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The author’s message - which includes concluding that he’s morally superior to most people - is undermined by his blatantly partisan selection of examples. Per

The author’s message - which includes concluding that he’s morally superior to most people - is undermined by his blatantly partisan selection of examples. Personally, I’m of the view it’s a bad idea to spend time documenting in detail how “our tribes have failed to unite, and it is your tribe’s fault”. It implies a lot of pride, and a willingness to turn a blind eye to all sorts of bad behaviour. I mean, if you just want to criticise a politician or individual you don’t like - fair enough. You should feel free to make a point how you like. No one should be expected to be pain-stakingly fair in every post or comment. But if you want a grand narrative that includes, say, 10 examples of bad behaviour, demonstrate some thinking has taken place. Include 2 or 3 examples from whoever you consider to be your tribe. Don’t act like all the problems are other people.

jmnicolas 5y ago
Partisan? I'm not from the US so I don't know all intricacies of you politics, but his first 2 examples are Biden's son and Trump. Seems he bashes both side to me.
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  He picked the least worst of Trumps transgressions, by quite some margin.
  - jmnicolas 5y ago
    He didn't take the worst from Biden's son either!
    - sulam 5y ago
      You can find a thousand clearly corrupt things Trump himself did in office, but sure, let’s talk about Biden’s son’s history.
    - peter422 5y ago
      Is Hunter Biden’s son in any position of power? Was he elected to anything? Appointed to any position in government?
      - oh_sigh 5y ago
        The author's article isn't about people abusing their position of power, so why would that matter? What position of power are looters in?
        ncmncm 5y ago
        Hint: not looters. That was another lie the author hoped to slip through.
      - rufus_foreman 5y ago
        >> Is Hunter Biden’s son in any position of power? Well yes, and that is what is corrupt. Neither son of the Vice President nor son of the President should be a position of power, but they have in fact proved to be so.
- scoopertrooper 5y ago
  The author skips over some pretty egregious examples from the past few years in favour of examples that best support their world view. Where is the outrage over the Trump administration's rollback of consumer protection regulations that protect students from shady practices by for-profit colleges? Students are promised significant income growth, but are actually roped into poorly staffed courses, significant debt, and questionable career advancement. Instead, the author bangs on about eviction protection for people laid off during the pandemic. The author bemoans '90% of all charges against rioters and looters' being dropped in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, but links to a news article that only indicates that approximately 90% of all protest related charges were dropped across several jurisdictions. The vast majority of protestors were not engaged in looting or violent acts that would amount to rioting. However, the author curiously ignores the fact that the vast majority of people that stormed the Capitol building in the hope of preventing the peaceful transfer of power managed to get off with misdemeanours. Not even to mention that the former President's one-time Svengali, Steve Bannon, suckered Trump's own supporters out of 5 million dollars that he had pledged to use to construct a wall to keep out Mexicans; only to be pardoned for his troubles. I think it's fair to say that political affiliation coloured this article.
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    Another possibility is that you are so partisan that you have a hard time seeing that the author is less partisan than you are.
    - scoopertrooper 5y ago
      That's a pretty sophomoric response. It's fine to disagree, but I took the time to explain my position in detail, I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same. Were there any errors of fact in what I said? Or did you take issue with my analysis of those facts? Do you think degree mills provide a net public good? Was everybody arrested for protesting after the death of George Floyd actually involved in rioting and looting? Do you believe the incursion into the Capitol Building was performed by Antifa? Was Steve Bannon not convicted of wire fraud and money laundering?
mindslight 5y ago
Indeed. The pattern of societal breakdown goes back much further, in mostly open display with the idea that successful business is self justifying. The lazy response is to say that lawful business is within the rules of our society. But that only worked when there was still a social check on the specifics of business activities, and the amount of meta activity was small. Once accumulation of money became the success metric itself, it ceased to be useful one. And at this point we're long past it - the hard truth is that empty fraudsters like Michael Milken, Bernie Madoff, and Donald Trump aren't crass deviant outliers but rather the bedrock of our mainstream culture. The article even uncritically throws out at the end "This only gets worse if we do something crazy like forgive massive amounts of debt, whether it’s student or mortgage", while completely ignoring what happened in 2008! 2008 wasn't straight "forgiveness" per se because the "loans were repaid" (this is likely what keeps the author's cognitive dissonance intact), but artificially low interest loans to prop up investment banks that would have otherwise gone bankrupt is a morally-bankrupt giveaway larger than any "student loan forgiveness" or "flash mob looting" could ever be. Especially considering that if anyone is able to model their future financial position, it should have been investment banks! But as usual, it's the kids^h^h^h^hplebs who are wrong. Now I personally am still a believer in market economies, and I generally think that looking to the government to supply many services is essentially giving up. But I also believe it is horribly dishonest to advocate this position without continually acknowledging how much the government has wantonly distorted the "economy" for many decades (at least since getting off the gold standard), essentially making Wall Street an insider-benefiting Potemkin Village. At this point anybody talking about needing to respect "the market" while not directing that focus onto government monetary policy (hello no-debate little-media-coverage multi-trillion-dollar March 2020 stonk market bailout with commercial bond buying continuing to this day) or regulatory givewaway to big business, is themselves part of this problem right alongside "Pelosi".

