i gave two examples of simple ideas that don’t fundamentally change the status quo yet are popular

that doesn’t mean that simple ideas can’t work

there are simple ideas, I think, that would work very well. however a populist would never go for it because it’s bad marketing.

for example I think in all cities with significant junkie populations we should have clinics giving out free heroin shots to addicts. simple idea. i think it’ll work

but the majority of the people would not approve of this. they don’t want to see the data and research about lowering HIV rates, lowering crime, lowering healthcare costs, etc. they don’t like junkies and they feel icky giving out free heroin to addicts

i’m not saying simple idea = bad. I’m not even saying populist = bad. i said that in practice it’s usually tied to ideas that seem good on the surface but when you scratch the veneer off it’s not nearly as good as it seems.

like i brought up above, if we restructured how our government spends money we could increase our effective spending while lowering taxes and it would have magnitudes more impact than the marginal increase in revenue from taxing the rich. so why don’t we do it?

because it’s a complex overhaul that would require a large initial investment and you wouldn’t see the fruits for more than a couple election cycles- something a populist cannot afford.

Why do people keep using “populist” like it’s a negative?

because it’s virtually always tied to policies that are meant to be easily digestible for the lowest common denominator. as it turns out, however, that complex problems virtually never have simple solutions.

ie Trump and his border wall in 2016. Populist with a populist platform to stop illegal immigration. What does it actually accomplish? Nothing because

a) it’s impractical to actually build a wall across the entire length of the border

b) majority of illegal immigrants come legally on tourist visas and then overstay

but why focus on “The Wall”? Because Trump understands that it’s an easily understandable symbol he can point to.

Left wing populism is similar. For example “tax the rich!” is a common mantra. And sure, taxing the rich is good. But what use is there in increasing tax revenue by a fraction of a percent when we are bleeding money at the seams to corruption? It’s not going to solve our deficit. It’s not going to lower taxes for the average American. Look at how the military will spend $100k on a bag of metal bushings that me and you can buy on Amazon for $100.

But how are you going to tackle the problem of deeply ingrained corruption? It permeates from our local institutions all the way to the upper echelons. Look how Haliburton got billions of dollars worth of “no-bid” contracts during the Bush administration. Just happens that Cheney, the most powerful VP in history, used to work there.

There is no easy solution. So populists come and say “tax the rich” or “build a wall” when in reality it does absolutely nothing to fix the actual problems. But the real solutions are complex and hard to relay to voters. and in fact, the solutions are painful and no politician would ever campaign on painful policies. For these reasons I think we are doomed as a society and that technocratic countries like China are going to dominate us in the next century unless we can radically change course

Can anyone copy paste the actual article here? It’s behind a paywall. I generally like Jacobin so I’d withhold judgement until actually reading the article.

Although I’d disagree on “Bidenism” as a term simply because Biden has not had nearly enough impact or influence to merit that word existing.

I sleep 8 hours a night and wake up at the same time every day. I’ve found that as long as my sleep schedule is consistent and reliable, my energy levels are fine. It doesn’t really matter how busy I am throughout the day.

Once the sleep schedule gets out of whack (I sleep in too much, or have to wake up at 3am for work trip) then it takes a good 5 days or so to go back to normal

I feel instructing people to do things goes into the action category.

exactly. that’s how US law works. in England, the state has much broader powers to arrest you depending on your speech. Like for example, the first statement I made

“i believe all [plural form of random ethnic slur] should be brutally murdered”

a very similar post on twitter got someone sentenced to 2 years in jail over in England just a few months ago. let search around and find the direct quote…

i found it

“Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care… If that makes me racist, so be it”

My interpretation is that this is a belief. He didn’t explicitly instruct anyone to do anything. He said, in other words - “if people set fire to all the muslim immigrants, i wouldn’t care” or basically “i would be happy with people setting fire to all muslim imimgrants”

in England, that’s a crime. in the US, you have to be much more explicit. You have to

a) specifically instruct people to do something “everyone, attack that person in the red hat”

b) hold the belief that your statement has a real chance to followed. so for example, if you right now say “hey kava, beat your wife” you almost certainly could not be charged in the US because a reasonable person would not immediately beat their wife because of a statement like that

c) it has to be immediate - so you have to say something and it happen in the very near future. so if you write “let’s stab all the [ethnic slurs]” and then someone reads that 3 months into the future- you can’t be held liable.

So I believe the US laws, in this case, are so much better than English laws.

The US does a lot of shit wrong. So many things. But on speech? I think best in the world.

edit: there’s more on this topic if you’re interested: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/brandenburg_test

things not in the physical realm should have consequences not in the physical realm

I mean, it depends. I think the current laws in the US are more or less fine.

