atlantic

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211.
by atlantic 8y ago
> Draw your own conclusions. I would conclude that you don't know how to argue, and that's why you prefer to take away your opponents' right to express themselves. On the flimsiest of evidence, you label me with a number o
212.
by atlantic 8y ago
> The whole thing is people need to surround themselves with a good number of people they disagree with on things. But this is not an easy thing to do, and so most people do not. Exactly. Except that you don't need to surround yours
213.
by atlantic 8y ago
> Hate speech is not free speech any more than contract killing is just a financial transaction. Personal anecdote. When I moved to the UK in the 1970, there was a little platform in Hyde Park called Speaker's Corner. Anyone could s
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by atlantic 8y ago
> I propose to instead privatize the detection, prosecution, and punishment of crime. Yes, because privatization of the prison system worked out so well, didn't it? So let's go the whole hog and privatize the entire justice sys
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by atlantic 8y ago
Imposing a trade embargo on Iran. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/here-are-iran-sanctions-retu...
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by atlantic 8y ago
Apparently, neither Qatar nor Turkey are following the script regarding Iran's diplomatic isolation. So they get punished in various ways. https://financialtribune.com/articles/domestic-economy/76877...
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by atlantic 8y ago
> You don't need propaganda to see for yourself that Cuba has no free elections. So far I'm with you. But so what? You seem to be implying that if a country's political system is non-democratic, then third parties are jus
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by atlantic 8y ago
Your suggestion sounds like a recipe for destroying the remaining unspoilt places. On the contrary, I would say: please go to the established tourist traps, or better yet, stay home. The whole concept of tourism is ludicrous.
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by atlantic 8y ago
Over the last two centuries, you would expect to find a direct causal link between industrialization and intelligence, as governments have introduced mass education for the first time, to create a skilled labour force. Because industrializa
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by atlantic 8y ago
India has 22 official languages. The US, by comparison, has two (ignoring the native languages of Hawaii and Alaska, which have a tiny number of speakers). That may give some indication of relative heterogeneity of the two countries.
221.
by atlantic 8y ago
Interesting point of view. Presumably, the views you agree with deserve respect, the others not so much. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
222.
by atlantic 8y ago
> There's a sort of meme which is like a lecture on how dangerous the world 'really' is, often to justify or advocate a lack of compassion. But on the other hand, compassion is not an absolute value either. Taken to extrem
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by atlantic 8y ago
I have to agree with you that the state should never have privatized the prison service. It sets itself up for all sorts of unintended consequences, the chief of which is lobbying by the prison-industrial complex for ever more severe senten
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by atlantic 8y ago
I think that what you mean is that being active non-stop is a natural state. Perhaps even being usefully active. But latching on to a single activity to the detriment of all other aspects of your life, and then collapsing on the couch for t
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by atlantic 8y ago
Health risks are not the only issue with age. The older you are as a parent, the more difficulty you have in relating to your children and communicating with them.
226.
by atlantic 8y ago
> Another way to look at it is for every day you don't work you have to spend a day in jail. No. This is false. When you land in prison, the duration of your sentence is fixed. You can't increase it, except by committing additi
227.
by atlantic 8y ago
> It feels instinctively wrong to tie prison time to pay - it should be tied to rehabilitation. You seem to be reasoning under the assumption that prison exists for rehabilitation. It doesn't. Incarceration serves to punish. And for
228.
by atlantic 8y ago
Interesting. I never heat or cool my house (other than opening the windows), and while not being particularly careful with my diet, I've never had any weight issues. I think your hypothesis merits further investigation.
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by atlantic 8y ago
2. No, it doesn't. No such thing as "the West". I live in a European country. We never made any such claim. "Manifest destiny" is specifically American. The expression itself is nonsensical in other languages. 3. No
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by atlantic 8y ago
Empires have been doing what empires do since the beginning of recorded history. The West is no exception in this respect.
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by atlantic 8y ago
That's the myth of democracy, yes. Glad to see there are still a few true believers. But in practice, 1/10^9 is the same as zero.
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by atlantic 8y ago
> it's the experiment that's never been replicated, not the conclusions > This doesn't in any way invalidate the conclusions, and while criticism of the method is entirely valid we have to acknowledge that this is a dat
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by atlantic 8y ago
> So are you saying wealth is distributed less socially in the EU than it is in the states? I've never heard that before but it could be right, I don't know the details of how countries contribute to the EU. I certainly have he
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by atlantic 8y ago
Read again. I'm explaining the connection between exchange rates and the balance of payments. Nothing even remotely controversial. Macroeconomics 101.
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by atlantic 8y ago
> eriously, I don't understand, what does a cheap currency (what does that even mean) have to do with trade surplus? The way international trade works in theory is like this: when a country is running a trade surplus, demand for its
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by atlantic 8y ago
If we follow your argument to its logical conclusion, then no company could be held responsible for its actions if more than a generation had passed, because all the constituent employees would then have left. But by the same logic, if comp
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by atlantic 8y ago
That's sophistry. You can take that line of argument to absolve anyone or anything from responsibility. For example, none of the cells in my body are the same as ten years ago, ergo this is not the same body as a decade ago. Or, there
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by atlantic 8y ago
Correct. The primary purpose of incarceration is retributive justice, not rehabilitation; and although the punishment will often lead the perpetrator to see the error of his ways, that is not the goal. In that sense, a prison sentence is al
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by atlantic 8y ago
The war is perfectly winnable, but not within the context of a democracy. Here you would need the equivalent of a state of emergency, lasting for perhaps a century, to force the necessary changes upon an unwilling public, who are quite happ
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by atlantic 8y ago
Obvious question: who decides who the dangerous people are? You?

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