zeke5123a
4mo ago
Not saying you’re wrong but a few explanations:
-
Some firms may believe its existential and therefore even if costs are high and odds of success are low the cost of losing is too high.
-
Right now, the market is rewarding them for the spending. So even if they internally question the wisdom, stock price goes up and the decision makers get bonuses.
-
One tech company has somewhat called bullshit. They sit in Cupertino. Maybe they’ve since changed but my understanding is they still call bullshit.
zeke5123a
4mo ago
I’m skeptical but you may be right. See the market the last week.
But even the market isn’t really where you are.
zeke5123a
4mo ago
Seems like there could be more to the story. How would they have met? Did the relationship begin earlier and they just went “official” after she graduated?
zeke5123a
5mo ago
I think military attacking purely a civilian target is terrorism. I think an irregular force attacking a military target probably isn’t terrorism.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
As I mention below, bright line rules are easy to state but are over and under inclusive. Just because a standard has fuzziness doesn’t mean it’s worse than a bright line rule which isn’t fuzzy but doesn’t get at the nature of what people are asking.
I think there might be two tests I would use.
The vacation test: if you are abroad and a non government person asks “what are you” do you respond American or something else (eg Puerto Rican)
The second is if the U.S. was in a hotly contested war would you strongly take up its defense?
I think the combo of the two are helpful.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
So is citizenship. Take your example except the baby is born across the border. The baby then spends the rest of its life outside the U.S. Based on your view, the person is American despite functionally never living in the U.S. That seems absurd prima facie. Bright line rules are in fact over and under inclusive. Standards are mushy but avoid these edge cases somewhat.
For what it’s worth, I’m largely against mass immigration because they don’t assimilate. But I’m okay with immigration when they do. One of my close friends is an Eastern European immigrant. She married an American and is raising her kids American. But for an accent, you wouldn’t know she wasn’t born here. That’s a success story. Quality learing is the opposite.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
Do you know that Puerto Rico has their own parallel tax system? General federal income tax doesn’t apply to them. You keep harping on this concept that because PR is a territory of the U.S. it is just like any other area of the U.S.
It isn’t. It’s different. It is a possession of the U.S. And the people there have a foreign culture to the central American culture.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
I do not contest he is an American citizen. I contest that he is an any sense part of the American nation.
He doesn’t share American values. He doesn’t share American traditions. He sings in Spanish.
I wouldn’t trust that he’d fight for America if push came to shove. And if the American experiment failed, he be happy to live in PR.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
No. Trans people took a defined word rooted in biology and tried to redefine it.
If you asked someone say 5 years to define an American how many would say:
-
Supports PR independence
-
Speaks Spanish, not English
-
Routinely complains about America.
These are about the exact opposite of what most people would think of when you conjure up an American. In fact, I’d say the one claiming that the people above are American are more like trans folk claiming biological reality is immaterial.
But to really test your point, imagine two U.S. citizens have a baby and live in say Israel. And that baby grows up and married someone who similarly was born to two U.S. citizens yet lived in Israel his or her whole life. That new couple had a baby.
Legally the grandchild could be a U.S. citizen. But the child is in no way American.
This is a bit of a toy example but it is trying to separate out “Americanness” from “legal status.”
zeke5123a
5mo ago
AO isn’t even the GOAT of his generation. Crosby is better. Neither come close to the Great One or Mario. Crosby might work his way past Mr Hockey and Orr. McDavid may pass Crosby in the end.
AO was great but pretty one dimensional with limited playoff success. He is more Jagr tier.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
And they have power in Canada. Puerto Rico is a conquered controlled land. It would be more akin to Ireland under British rule compared to modern French Canadian.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
You claim that most normie Americans think of PR as American. Do you have any evidence for that claim? I highly doubt it.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
Stop pretending not to understand what people mean. Puerto Rico legally is an American territory but it isn’t culturally America (and they’ve had many complaints about being not their own country). Super Bowl is culturally America. Bad Bunny was representing a defiance towards America notwithstanding that technically his “country” is controlled by the U.S.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
Puerto Ricans aren’t culturally Americans. Hell they have their own teams in the Olympics if memory serves.
This clapback is confusing passport with culture.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
This just seems like purposeful misreading of my comments. Yes Bad Bunny is technically an American citizen. But he isn’t American culturally. He sings in Spanish. He views America almost like a militant LATAM.
It isn’t my America (of course Bad Bunny thinks America is everything in the new world and Americans are being narcissistic to label themselves as the only Americans). It isn’t the America I grew up in.
And I’m supposed to be happy if he replaces my America with his vision because he says people can achieve their dreams?
zeke5123a
5mo ago
It was defiantly anti assimilation and pro replacement. It is really hard to ignore the Straussian read here.
An economic union with people who at best are indifferent is one I’m not interested in especially when we don’t need the immigrants. I like America. I like Americana. I unapologetically like things like Walt Disney World, cheeseburgers, and the Fourth of July. I love our reverence for our founding fathers and considered the founding documents incredibly thought provoking re political economy (eg Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers should be read by every high school class). I always feel something when I walk through the Mall. If I’m asked to give it up, the question is why. I’m far from convinced peculiarly we are enriched by LATAM immigration and I am very convinced whatever pecuniary benefits are not worth the cost of giving up the culture I grew up with.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
I don’t mostly pet ad hominems. I just find it beyond rich that you are gloating about people’s forecasting opinion when you were taken in by the most obviously bad forecast. Glass house and all.
In fact you blocked me for pointing out your failure of forecasting due to your worldview.
zeke5123a
5mo ago
You fell head over heels for the obvious fake Selzer poll despite being tell you otherwise. Have you downgraded your forecasting ability?
zeke5123a
5mo ago
I spend probably about 50 bucks on sports betting annually. It’s consumption for me (kind of a fun “try to beat the house” sorts thing). For me it’s consumption.
I do recognize it only exists because others can’t control themselves.
Apple clearly could if they wanted to spend the money to have the chops.
More options
Context Copy link