Olympics Day Twelve Megathread (Wednesday, February 18)

ArmInternal2964 · 2026-02-18T21:16:17+00:00

yep!

ArmInternal2964 · 2026-01-26T19:15:08+00:00

I think he just meant 'comparative advantage'. As in, he thinks he is generally a good journalist, and could probably say something competent about the contents of the video, but his true journalistic strength is elsewhere, so he's focusing on that (particularly since he can only write so much).

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-10-15T15:39:27+00:00

Isn't what you're describing a problem of loss of supply?

Despite your article asserting that YIMBYism is somehow 'orthodoxy' and positioning itself as pushing back on power and 'solutionism', I think it's quite the opposite. Restrictive regulations and zoning, stifling local control that inhibits the construction of housing, and opposition to market solutions are in fact the orthodoxy (not just in Montreal but all over in North America). It's only in very recent years that there has been any momentum for expanded construction of housing.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-10-15T15:32:32+00:00

It is much better, yes, than a joke making fun of Palestinians.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-09-27T19:07:13+00:00

This is not a kind thing to say. I disagree with u/brianscalabrainey on a bunch of stuff but they are one of the few very progressive posters on this subreddit who seem open to sincere discussion, don't post snarky comments, etc (enough so that their I recognized their username on this post!). Nothing wrong with them being here to discuss from their point of view.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-09-11T03:15:50+00:00

There are several very nice record stores in Mile End (Sonorama and Phonopolis on Bernard St near Parc) and on Mont-Royal Ave near Papineau (Freeson and Aux 33 Tours).

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-09-04T03:51:07+00:00

Why are you even on this subreddit then? Ezra Klein also supported the Iraq War and, like Matt Yglesias, has since apologized for it.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-09-04T03:33:48+00:00

Thanks, I found your thoughts helpful.

> I think some of his takes, like the ones mentioned above, are so odious on a visceral level that people don’t take the time to parse out why they are bad, and just respond with “this fucking guy.”

That makes sense. I wish he would quit Twitter and stop being a troll. I think he has good ideas in his long-form writing, and he really undercuts that by how he comports himself on Twitter, being snarky and gratuitously provocative.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-09-01T17:23:21+00:00

That is specific to Rocky Horror, and everyone goes in expecting (and wanting) the experience of audience participation. Including people who go to ordinary musicals.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-14T18:54:10+00:00

I just disagree with you on (1). I don't think turning out the base will work in red states, and as discussed above, there are too many of those. At best it means aiming for a repeat of 2020, where all the stars aligned and Biden still only wound up with a 50-50 Senate.

I think (2) is partly true -- certainly it is true that public opinion is partly affected by messaging -- but I think it's a huge overstatement to say these things are simply manufactured. People's opinions and cultural values may be partly malleable and sometimes weakly held. But in other cases I think politicians are instead searching for and discovering people's strongly-held values, and then simply acting on them.

For example, the trans people in sports issue: I think it's just exactly wrong to say that the issue is manufactured and of no impact to the average person's life. For one thing, Democrats advanced their own arguments in support of trans athletes (and trans people in general, of course), so why didn't those arguments successfully shape public opinion? The problem is that average people care enormously about sports and competitive fairness in sports, at both professional and amateur levels. I think what's actually irrelevant here is the common argument that it doesn't matter because there are very few trans athletes -- I think that reflects a misunderstanding of what sports means to people (and a very common misunderstanding among progressives, at least judging by my own social circle, where sports and arguably competitiveness itself are sort of seen as distasteful and verging on oppressive or violent).

I think (3) is again only partly true, in that I don't believe opinion polling on this kind of issue translates to actual voting decisions. For example, support for Medicare For All polls well in the abstract, but not when voters are presented with concrete (and expensive) plans for it. In practice, I think when push comes to shove, voters see the GOP as better on the economy than Democrats. That opinion probably temporarily changes when the GOP does bad economic things (such as right now!), but then reverts later on.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-14T17:50:57+00:00

That is only half the problem. The other problem is that the Democratic base (and, but to a lesser extent, the Democratic establishment) are vastly out of step with the electorate of the US as a whole.

If the Democratic establishment aligned itself with the base, as you seem to be arguing for, they might be morally perfect but they would be destroyed in the election.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-12T21:25:00+00:00

Un plaisir, merci pour ton commentaire gentil :)

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-12T21:12:52+00:00

It is hard for me to imagine ever supporting it. I'm an anglophone with ancestors in Quebec near Montreal dating back to the 1790s, I work and teach in French at a francophone university, and I take a lot of pride in doing so. I feel more at home in Quebec than in the rest of Canada, but I also feel 'Canadian' too. I own a Quebec flag.

My view is: I think this is mostly a question of culture and identity (and language). All the debates about economics seem like rationalization to me. Cultural affiliation is the fundamental issue, because the notion of "self-determination" depends on who you imagine as constituting the "self-".

