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Perhaps if the choices were not stark, perhaps if you werene't staring down the barrel of calamity, perhaps if America didn't have the capability to inflict imm
by pradn 6y ago
Perhaps if the choices were not stark, perhaps if you werene't staring down the barrel of calamity, perhaps if America didn't have the capability to inflict immense suffering around the world or make a huge positive contribution, perhaps if political changes didn't directly affect your livelihood, perhaps if which rights you had and how much violence could be directed at you didn't depend on the politicians in power - perhaps - then we wouldn't need to worry about politics, and could talk about it as if it were the weather.
- apsec112 6y agoPolitics has always been high-stakes, but politicizing everything would effectively mean destroying society. "I am a pro-choice atheist. When I lived in Ireland, one of my friends was a pro-life Christian. I thought she was responsible for the unnecessary suffering of millions of women. She thought I was responsible for killing millions of babies. And yet she invited me over to her house for dinner without poisoning the food. And I ate it, and thanked her, and sent her a nice card, without smashing all her china." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rkpDX7j7va6c8Q7cZ/in-favor-of-niceness-community-and-civilization https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rkpDX7j7va6c8Q7cZ/in-favor-o...