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#11
General Discussion / Re: 2024 Elections Thread
Last post by spork - Today at 08:17:19 AM
Since we're veering toward Godwin's Law territory:

Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust.

As pointed out by writers like Lily Tsai in When People Want Punishment: Retributive Justice and the Puzzle of Authoritarian Popularity, some people just want to be told what to do. Thinking for oneself requires effort and makes one responsible for bad outcomes. Far easier to blame others. This makes authoritarian demagogues appealing.

Fareed Zakaria's analysis of election results on the Freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/fareed-zakaria-on-what-just-happened-and-what-comes-next/. He's in part pitching his book, which I can't recommend and think is far inferior to Pankaj Mishra's Age of Anger that I mentioned upthread, but I think he and Dubner make a couple of interesting points in the interview.
#12
General Discussion / Re: 2024 Elections Thread
Last post by marshwiggle - Today at 08:11:33 AM
A good analysis from Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter and the host of the politics podcast "The Run-Up".


What Trump's Win Tells Us About the Democratic Party


It's only about 3 minutes long, but he hit a lot of good points. (The video is from the New York Times.)
#13
General Discussion / Re: 2024 Elections Thread
Last post by Parasaurolophus - Today at 07:59:24 AM
The ideas in question have been entertained, and definitively rejected. And they're entertained again if or when new evidence crops up that might suggest they latch on to a grain of truth. We don't need to entertain them ad nauseam.

Also, Pinker does not seem to know what 'a priori' means, or 'inherently'.
#14
Mostly moving stuff today, but I'd like to work in some book work, too.
#15
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 13, 2024, 07:30:16 AMIf there's a nap, some book work. If not, nothing.

Nothing.
#16
General Discussion / Re: Herd your cats here
Last post by Puget - Today at 07:50:18 AM
Quote from: clean on November 13, 2024, 08:49:31 PMthe Cat People will try to trap it. 
They have a relation with a vet to fix them, give them some shots or something, and it gets an ear tag.  then they are returned to the 'enclave'
I dont know that they do adoptions.
Once it is trapped and at the vet, im sure it will be scanned for a chip.


That's good! Places that do trap-neuter-release (TNR, which is what you're describing) I think also always evaluate if cats are actually feral or might be adoptable strays before re-releasing them, so if it isn't feral (and it certainly sounds like it isn't), it will hopefully go to a shelter or rescue if it isn't chipped.
#17
General Discussion / Re: Digital Nomad, Academic Ed...
Last post by apl68 - Today at 07:16:21 AM
Quote from: ciao_yall on November 13, 2024, 03:39:06 PMSpain and Portugal are happy to take digital nomads. Outside of the major cities the CoL is very low.

The major Iberian cities have been showing signs of having had their fill of digital nomads.  Outside the big cities, there are probably places where it's a different story.  Digital nomads have worn out their welcome in a number of hot spots, so it would be wise to check whether any of the places you consider has already had a surfeit of them.

My mother couldn't say enough good things about Costa Rica when she spent a couple of summers studying abroad there back in the late 1990s.  In terms of outdoor activities, they've got some fantastic nature preserves to visit.
#18
General Discussion / Re: Herd your cats here
Last post by apl68 - Today at 07:10:45 AM
I saw a cat up under my doorless garage when I stepped outside for my morning walk a couple of days ago near daybreak.  This morning I saw two of them there.  Probably just neighbor cats wandering around.  I do hope they didn't have any plans to set up housekeeping there. 
#19
General Discussion / Re: 2024 Elections Thread
Last post by marshwiggle - Today at 06:55:13 AM
Quote from: Kron3007 on Today at 06:23:48 AM
Quote from: lightning on November 13, 2024, 05:07:34 AM
Quote from: Kron3007 on November 13, 2024, 03:23:48 AMGrowing up, everyone always wonders how the Nazis came to power and how ordinary Germans let it happen.  Now we have a pretty clear picture.

I'm not saying Trump is Hitler, but he clearly shows authoritarian signs and has used many of the same tricks.  It's amazing (and tragic) to see this play out in real time and I really fear for America and the world. 

I just hope I am wrong.

