ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
No bio...
User ID: 626
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3hr ago
We ask the government to do all sorts of nasty things in service of a more perfect Union. Then we soften the blow by adding constraints. This turns imprisonment, conscription, taxation into routine and predictable processes. Border control ought to be routine and predictable, too.
The only reason these things are routine and predictable is that the overwhelming majority of people go along with them. The moment people starting defecting in numbers, it's over. The numbers don't even need to be large, I remember from my Ancap days people calculating that with as little as 5% of people engaging in a tax protest, the government would be overwhelmed and would have no hope getting the situation under cntrol.
I wish all the Trump / ICE critics would take this into account, and make a few suggestions on how a clearly ideology-based defection should be handled. Right they seem to be assuming the protests would magically disappear, or that they would somehow, equally magically, be self-discrediting.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
15hr ago
I think it's very relevant who pays for it.
I think it's even more relevant for the physical object that you want to buy to actually exist, and to have a willing seller.
Paying for it is the act of an ally, selling that of a neutral. Refusing to sell is hostile, it's siding with Russia - and we haven't even officially ended our alliance yet.
The question was whether or not Europe can defend itself without the US, if the answer is "yes, as long as we're still allied" that doesn't actually answer the "without the US" part.
I don't understand your other question, the argument against appeasement.
You said Russia is not a threat. If it's not a threat, than the argument "if we let them take Ukraine, they'll come for us next" makes absolutely no sense. You can say you don't want to give them Ukraine either way, which is fine, but the argument itself makes zero sense, and yet it was quite common for politicians to use it.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
17hr ago
Trump already did cut support for Ukraine?
I was thinking more about actual hardware, rather than squabbles over who pays for it. You also seemed to have skipped over the other questions I asked.
The politicians are largely dickless and slow to adapt to the new reality, starting with merz
They're detached from reality, and the problem is endemic to the entire elite class of Europe.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
20hr ago
I would have to disagree with this. F really does appear to be better for discussing air temperature, for reasons mentioned by me and others.
If this was the case, I would expect to see a nontrivial amount of people used to C, trying out F for a while as a result of travel, and saying "wow, this really is better".
What we seem to be seeing instead is everyone who grew up in a C regime preferring C, and everyone who grew up in an F regime preferring F, which seems to point to status quo preference.
Fined, probably. Arrested, if they start blocking traffic. Sure, why not?
More options
Context Copy link