This, but unironically. If problems were easy to solve, they wouldn't be problems for very long.

That's a very simplistic perspective on politics. Most problems are not technocratic in nature, are not based on something being broken and needing a well-defined, easy-to-execute "fix". No, most problems involve complicated tradeoffs, conflicts of interest, distributional struggles, setting priorities and so on. And in the context of these conflict lines, elites are increasingly dismissive of the concerns of the little guys because addressing these concerns would be detrimental to their self-interest (and the bottom line of their corporate overlords), or detract from the ideological vision they have for the future.

To name some examples:

- devolution and localization of power versus the elite interest in centralizing power
- globalization, free trade vs tariffs, willingly opening up the domestic economy to global competition
- cancelling pipelines and cracking down on oil and gas for the sake of the climate versus keeping gas prices affordable for low and medium income folks
- (partially) defunding or neutering law enforcement for the sake of racial justice versus keeping crime low and communities safe (the elites live in low crime places anyway and could afford private security if necessary)

Disagree with these.

If we had made the proper investment we would probably already be virtually independent of fossil fuels. We're already to the point where green energy is cheaper. Imagine if we had made a real effort starting in 1975.

Defunding law enforcement is advocated for to make room for replacement services, such as mental healthcare workers responding to mental health emergencies. Where it's been tried it's been wildly successful.

Canadian oil doesn't effect our prices.. even more so when its not even running.

this has been super shitty in couple ways..
In my experience its not been cops it's been way too lenient court systems.. which makes the cops just give in, or they get told to "look the other way" I think it more of a local council issue than cop staffing.
The messaging about how to re allocate money so cops don't have to spend time with the guy stumbling drunk into Mc'D's has been dog shit.

This post was edited by theCrossbones on Nov 2 2021 04:28pm

I'm not talking about what we could have done better in the past, I'm talking about how the fight against climate change is carried out today. In particular, I'm talking about the question of who has to pay for it. Cracking down on oil and gas over night, before alternatives are widely available and affordable, means that the low and middle income folks have to bear the brunt.

(To make this clear: continuing to not do anything about it, like many conservatives would prefer, is not a good approach either because then the low and middle income folks will have bear the brunt of the unmitigated climate change at some point in the future.)


No, not everyone who's advocating for defunding law enforcement wants to do this to replace it with social services. Many of the leading activists of the 'defund the police' cause will bluntly tell you that they mean it literally, not in a wishy-washy "let's hire more mental healthcare workers"-sense.

Experiments with withdrawing law enforcement like CHAZ, the ongoing chaos in Portland or the exploding crime rates in places like Minneapolis show that this approach tends to fail.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 2 2021 04:34pm

It sounds like we're in agreement then?

It's hard to take you seriously when you're worried about fictional problems (the last 2). Globalization is a net gain for the little guy (in aggregate) and study after study confirms this. Yes, some of your white trash coal mining fans who want to die at age 45 of lung cancer will lose their job but we can easily ship them off to Africa to mine diamonds instead. As for localization, I think it really depends on the issue and I don't really have a firm stance on it.

We haven't cracked down on oil and gas over night. You're repeating propaganda... again

Yeah, there's some who have advocated for police abolition. Cool story. There's some people who think Biden is a robot. Propaganda... again.


Dude, you were doing good but you're sliding back into stupid shit.

It's really remarkable. I don't know how he functions in his own country that is so much more liberal than ours. I have a feeling that he is just upset that his party got its ass handed to them in the recent elections.

I'm mostly just annoyed that I can spell something out five times and he will nominally agree and then next week it's like that conversation never happened and he repeats the exact same shit.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/27/business/fracking-ban-biden-federal-leasing/index.html


Of course policies like these will have an immediate and an indirect impact on oil and gas production. When a new administration is making its stance on energy policy clear like that, it will of course have a chilling effect on the industry and stymie investment, which will eventually lead to soaring prices and a greater strategic dependence on Russia and the Middle East. If you seriously claim otherwise, you're living in a fantasy world.





Pretty simple: I'm not a very ideologically consistent guy; depending on the topic, my beliefs range from solidly left-of-center (even by German standards!) to hard right. You guys have a warped impression of me because the issues I'm mostly discussing here on PaRD are ones on which I happen to be very conservative.



Side note: the AfD is not "my" party, I actually disapprove of the direction they have taken in recent years and I do not consider them to be an effective opposition party.

Also, they lost two percentage points in a political environment which was much less advantageous to them than that of the 2017 election. And they suffered from a lot of infighting. And from a national media which is bending over backwards to give "their" topics as little oxygen as possible. Losing a little was the expected result for them and is a far cry from an asswhooping.

Relative to my expectations, the results of the German general election were a solid 6.5 out of 10. I'm not thrilled about it, but definitely not mad either.
/offtopic

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 2 2021 06:33pm