change that theirs IS a dying culture, obsessed with a past that never was, blind to a future of possibilities and very real new threats. My personal estimation is that DB's reciprocal transparency is our best hope for a free future. That's why I am here now, spending my time answering you, Brother N. <br /><br />Does my calling a culture "dying" represent a threat of violence? I left that culture behind. Lots of us have. I don't remember doing any violence on the way out the door. I voted with my feet as Heinlein would say. <br /><br />What a nerve the right wing has! Taking up arms against your fellow citizens. Threatening to break all the toys rather than share. Spouting crap about no political movements succeeding without the threat of force. What a bunch of weak losers. Even with a bankroll the size of the resource extraction industry they are losing the fight of public opinion. Not because of any "elites," but because of the work of one million preschool teachers telling us that we must learn to share. <br /><br />So, we come back to the threat of force. "If you won't let me live in my fantasy world, I'm gonna shoot you." Oh, just grow up. Seriously. Before the adults have to deal with your problems in a very stern manner.matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70811641851590077192014-07-08T07:43:59.398-07:002014-07-08T07:43:59.398-07:00When you guys casually say things like "their...<i>When you guys casually say things like "their dying culture" and suggest that an entire demographic is doomed, as leftists love to do these days, it's a statement of violence.</i><br /><br />When you speak about a dying culture, you first have to determine what is killing it.<br /><br />While you like to tell yourself it is oppression from the "elites," it could be something far more fundamental. It could simply be that reality is driving people away.<br /><br />Climate change denialism, evolution denialism, extreme capitalism, extreme gun control opposition--all of these positions fly in the face of facts. People will drift away when they realize that these things are not as true as they've been told.<br /><br />Worse, the hard line on these issues tend to disenfranchise those that don't adhere to every party line. The way Eric Cantor, a strong conservative, was tossed out for not being conservative enough is an excellent example.<br /><br />The current conservative culture is going to die, not because of any imposition of will from outside the movement, but from the weakness of the movement itself. From its delusions about reality, and from its absolute demands of strict adherence to all of its principles.<br /><br />Violence isn't causing that. And violence can't stop it.A.F. Reynoreply@blogger.com