For example, if I send you a death threat through an online message, it should be equivalent to me sending you a death threat in any other fashion.

So I’m not a total absolutist, but I am a strong free-speech proponent.

I think saying something like “i believe all [plural form of random ethnic slur] should be brutally murdered” is an expression of a belief. it’s a horrific belief, yes, but it’s a belief. I think it constitutes as free speech and therefore the government cannot prosecute

however let’s say I’m a musician at a concert and i see a guy in the crowd and point and yell to the crowd “hey everybody, attack that [singular form of ethnic slur] and rip his [religious apparel] off” - that isn’t a belief. that is an incitement to violence.

that should be a crime.

in England, both the first and the 2nd are crimes. here in the US, it’s only the 2nd

yeah it’s a weird time. over in England during the anti-immigrant riots some people got sent to jail for inciting violence for some twitter messages. If you actually read the messages and compare it to the rhetoric coming out of many people about this CEO, many people would be sent to jail if we were following the same standard.

obviously the US is not England and we have free speech protections- but people really should exercise caution

Never say anything you aren’t willing to stand behind. Because it won’t go away. And with authoritarian regimes coming to power… you gotta be cognizant of the potential consequences

But generally, I agree with you. The further we get away from groupthink the better we are for it. When we self-censor out of fear of disapproval we are perpetuating the cycle and making it more likely the next person doesn’t speak their mind.

Just because everyone believes something is right, does not mean it is. The majority has been wrong in the past and it will be wrong in the future.

my tip is just to greet people loudly with a smile. say good morning, talk about weather, whatever

i’ve found that most people will do as you say. just try and look away and go about their day. some people can even look mean with a face that is not inviting at all.

but if you say hi in a friendly way one day, they look at you surprised a mutter something back.

the next time you see them, they have a smile on their face and they greet you more warmly.

really this is the thing about human connection. someone has to bridge that gap. and it’s not hard to do

Typically, not friends. I’ll greet them and make small talk.

I walk my dog multiple times a day at similar hours and other neighbors do as well. So I’ll run into the same people regularly. We’ll talk a little bit. Sometimes I’ll talk a few minutes, sometimes it’s just a greeting.

I have asked on two occasions in 3 years for a neighbor to take out the dog. So generally no, but it has happened

I think there are two primary reasons for the difference in treatment of these two killings

1. The killing of the CEO was meant to be a message to the country. It’s a different scale. Because something like this is such a spectacle, it gets national attention and the local and federal authorities are forced to deal with it quickly- otherwise they lose face.

2. Ultimately the power structure cannot tolerate these types of rebellions. It’s like a slave talking back to the master. You allow it once and you open the door for it to happen again. You have to try and shut it down as quickly as possible.

are you saying that those construction projects won’t get done

No, but it would both

a) slow down significantly

b) costs would rise significantly

The issue is it’s hard to find laborers. Americans simply don’t work as hard as immigrants. I’ve been doing this for about a decade now and that’s one thing I’ve learned. You don’t hire Americans to dig holes. They will work half as hard, complain 5 times as much, and leave as soon as they find something better.

But Pablo and Juan will work with a smile on their face, don’t care about being nomads working from state to state without complaints, and they’ll work Saturdays and even Sundays if you let them. You gotta basically force them to take days off.

Low-skill Americans prefer easy jobs like working at a cashier where they can stand around all day. That’s what they’re good for. Skilled Americans do office jobs, management, supervision, etc.

So let’s say we get rid of all illegals. During a time where we already have a labor shortage, we would eliminate 10~15 million people from the economy that basically fuel key parts of our economy.

What would happen? An exacerbation of the labor shortage and inflation. Large construction companies would see their costs jump up. Productivity would lower. Which would mean less demand for construction materials. Which would lead to price instability - aka more inflation. Small businesses would be most effected.

That’s just construction. We would see effects in many industries such as landscaping or agriculture as well.

I mean, this is they way the left makes it sound… as if, we DON’T support illegal immigration, our country is doomed… and it’s ridiculous.

First, I want you to remember being pro-illegal immigration is a right-wing capitalist policy. Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to all illegals. His economic advisor, Milton Friedman, advocated for open borders.

The reason being because immigration is essentially an extension of economic policy. The labor market is a market like any other. The more regulations you put, the worse it gets for business. Regulations include, for example, restricting the importing of labor or artificially removing labor from the population (aka mass deportations)

Second, I would like to remind you that Obama deported more people than Trump did.