jmnicolas 5y ago

Partisan? I'm not from the US so I don't know all intricacies of you politics, but his first 2 examples are Biden's son and Trump. Seems he bashes both side to me.

smackeyacky 5y ago
He picked the least worst of Trumps transgressions, by quite some margin.
- jmnicolas 5y ago
  He didn't take the worst from Biden's son either!
  - sulam 5y ago
    You can find a thousand clearly corrupt things Trump himself did in office, but sure, let’s talk about Biden’s son’s history.
  - peter422 5y ago
    Is Hunter Biden’s son in any position of power? Was he elected to anything? Appointed to any position in government?
    - oh_sigh 5y ago
      The author's article isn't about people abusing their position of power, so why would that matter? What position of power are looters in?
      - ncmncm 5y ago
        Hint: not looters. That was another lie the author hoped to slip through.
    - rufus_foreman 5y ago
      >> Is Hunter Biden’s son in any position of power? Well yes, and that is what is corrupt. Neither son of the Vice President nor son of the President should be a position of power, but they have in fact proved to be so.
scoopertrooper 5y ago
The author skips over some pretty egregious examples from the past few years in favour of examples that best support their world view. Where is the outrage over the Trump administration's rollback of consumer protection regulations that protect students from shady practices by for-profit colleges? Students are promised significant income growth, but are actually roped into poorly staffed courses, significant debt, and questionable career advancement. Instead, the author bangs on about eviction protection for people laid off during the pandemic. The author bemoans '90% of all charges against rioters and looters' being dropped in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, but links to a news article that only indicates that approximately 90% of all protest related charges were dropped across several jurisdictions. The vast majority of protestors were not engaged in looting or violent acts that would amount to rioting. However, the author curiously ignores the fact that the vast majority of people that stormed the Capitol building in the hope of preventing the peaceful transfer of power managed to get off with misdemeanours. Not even to mention that the former President's one-time Svengali, Steve Bannon, suckered Trump's own supporters out of 5 million dollars that he had pledged to use to construct a wall to keep out Mexicans; only to be pardoned for his troubles. I think it's fair to say that political affiliation coloured this article.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Another possibility is that you are so partisan that you have a hard time seeing that the author is less partisan than you are.
  - scoopertrooper 5y ago
    That's a pretty sophomoric response. It's fine to disagree, but I took the time to explain my position in detail, I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same. Were there any errors of fact in what I said? Or did you take issue with my analysis of those facts? Do you think degree mills provide a net public good? Was everybody arrested for protesting after the death of George Floyd actually involved in rioting and looting? Do you believe the incursion into the Capitol Building was performed by Antifa? Was Steve Bannon not convicted of wire fraud and money laundering?

mindslight 5y ago

Indeed. The pattern of societal breakdown goes back much further, in mostly open display with the idea that successful business is self justifying. The lazy response is to say that lawful business is within the rules of our society. But that only worked when there was still a social check on the specifics of business activities, and the amount of meta activity was small. Once accumulation of money became the success metric itself, it ceased to be useful one. And at this point we're long past it - the hard truth is that empty fraudsters like Michael Milken, Bernie Madoff, and Donald Trump aren't crass deviant outliers but rather the bedrock of our mainstream culture. The article even uncritically throws out at the end "This only gets worse if we do something crazy like forgive massive amounts of debt, whether it’s student or mortgage", while completely ignoring what happened in 2008! 2008 wasn't straight "forgiveness" per se because the "loans were repaid" (this is likely what keeps the author's cognitive dissonance intact), but artificially low interest loans to prop up investment banks that would have otherwise gone bankrupt is a morally-bankrupt giveaway larger than any "student loan forgiveness" or "flash mob looting" could ever be. Especially considering that if anyone is able to model their future financial position, it should have been investment banks! But as usual, it's the kids^h^h^h^hplebs who are wrong. Now I personally am still a believer in market economies, and I generally think that looking to the government to supply many services is essentially giving up. But I also believe it is horribly dishonest to advocate this position without continually acknowledging how much the government has wantonly distorted the "economy" for many decades (at least since getting off the gold standard), essentially making Wall Street an insider-benefiting Potemkin Village. At this point anybody talking about needing to respect "the market" while not directing that focus onto government monetary policy (hello no-debate little-media-coverage multi-trillion-dollar March 2020 stonk market bailout with commercial bond buying continuing to this day) or regulatory givewaway to big business, is themselves part of this problem right alongside "Pelosi".