HaroldWilson
1mo ago
It kind of says it all that you're go-to example is a seven-year old story from a third-rate publication. This article was literally famous for the extravagance of the claims within it and the denials from relevant organisations. And you know who published many of those denials? Bloomberg. Perhaps something from the current decade and in an actual prestige publication might be nice - after all if 'virtually every longform article' you read turns out to be a lie it shouldn't be that hard to find reams of examples.
HaroldWilson
1mo ago
If you believe this you probably consume too much low-quality media. Turn off the TV and pick up the Financial Times, Economist or other such prestige publications.
HaroldWilson
1mo ago
More chaotic perhaps. But we're already almost a decade into the MSM's Fine People hoax and it still gets pushed and believed. I find it hard to make a distinction between major political institutions blatantly lying, and an LLM hallucinating information on the receiving end.
Only someone who largely consumes rolling news slop could say this. MSM produces reams of very high quality reporting every day, it's just that no-one cares about it because round-table shouting gets more clicks. If you actually think LLM generated false articles are no different to say, reading the Financial Times or New York Times you are simply wrong. Does the latter (and to a lesser extent the former) embed left-liberal assumptions in a lot of their reporting? Of course, and one should read anything with a critical eye. But they're still pretty good. If you don't want that just read the WSJ instead. These aren't as popular as the slop of course, but that's mostly the fault of the readers/viewers. If one read any of those publications daily or every few days, you would have a more complete and accurate understanding of politics, the economy etc. than probably 99% of the American public.
HaroldWilson
1mo ago
mostly old people died now so low QALY losses compared to say, Spanish flu
He literally talks about this in the post.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
I don't think this line of argument necessarily proves anything about the optimal number of semi-skilled or unskilled workers to have in a country. Clearly that number is above 0 (or you get reverse complementary task specialisation where skilled workers get moved into care work because the wages are get so high that productivity suffers in the long-run) and might depend a lot on how the generous the state is to recent migrant workers. The Qatari economy would probably not be better off if they deported all the South Asian construction workers (even if we were to assume they were entirely free economic agents rather than borderline indentured servants). What the balance is in any given country is just an object-level question you can't reason your way to an answer to.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
I don’t think most of them are valuable to most people
Not vastly in a purely economic sense, but personally I think the way I interact with information, ideas and the world generally is incomparably better off for having studied history at university, in a way I doubt I could have achieved by pure dilettantism. Maybe it isn't the most rational use of national resources, but either way I think it's still one of the developed world's greatest achievements that so many people get the opportunity to have their internal world enriched forever, even if a lot of them don't take it up when they're there.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
writing indigenous studies slop essays
If you are at an elite-ish university like Columbia and you are writing 'slop' essays that is almost certainly entirely your own fault, or at least a failure in your own imagination. Even in the most modish areas the questions they are grappling with are almost always interesting and important, even if one disagrees with the way those questions are presented and the assumptions within them (incidentally, there is nothing examiners love more, no matter their outlook, than answers which 'interrogate' the question set). I doubt there is a single humanities essay/coursework/examination question at Columbia to which an intelligent and engaged student could not engage with in an enriching and interesting way.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
the expected role of women ought to adapt to the circumstances.
I mean, it has? Women's labour force participation is nearly 80% in the 25-54 bracket.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
Elizabeth Warren is not Barack Obama
?
Warren made the initial 2011 speech that Obama was referencing/expanding upon in his 2012 speech, but the whole controversy arose over Obama saying the line.
that ideas matter more than actions.
What does this even mean In context it's just a completely anodyne exposition of the notion that no man is an island. Idk what 'ideas/actions' has to do with it when one of the examples he gave of facilitation of success by govt. is physical infrastructure.
A belief that continues to shape Democratic party policy and campaign strategy.
If this were true one wouldn't have to reach back for a statement from four Presidential campaigns ago. Nobody references 'I'm not concerned about the very poor' do they.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
Degrowth
Get real. Trump has just delivered the most anti-growth policy of the post-war era but Democrats still get this moniker because they, what, don't always acquiesce to tax and spending cuts?