This entire conversation has nothing to do with left versus right. Both parties are more or less in agreement on the general trends. There has been no significant immigration reform for decades, even though there have been multiple instances of GOP majorities and DNC majorities. Why?

Because of the reasons I outlined above. It’s actually really beneficial to the economy for us to have an underclass of cheap labor that has less rights than everyone else. It’s essentially a mini and voluntary slavery. Sort of like how Dubai imports Indians. Lots of pros, very little cons.

Thirdly and lastly, it’s only been since 2016 or so that we have seen the anti-illegal and anti-immigrant rhetoric in general start increasing. You want to know why?

Because our society has been taken over by populists. Our country is in its death throes and vultures are already picking at the corpse.

This once free market economy that produced the strongest country in the world is being destroyed bit by bit. They want to restrict the market as much as possible. First, you put in tariffs restricting the free flow of goods. Then you artificially freeze the labor market.

The end goal? An economy designed for only the largest corporations who are allied with those in power. That is what we are becoming and they are accomplishing that by pulling the wool over your eyes.

I understand this phenomenon and it goes all the way back to Socrates. There’s that famous quote.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

And he even used to complain about the new invention of writing. Said it would weaken people’s memory because they wouldn’t have to remember everything.

So I get it. I understand what you mean.

But I think this is different. Because let me posit this.

Cigarettes existed for a very long time, but it wasn’t until the late 1800s that they started being produced en masse. Very quickly, the majority of the country was smoking and smoking a lot. Much more than before.

That eventually caused a dramatic increase in lung diseases because a lot more people were smoking. You could say “Tobacco has been around forever. Every generation has fads”

But in reality, it was different. It was a new thing. Cigarettes were hand-rolled before. Now you could buy a pack and smoke your 20 a day much more easily.

I think this is more similar to what we are seeing with social media today. I consciously make an effort not to judge the youth. And I’m not judging the youth. The social media “epidemic” does not only concern the youth, but all generations. Smartphones in general but modern social media specifically operate in manners we don’t fully understand.

Look at the brains of gambling addicts. Your brain literally gets rewired when you play slots all day. Social media operates in a similar manner as slots. We are all rewiring our brains in a way that has never happened in human history.

It could cause permanent damage for all we know. We just haven’t had the time or studies to confirm this. And if we look at research that exists right now, social media does increase rate of anxiety, depression, etc. It’s not so simple.

There’s also obviously plenty of, for lack of a better word, entrepreneurs

Yeah, it’s interesting.

Over the course of the last two decades or so, the government has slowly been enforcing the I9 verification process. Where employers have to get some information from you when they hire you. Social security number, driver’s license, etc. This makes it so illegals shouldn’t be able to work most jobs.

Of course, there are ways around it. I’ve worked for smaller sized publicly traded companies that simply look the other way. I knew a middle manager who was illegal and the company knew about it- but didn’t really care. So they just cooked the books, so to speak, so the employee could continue working. I remember when he got deported. His wife wanted her niece from their home country to come visit and stay with them for a couple weeks. Girl was 16. Customs officer thought it was suspicious, started asking girl some questions. Officer did not like the responses.

So they waited at the airport with the girl until employee went to go pick up his wife’s niece. Officer then questions employee, he doesn’t have appropriate documents. 8 months later, after the standard deportation procedures (which involves going in front of an immigration judge, etc), he was deported.

Moral of the story? If you have to pick up someone from the airport and you’re illegal… find a friend with documents and send them instead. Safer

One way to get around as an illegal that seems to be very popular is just to start a company and work as a 1099 subcontractor.

So for example, you don’t need documents to start a business. You start a business, apply for an EIN number with the IRS under that business. Then when you go work for some construction company, you don’t work as an employee. You sign up as a 1099 contractor.

That way the company hiring you is not legally liable for anything - they are simply hiring a company to provide a service. They aren’t hiring illegals to do work- whoever the contractor chooses to hire or not is not a concern of the host company. Uncle Sam gets his taxes and everybody is happy.

Vast swathes of the construction industry work using that system. I don’t want to name names, but some very big-name companies would suffer quite a bit should we actually deport even a small % of illegals.

My main point is that the system is designed to keep undocumented immigrants in the “informal economy” by paying under the table

I understand the point you’re making and I agree with you. It’s designed to keep them in the shadows. Although keep in mind, it’s not always under the table. Like I outlined above, a lot of it ends up being taxed and documented properly. I know illegals that get paid $2000 weekly salary, have a work truck assigned to them, and have their rent paid for. They do their yearly taxes and Uncle Sam doesn’t care because he’s making his cut.