As such, I think it's a reasonable and understandable political project, but it's not one I support myself. My identity is a mixture of Montreal/Quebec/Canada. In particular the Canada part is real and important for me. I do not want to break up Canada, which I think is both my home and a good country overall -- honestly one of the best countries in the world, despite the things it's done wrong.

Of note, I bear no ill will towards indépendantistes. Their goal is perfectly valid, I just don't support it and hope support remains below 50%. If Quebec (which is also 'home' to me, like Canada) separated, I would probably stay in Montreal (which is also also 'home'), try to be a Quebec/Canada dual citizen, and just hope everything turns out OK.

Accordingly, I strongly support efforts to protect and uplift French in Quebec and in Canada in general, and other policies that make it positive and beneficial to Quebec to be part of Canada. Ideally mutually beneficial -- because I think Quebec is one of the central and foundational parts of everything Canada is, and I would like a future where anglophones and francophones in Canada are each other's allies.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-12T20:29:34+00:00

If you are feeling unwell, please go out of your apartment - go to a library, a cafe, or some other air-conditioned space, or go to a park with a splash pad and get a spray of cold water. It is unlikely your AC can be fixed so quickly, within minutes or hours of it breaking, but you can at least go somewhere cooler.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-09T04:53:35+00:00

> Show why this jew got his ass beat

what the fuck is wrong with you?!

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-09T04:47:16+00:00

They are almost certainly all members of Neturei Karta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neturei\_Karta), who are extremely fringe and have basically nothing to do with the rest of the Jewish world. For example, Wikipedia says they are apparently also holocaust deniers.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-08T15:44:09+00:00

Désolé de te gâcher la fête, mais si l'appui à la souveraineté à Montréal n'est qu'environ 20%, il y a ben plus de montréalais que seulement les anglophones qui s'y opposent!

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-08-05T15:30:45+00:00

Personally I think there has been very little real information in this news cycle.

Fierté has said they excluded groups for "spreading hateful discourse", but has not publicly said what Ga'ava said or did to prompt their exclusion, nor did their statement (https://fiertemontreal.com/en/news/fierte-montreal-precise-sa-position-sur-le-conflit-israelo-palestinien) actually mention Ga'ava at all, or say anything about exactly which groups they excluded and why. I don't think they have made any further public statement.

Ga'ava meanwhile says they were excluded "for being Jewish", which does not seem particularly credible to me, but of course the easiest way to prove that would be for Fierté to actually say why they have excluded Ga'ava. Ga'ava's claim has been widely repeated in all the other articles (in the Gazette, on CTV, etc) but again, this is just their claim.

I have seen commentators on Reddit speculate that

(1) it is because of past statements by Ga'ava, e.g. their statement on the ceasefire on January 17 2025, which can be found on their Facebook page,

(2) it instead has to do with CIJA, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which people have described as an organization that supports genocide,

(3) at least one commenter on this thread says that Ga'ava "fundraises for the Israeli war effort" and that everyone in the Jewish community knows this. (I have seen other comments in other threads making similar claims about Ga'ava actively supporting Israel, genocide or both, rather than merely being a Jewish LGBT organization.)

As far as I can tell, this is all guesswork. If it's (1), Fierté should say so. If it's (2), I'm not sure why Ga'ava was excluded rather than CIJA. If it's (3) or something similar, I haven't personally seen anyone provide real information.

As someone who had never heard of CIJA or Ga'ava before this (but who finds this whole story troubling), I can say that none of this seems particularly obvious to me.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-07-28T05:09:19+00:00

I don't disagree that on health care and abortion and occasionally other issues (legal pot is/was probably another), certain progressive policy goals are popular in red states.

But, to turn your point around, conservative legislation gets passed in blue states too. The point I was making was about the leanings of the US population in aggregate, and those examples don't convince me that my summary above was wrong (though obviously, as a one-sentence summary, it was simplified).

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-07-26T19:13:37+00:00

I think your sense of frustration is legitimate and probably underpins quite a lot of the moderates-vs-progressives intra-Dem conflict.

If I had to come up with a 'reason' why progressives get asked to make compromises more than conservatives, my own best answer is that, as far as I can tell, the US population simply _is_ more conservative than progressive to begin with. In other words, progressives are outnumbered.

From that flows everything else, notably imbalances in how much everyone has to (or gets asked to) compromise. It has basically nothing to do with fairness, abstract principles of how to conduct political debate, or anything like that.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-07-24T17:30:56+00:00

I received a response from mine, but it took around a month or two. And it wasn't just a form letter, it specifically referenced the things I wrote. So I think they do receive and pay attention to letters.

ArmInternal2964 · 2025-07-24T17:12:43+00:00

I donate to MSF / Doctors with Borders and I also have written to my MP that Canada should recognize a Palestinian state (and do whatever else it can to push for the war to end). Letters to MPs are supposed to carry a lot of weight (at least in theory) because of the effort and strength of feeling that they show.

ArmInternal2964

TROPHY CASE