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Most policies aren't that clear cut. For example, if you vote for free trade, it's probably a win for your own country in the aggregate and hence a win for eve

Most policies aren't that clear cut. For example, if you vote for free trade, it's probably a win for your own country in the aggregate and hence a win for everybody long term, but it can have major negative impacts on individuals or even communities in the short to medium term.

AntiImperialist 6y ago
True. What is also true is if you play fair while others don't, you won't be able to play for long. So, it's also unfair to continue enabling foul play. Free trade can only exist in presence of certain strongly enforced rules and they are not easy to enforce across borders. But that's a different discussion. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about those who aren't able to think rationally through these things because they have been exposed to targeted techniques by adversaries. They're triggered into an emotional response every time they encounter other ways of thinking than they have been programmed to. Let us think as PR firms for a second. There is a lot of nuances in greater truths which can be tuned to make anything sound reasonable. We can design experiments a certain way, we can frame questions a certain way, highlight certain things and present it to the journalists... who will happily publish our well thought our well reasoned ideas, backed by stats and surveys and facts and experiments. Our biggest problem is the rest of the truth. When people realize that, our messages will be of less value. Other PR firms with other interests who benefit from the other parts of the truth and people can make reasoned decisions as different realities are presented to them by different interests. We'll have to constantly do better and present our side. That's how the PR industry has been functioning for the last 100 years or so. I think that's all fair. But what if there was a way to prevent people from even navigating to the other parts of the truth that we, as a PR firm, don't want them to? There is and it is widely used today. Once the cat is out of the bag, unfortunately, everyone has to play like that... and that is what has been happening. There's a reason why calm well-reasoned ideological discourses are less of a thing now. Everything evokes strong emotions and rational discussions barely happen.
AndrewBissell 6y ago
We have a good 30 to 40 years of evidence on this. What is shows is, in the absence of strong safety nets and labor and environmental controls (which are often explicitly limited by the trade deals themselves), trade is a very small benefit to workers in developing countries, and a huge gift to corporations and higher income individuals and a disaster for the working class in developed countries.

AntiImperialist 6y ago

True. What is also true is if you play fair while others don't, you won't be able to play for long. So, it's also unfair to continue enabling foul play. Free trade can only exist in presence of certain strongly enforced rules and they are not easy to enforce across borders. But that's a different discussion. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about those who aren't able to think rationally through these things because they have been exposed to targeted techniques by adversaries. They're triggered into an emotional response every time they encounter other ways of thinking than they have been programmed to. Let us think as PR firms for a second. There is a lot of nuances in greater truths which can be tuned to make anything sound reasonable. We can design experiments a certain way, we can frame questions a certain way, highlight certain things and present it to the journalists... who will happily publish our well thought our well reasoned ideas, backed by stats and surveys and facts and experiments. Our biggest problem is the rest of the truth. When people realize that, our messages will be of less value. Other PR firms with other interests who benefit from the other parts of the truth and people can make reasoned decisions as different realities are presented to them by different interests. We'll have to constantly do better and present our side. That's how the PR industry has been functioning for the last 100 years or so. I think that's all fair. But what if there was a way to prevent people from even navigating to the other parts of the truth that we, as a PR firm, don't want them to? There is and it is widely used today. Once the cat is out of the bag, unfortunately, everyone has to play like that... and that is what has been happening. There's a reason why calm well-reasoned ideological discourses are less of a thing now. Everything evokes strong emotions and rational discussions barely happen.

AndrewBissell 6y ago

We have a good 30 to 40 years of evidence on this. What is shows is, in the absence of strong safety nets and labor and environmental controls (which are often explicitly limited by the trade deals themselves), trade is a very small benefit to workers in developing countries, and a huge gift to corporations and higher income individuals and a disaster for the working class in developed countries.