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
This might be more compelling if MAGA ever criticised Trump when he goes the other direction. When the tariffs came out MAGA defended them as sound economic policy. When he backtracked they still defended them as a brilliant negotiating tactic, despite having supported them in substance days before.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
"Fuck you, we did in fact build that"
Some real Obama Derangement Syndrome here. A throwaway line from a campaign speech 13 years ago and people are still mad over it. This is the equivalent of if people were still referencing the Malaise speech all the time in the 90s.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
And everyone fell into lock-step behind him
Initially yes, but not post-debate (Pelosi being the obvious case) and I doubt that happens with Trump.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
Normie Africans name their kids things like ‘John’ or ‘Mary’
Not uniformly. African-origin names are common in many Commonwealth Southern and West African nations.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
TDS
Can this die now? TDS has largely been vindicated over the past four and half years, and especially the past 100 days.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
Oh sure legally but the object-level principle at stake is basically the same - whether or not we should avoid using participation in local legal proceedings as a means of deporting illegal immigrants.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
As others have gestured at, this is just a rehash of the sanctuary cities arguments from Trump 1. The problem with using state courts/police as a convenient piggyback for immigration enforcement is that is encourages illegal immigrants to never show up at court or co-operate with police ever, either for their own minor offences or as witnesses etc.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
"using it as it was meant to be used?"
Fundamentally he seems either deliberately unwilling or simply unable to comprehend that the interviewer is asking about means rather than ends. Saying 'I was elected to close the borders/change our terms of trade' is just a total non-sequitur response to the question 'have you expanded the powers of the presidency'. It would be one thing to say 'I don't care about process, I care about results', but he doesn't say that, he's just talking past the question.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
A tiny portion of my taxes are spent on roads. Having paid my taxes, I feel entitled to use of public roads
Unless you actually live in New York City itself you don't pay for the upkeep of the roads in Manhattan since most are owned and maintained by the NYC Department of Transportation, and the remainder are operated by the state. Why should New Yorkers be forced to subsidise New Jersey suburbanites driving in to use their New York amenities without contributing anything? If you live elsewhere in NYC the objection is more reasonable, but the avenue for those grievances to be aired should be via state and local government, not the federal DoT.
And I notice the contempt and sometimes hatred new urbanists have for suburbanites
Some maybe do but that doesn't make the policy any less sensible just because a minority have an irrational basis for supporting it.
They cannot make me want to live in an apartment downtown or ride a train to work.
Fine. No-one is going to make you. But don't expect everyone else to have to cater to and subsidise your preferences and negative externalities. New York should be run for the benefit of people who live in New York, not for people who hate urban living and want to freeride off the amenities of a great city.
But they could possibly make me too poor to live any other way.
This is just silly and amounts to 'public policy should be geared towards me being able to enjoy the benefits of living in proximity to a great city without a) having to contribute anything and b) being allowed to make life worse for urban residents without paying any compensation'.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
We won't see such a benefit.
Why? It seems unlikely that car journeys are immune to price signals.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
naked attacks on suburbanites by urban enthusiasts
If you like the suburbs so much then don't go to Manhattan, nobody is forcing you to do so.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
s Prima notes, the Supreme Court did not order a result. The courts that have denied 'make easier' efforts as sufficient facilitation are lower courts. Tthe Supreme Court has not specifically weighed in on their ability to demand a result versus an effort.
This is currently a moot point given that the Trump administration hasn't put in any effort whatsoever. If he asks Bukele to send him back and he says no, then we can move to the question of whether that is sufficient attempt at 'facilitation'.
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
“facilitate only to the extent possible”.
This is fair, but Trump has absolutely not met even this lower bar. He hasn't even asked. What 'facilitation' has he attempted?
HaroldWilson
2mo ago
offer Ukraine vague European security guarantees
Well this is the rub really isn't it. For any deal to not be completely worthless to Ukraine, it surely needs some real guarantee against the re-invasion of whatever is left at some future date, which seems to be only provided either by NATO membership or the continuous presence of Western troops in Ukraine as a part of any 'security guarantee'.
That would take forever so to get an idea of what I mean I'll give some examples from a single subgroup, say foreign policy/international affairs (for no particular reason): Foreign Affairs, the Economist, ISW, World Today (Chatham House's magazine), the World Service, Brookings, the aforementioned FT and WSJ, Foreign Policy, JDW etc. etc.
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