One of the explanations for the average German interwar Weimar was that the average German was destitute, in part due to hyper-inflation.

This is the part that really bugs me. The average US citizen of the last ten years was nowhere near as bad off, economically, as the average German was, in the Weimar Republic. Relative to Weimar, the average US citizen was affluent. 

Yet, the so-called bad economy and inflation in the USA lifted Trump back into power.

For this reason, I don't like comparisons to the average German during the rise of Hitler, because not only was the US economy much better than Weimar's economy, we also have access to information, so we can't say "I didn't know" which is the other apologist reason for the average German allowing Hitler to come to power.

Yes, we are worse than the Germans.

I also hope that I am wrong.



I think the other issue is that we have too much information, but not necessarily good information.

If you start googling vaccines, it is fairly easy to conclude that they definitely cause autism and should be avoided, especially if that's what you want to believe.

We live in an era with so much information that if is becoming hard to know what is true, and so easy to find support for whatever you want to believe.

Couple this with the general distrust of science and expertise I see growing and it is a recipe for this.

More information is really part of the issue.

Steven Pinker has a good article about dangerous truths.

Here's an interesting point:
QuoteShould we treat some ideas as dangerous? Let's exclude outright lies, deceptive propaganda,
incendiary conspiracy theories from malevolent crackpots and technological recipes for wanton
destruction. Consider only ideas about the truth of empirical claims or the effectiveness of
policies that, if they turned out to be true, would require a significant rethinking of our moral
sensibilities. And consider ideas that, if they turn out to be false, could lead to harm if people
believed them to be true. In either case, we don't know whether they are true or false a priori,
so only by examining and debating them can we find out. Finally, let's assume that we're not
talking about burning people at the stake or cutting out their tongues but about discouraging
their research and giving their ideas as little publicity as possible. There is a good case for
exploring all ideas relevant to our current concerns, no matter where they lead. The idea that
ideas should be discouraged a priori is inherently self-refuting. Indeed, it is the ultimate
arrogance, as it assumes that one can be so certain about the goodness and truth of one's
own ideas that one is entitled to discourage other people's opinions from even being
examined.


By trying to "protect" people from ideas that could be "dangerous" academics, media, and others ultimately encourage a culture of misinformation and "alternative facts", since no source can be counted on to be totally transparent with all of the facts.
#20
General Discussion / Re: 2024 Elections Thread
Last post by lightning - Today at 06:53:21 AM
Quote from: Kron3007 on Today at 06:23:48 AM
Quote from: lightning on November 13, 2024, 05:07:34 AM
Quote from: Kron3007 on November 13, 2024, 03:23:48 AMGrowing up, everyone always wonders how the Nazis came to power and how ordinary Germans let it happen.  Now we have a pretty clear picture.

I'm not saying Trump is Hitler, but he clearly shows authoritarian signs and has used many of the same tricks.  It's amazing (and tragic) to see this play out in real time and I really fear for America and the world. 

I just hope I am wrong.

One of the explanations for the average German interwar Weimar was that the average German was destitute, in part due to hyper-inflation.

This is the part that really bugs me. The average US citizen of the last ten years was nowhere near as bad off, economically, as the average German was, in the Weimar Republic. Relative to Weimar, the average US citizen was affluent. 

Yet, the so-called bad economy and inflation in the USA lifted Trump back into power.

For this reason, I don't like comparisons to the average German during the rise of Hitler, because not only was the US economy much better than Weimar's economy, we also have access to information, so we can't say "I didn't know" which is the other apologist reason for the average German allowing Hitler to come to power.

Yes, we are worse than the Germans.

I also hope that I am wrong.



I think the other issue is that we have too much information, but not necessarily good information.

If you start googling vaccines, it is fairly easy to conclude that they definitely cause autism and should be avoided, especially if that's what you want to believe.

We live in an era with so much information that if is becoming hard to know what is true, and so easy to find support for whatever you want to believe.

Couple this with the general distrust of science and expertise I see growing and it is a recipe for this.

More information is really part of the issue.

I don't have a problem with too much information. I have a problem with lots of people who see a newspaper article with a picture, from a space probe, of a diving board on Mars, presented as evidence of water on Mars. And, they believe it.