Spyke

Replies

Comment on

Stock market plummets as Trump announces new tariff war

Reply in thread

We don’t want to do it but it is the only way to deal with a bully. I think tariffs are bad for the people of the country that levies them. If another country puts a tariff on things my country sells, I'm for unilaterally disarming. Let the other country's people enjoy the dubious industry-protecting benefits of that tax, and let us enjoy the benefits of buying whatever is a good deal.

I think it's nonsense to think that when people freely trade money for goods, the person receiving the money "wins" and the person receiving the goods "loses". They made the trade because it was good for both parties.

I'm American, and we're pursing the opposite of what I think is good policy.

news

Comment on

Federal officer blasts chemical spray into vocal but nonviolent Portland protester, video shows

Reply in thread

ICE is trying to incite a riot in order to justify having the army flatten Portland

Or to justify bringing more military for law enforcement to normalize that and allow the president to declare martial law for political reasons. This is playing with fire. It's hard to imagine a future president worse than Trump, but it's possible, and citizens, local police, and possibly National Guard or military units could resist them militarily, and then we're at civil war, which would be nightmare for everyone.

Comment on

Second "No Kings Day" protests likely the largest single-day political demonstration since 1970, with 5.5-8.7 million participants

Reply in thread

So, roughly a little less than 2% of the country protested. Awesome.

I think that's actually a lot. It's around 4.5% of voters. Just under half of voters voted from Trump, although some of them may have changed their minds since the election. There are some people who aren't into demonstrating on the streets. There is always some percentage of people with something else going on. For example, my teenagers didn't go because they had both run grueling races yesterday morning. My wife and I were at risk of being late because we went to a neighboring city yesterday morning to watch our kids race and because the roads and bus system were overwhelmed with people going to the demonstration and to the Badgers game, but when we arrived thousands of people were still pouring onto East Wash (the main road the Square).

That was just our life. I'm sure someone else's kid had a big race or performance that did conflict, or their parent just received a bad medical diagnosis, or they had to work, or they're in the middle of moving house. 4.5% of voters getting out and marching is a lot.

Comment on

Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek: It has lessons for today's techno-optimists

On the other side of this, there is the Deep Space Nine episode In the Cards. Nog, a Ferengi, helps Jake do work in exchange for things that people want. Then take some risks, buying stuff they don't know if they can sell, and end up makings some trades that gets people what they want, so Jake can get what he wants. In the end there's a montage showing everyone ends up happier.

So people did work freely. People paid them freely. They took a risk with some of their gains to buy things they hoped might meet someone else's needs, with the hope of making mutually beneficial change. In the end, people served one another freely, not based on guilt or coercion, and everyone ended up with more of what they wanted. That's a world most people want to live in.

Comment on

YouTube shorts disproportionately promotes alt-right content according to this experiment

Reply in thread

We need to find a way to teach people to sort out information, to put their immediate emotions on pause and search for information

This entire comment and @[email protected]'s comments are so powerful.

I think people have two modes of getting information: digging into a newspaper article and trying to figure out what's going on and seeing a lurid headline in the tabloid rack. Most people do both ends of the spectrum and a lot of in-between. Modern technology lends itself to giving tabloid-like content while we're waiting in line for a minute. This is why Tiktok is concerned about being removed from the app store, even though it's easy to install the app yourself, easier than signing up for a newspaper delivery subscription was. But Tiktok isn't more like a lurid tabloid that most people would not go two steps out of their way to find, but they might read it waiting in a slow line. I'm hopeful that people will learn to manage the new technology and not keep being influenced by tabloid entertainment.

Comment on

Welcome to Electronics

Reply in thread

I used to think emojis were odd, but now I really like them. They are so clear. I can't read emotions from faces, except for emotional vs not emotional. But emojis are easier. I wish people looked more like emojis. 😊

Comment on

The More You Have, the Less You Fight

All of these groups, academia, the wealthy, attorneys, union members, leadership at public companies are all just people. You can't look at the actions of members of those groups and dismiss everyone in them. It's not a question of those groups or people. There are just people who have to have to support liberal democracy.

So far the political instability has not affected personal finance, but it will if we (everyone without regard to group membership) don't respect basic rights and the law.