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I think it's cool that you're passionate about this stuff, try boiling it down to the essentials though. With all the self-deprecation and laundry list of ques

I think it's cool that you're passionate about this stuff, try boiling it down to the essentials though. With all the self-deprecation and laundry list of questions, you lost me. When I saw alan_cx put criticisms of the huge US military alongside arguments for socialized healthcare, I detected possible weakness. I thought something like, "growing the government makes it grow!" It's like there's this odd static thinking some statists exhibit - like "we can vastly increase the government's power, but only just in this one corner with health care." But that's willful ignorance, that's not how things work. When you get a big expansion, budgets and authority swell for the whole thing including in the nasty bits like military and intelligence and through data mining/sharing between agencies. You won't make headway trying to out-wonk someone on the ACA who is so clearly sold on the idea of socialized medicine. On that issue, the guy is a belieber. :)

robomartin 13y ago
You are probably right. And yes, I am passionate about this stuff. When I was younger all I cared about was tech. I was utterly ignorant about everything else. Without knowing it I let media and tribal behavior dictate what I thought and who I voted for. As I got older and started to run into government at every corner as an entrepreneur I started to ask questions. I didn't like the answers. Now I feel we are at an inflection point. There's a need to have some passion because our government has gone insane and seems to be on a mission to destroy us from the inside. No, this isn't some grand plan. They are too stupid for that. This is simply a natural side effect of what the political "species" does for survival. This is like bacteria "concerned" about maximizing their local results yet, if without resistance, will easily consume and kill the entire organism. The bacteria don't plan on killing the entire organism, it just happens. That's what our government is doing. If people would only pull back far enough to see it...
- EdSharkey 13y ago
  I have had the same thoughts about inflection points and political class doing whatever they need to do to stay in power and the like. It all sounds good, but I always had the feeling that failed to explain everything that's going on. I have personally come to the conclusion that US politicians today are just limo drivers for the banksters and the business elites who get to dictate where the limo goes from the comfy (and safe) back seat. I interpret messages from ultra rich/powerful types (like Mort Zuckerman) to mean that they have a worry about a race/class war against the rich that could wipe them out in a NY minute. It's a rational concern, things do seem to be slowly turning against the power elites. If class riots truly are the big worry of the rich, then gov't entitlements aren't altruism or charity, they're gifts intended to placate the masses. Mass riot worries could also explain why local police departments are getting armored vehicles and military training from the feds. And it could explain why the IRS/surveillance state seems so preoccupied with weekend/holiday dissenters like those in the "tea party". I don't have any answers for our social problems; I think we're screwed because of all the corruption. That doesn't stop me from questioning the motives of those that claim to have the answers.
  - robomartin 13y ago
    Well, that is certainly a different twist in the plot.

robomartin 13y ago

You are probably right. And yes, I am passionate about this stuff. When I was younger all I cared about was tech. I was utterly ignorant about everything else. Without knowing it I let media and tribal behavior dictate what I thought and who I voted for. As I got older and started to run into government at every corner as an entrepreneur I started to ask questions. I didn't like the answers. Now I feel we are at an inflection point. There's a need to have some passion because our government has gone insane and seems to be on a mission to destroy us from the inside. No, this isn't some grand plan. They are too stupid for that. This is simply a natural side effect of what the political "species" does for survival. This is like bacteria "concerned" about maximizing their local results yet, if without resistance, will easily consume and kill the entire organism. The bacteria don't plan on killing the entire organism, it just happens. That's what our government is doing. If people would only pull back far enough to see it...

EdSharkey 13y ago
I have had the same thoughts about inflection points and political class doing whatever they need to do to stay in power and the like. It all sounds good, but I always had the feeling that failed to explain everything that's going on. I have personally come to the conclusion that US politicians today are just limo drivers for the banksters and the business elites who get to dictate where the limo goes from the comfy (and safe) back seat. I interpret messages from ultra rich/powerful types (like Mort Zuckerman) to mean that they have a worry about a race/class war against the rich that could wipe them out in a NY minute. It's a rational concern, things do seem to be slowly turning against the power elites. If class riots truly are the big worry of the rich, then gov't entitlements aren't altruism or charity, they're gifts intended to placate the masses. Mass riot worries could also explain why local police departments are getting armored vehicles and military training from the feds. And it could explain why the IRS/surveillance state seems so preoccupied with weekend/holiday dissenters like those in the "tea party". I don't have any answers for our social problems; I think we're screwed because of all the corruption. That doesn't stop me from questioning the motives of those that claim to have the answers.
- robomartin 13y ago
  Well, that is certainly a different twist in the plot.