There’s a high demand for people that speak both English and Spanish and have both a) technical skills (aka can work spreadsheets, emails) and b) have construction experience. It’s really hard to find these people and many of them tend to be illegals.

You want to really hurt illegals? Get rid of the ability to do what I just outlined. But then Uncle Sam would lose $$$. So that’s what I’m curious what Trump is actually gonna do.

There absolutely are illegals being put in similar situations as Dubai does with the Indians. For example, the Chinese love doing this. They’ll start a Chinese restaurant and then import Chinese to live and work there for pennies on the dollar. Other examples are Mexicans working in agricultural in the SW of the country.

But that certainly isn’t the only way and in my experience isn’t that common.

I’ve worked all over the rust belt / bible belt in a little over a dozen states doing large construction projects. At least for my industry, the vast majority of the laborers are illegals. They don’t disappear after getting paid. I’ve worked with some regularly for over 5 years.

From what I’ve heard from people in California, your experience is not typical

Undocumented immigrants don’t “do the work legal citizens aren’t willing to do” or “work harder than legal citizens”. Those are both racist liberal talking points

majority of my life was spent as an illegal immigrant. i’ve been embedded in illegal immigrant communities my whole life. i’ve worked with many and have known many more

it’s my experience that both of those statements are true.

a) they do work citizens aren’t willing to do and b) they work harder

i can elaborate on why I believe those things are true, but absolutely if I’m looking for a laborer for specific types of work… I will always avoid the native-born citizen.

whole ecosystem of fear is designed to keep immigrants working jobs below minimum wage and/or in appalling working conditions

believe it or not there are many illegals that make wages higher than what most americans make.

there’s many types of illegal immigrants. there’s not one size fits all to make generalizations. but the majority of them are similar to oil drill workers.

a working class male goes far away to a labor-intensive job that nobody wants to do. they do this because they can make a relatively large salary and then use that money to do something back at home.

so for example Mexicans will come and work in construction. They can make upwards of $300+ a day of work with experience. this is many times more than what they could reasonably expect in Mexico. but not only that, they’re making more than many native born American citizens.

it’s just lower skilled Americans tend to flock to low salary and low effort jobs like retail or food service.

We have never had machine learning algorithms that exploit human psychology to give precisely timed hits of dopamine. Algorithms that know you better than your family members do.

I think in the near future we’re gonna be looking at the modern social medias similar to how we see smoking cigarettes today. Addictive and bad for you.

I wonder if he’s gonna actually do it. An actual real concentrated effort to remove illegals would cause serious problems.

Inflation would spike, lots of industries would slow to a crawl, certain commercial areas would be essentially destroyed.

For example, in many different fields of construction the majority of the hard labor comes from illegals. Big companies hire contractors who then hire contractors who use illegals because they are much more productive than Americans and you can pay them less.

If we get rid of them, they would have to both dramatically increase their labor cost and the projects would slow down.

That would raise the price of doing business which is inevitably always passed down to the consumer. Then you have certain areas with ethnic markets and ethnic restaurants and such. Many of those would lose half or more of their business overnight.

This would be so disruptive it’s hard to understate. And I know Trump knows this.

That’s my burning curiousity right now. Is this whole thing similar to the Wall™ ? A symbol that isn’t meant to accomplish anything meaningful beyond giving the droolers something to point to? Or is he serious?

If he’s serious, we’re about to begin a radical shift. He would not be doing this if he wasn’t ready to radically change things.

yeah i just try not to think about it. I’m glad I was in the myspace generation during my teenage years. so I was actually able to just delete my myspace later on as an adult

i feel worse for the kids growing up today. they don’t fully understand the implications of what they are posting online. anything and everything is being recorded forever. my generation got a chance to be a stupid kid and have it be forgotten. today’s kids don’t get that opportunity

the best you can do, though, is just stop posting potentially damaging things online. you can’t change what you already posted. and 999 times out of a thousand, it’s not gonna hurt you.

i understand the overwhelmed feeling though

the safest perspective to have is this -

every single thing you send online is going to be there forever. “the cloud” is someone’s server and constitutes online. even end to end encryption isn’t necessarily going to save you.

for example iCloud backup is encrypted. but Apple in the past has kept a copy of your encryption key on your iCloud. why? because consumers who choose to encrypt and lose their passwords are gonna freak out when all their data is effectively gone forever.

so when FBI comes a’knocking to Apple with a subpoena… once they get access to that encryption key it doesn’t matter if you have the strongest encryption in the world

my advice

never ever ever write something online that you do not want everybody in the world seeing.

to put on my tin foil hat, i believe government probably has access to methods that break modern encryptions. in theory with quantum computers it shouldn’t be difficult