Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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spottybrowncow
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by spottybrowncow »

Bob Butler wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 11:02 pm
I’m not one to care a lot about the infinite genders, but if you don’t have the courtesy and respect to honor people’s desires I would think less of you. Reds seem to think they have a right to insult people. I’m dubious.
No one actually "cares about infinite genders," except for a few sad mentally compromised people who are being used as pawns to accustom the masses to mind control. If people can get used to calling boys girls and girls boys or whatever else, that's a good start for getting them to accept other less seemingly innocuous "inconsistencies" that are sure to follow.

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Bob Butler
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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I see it as one aspect of tribal thinking against WIERD principle. The former divide the world into people like them and those who aren’t, and treat those who aren’t poorly. The more principled think everyone should be respected. You are making John’s mistake of inventing bogus motivation for those unlike you.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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Bob Butler wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 8:06 am
I see it as one aspect of tribal thinking against WIERD principle. The former divide the world into people like them and those who aren’t, and treat those who aren’t poorly. The more principled think everyone should be respected. You are making John’s mistake of inventing bogus motivation for those unlike you.
If you really believe that, you trust way too much. Not that I'm against trust - far from it, the world couldn't function very well without a lot of it. But the more healthy approach, as Reagan so eloquently stated, is to "trust, but verify" in matters of great importance. I view speech suppression as a matter of great importance, and I'm not buying your or anyone else's reasons for wanting to squelch it on the altar of political correctness.

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Bob Butler
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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I see treating other people well is a matter of great importance, and a habit of xenophobia, of looking for reasons to treat people poorly, as a poor choice.

spottybrowncow
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by spottybrowncow »

Treating people well does not include indulging made-up fantasies.
Here's a reference you may find useful https://quillette.com/tag/gender-dysphoria/

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Bob Butler
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

spottybrowncow wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:25 pm
Treating people well does not include indulging made-up fantasies.
Here's a reference you may find useful https://quillette.com/tag/gender-dysphoria/
I find many red do indulge in made-up fantasies and conspiracy theories. The big one lately is that the 2020 election was rigged. The most ridiculous one I've heard was about Jewish space lasers causing western wildfires. That's not the big thing here. The impending collapses and wars seem to be. They more or less count, but make sense if you are still into Industrial Age thinking.

As I've said, the gender stuff aren't a big thing for me.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

John wrote:
Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:54 pm
What distinguishes the American system of democracy, and other democracies as well, from the Chinese Communist dictatorship is that in a democracy, stupid delusional policies can be stopped by other politicians (possibly with different delusions). I always point to Mao's Great Leap Forward, which I've characterized as the stupidest and most disastrous policy of any country in the history of the world. Mao even shut down the country's Statistical Bureau when it began reporting results that he policy was failing, with the result that tens of millions of innocent Chinese died. That kind of thing could not happen in a democracy where there are countervailing political forces that prevent really stupid policies. So that's the difference between American democracy and the Chinese Communists: In China, there's nothing to stop the stupid, delusional, destructive policies of the leader, while in a democracy there is.
I can agree that the Great Leap Forward was a large mistake, and that autocracy has a tendency to advocate for their mistakes, to use propaganda so sell their poor policies. This is not, however, limited to autocracies. The recent trends towards censoring the CDC to force them to go along with political policies, the science denial regarding global warming, the politicizing of the Justice Department to serve the president and not the people are examples of small repeats of the Great Leap Forward.

I don’t disagree about how bad the autocracies are, but we should be careful to defend our democracy. To do that, it is a good idea to defend truth.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

spottybrowncow wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 9:13 am
John may feel this post may be more accurately placed in another thread, but I found this article so compelling that I wanted to put it where I think the most people will see it. It's the most detailed and believable analysis of what appears to be going on in the U.S. now that I've seen.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news ... ty-tyrants

I followed some but not all of the many included hyperlinks, and they all appear to accurately support the points made.
As always, if anyone spots misleading or fallacious claims in the text, I would ask them to share their observations with us.
The only nit is in the Agricultural Age it was cost effective (at least for the winner) to increase power and wealth through getting more territory. The limiting size on empires was the time it took for messages to reach the frontiers. Not as true in the Information Age. It is more profitable to play financial games than meddle in violence. Wars go insurgent and proxy. The locals are best at hiding among the locals. There is no trouble getting weapons. Financial games are safer.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by John »

** 20-Feb-2021 World View: Fourth Industrial Revolution
Bob Butler wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:42 pm
> The only nit is in the Agricultural Age it was cost effective (at
> least for the winner) to increase power and wealth through getting
> more territory. The limiting size on empires was the time it took
> for messages to reach the frontiers. Not as true in the
> Information Age. It is more profitable to play financial games
> than meddle in violence. Wars go insurgent and proxy. The locals
> are best at hiding among the locals. There is no trouble getting
> weapons. Financial games are safer.
Here's something that's right up your alley:

Biden was speaking at the European security meeting on Friday, and he
announced that the world is at a major inflection point between
democracy and dictatorship because we're in a "Fourth Industrial
Revolution."

I can only guess what Biden means, but it sounds like something you're
into.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... onference/

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Bob Butler
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

John wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:32 am
Here's something that's right up your alley:

Biden was speaking at the European security meeting on Friday, and he announced that the world is at a major inflection point between democracy and dictatorship because we're in a "Fourth Industrial Revolution."

I can only guess what Biden means, but it sounds like something you're into.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... onference/
Hmm. I am not sure what he means by the fourth industrial revolution either.

You could interpret the American Revolution as being about freeing the colonies from colonial imperialism. The US become an industrial country rather than a captive market and source of raw materials. If you accept that perspective, each subsequent crisis can be seen as effecting the progress towards industrialization. The US Civil War was about enabling a strong federal government answering to the Robber Barons, about ending the hold backs of the great agricultural landowners. The New Deal was about regulating the economy, about ending the periodic depressions common in the Gilded Age. This might be a fourth crisis involving an industrial element. All crisis seem to have an element of advancing an industrial revolution.

If I had a real desire to, I could advocate that perspective. But the earlier crises had other elements as well having nothing to do with an industrial revolution. Taxation without representation, rights, and the rest of the Enlightenment perspective. Freedom for the slaves. Containing autocratic temptation to expand. It would be a mistake to view the crises purely in terms of capitol. There are other elements which should be considered.

I see the current situation as a crisis, as solving the major problems confronting the culture. The crisis issues are COVID, the economy, systematic racism, red violence and global warming. There is not a lot of room for another industrial revolution in that. A fourth industrial revolution???

Apart from that, he seems to be affirming his long stated agenda. Reaffirming the old pre-Trump alliances. Promising to help red states and blue. Containment, with China, Russia, Iran and ISIS mentioned. A willingness to fight COVID and global warming. Trying to solve the problems of the culture after an administration that resisted or took the other side of each issue. Not much anything that is new regarding policy.

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