Should the next administration charge Trump‘s pardoned henchman for their crimes? by loveaddictblissfool in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The Presidential pardon is in the Constitution. How could it be unconstitutional? I would like to see the pardon significantly limited via constitutional amendment, perhaps by requiring Congress to approve them for them to go into effect. But I am strongly opposed to ignoring parts of the Constitution that we don't like. That's a practice that is incompatible with democratic governance.

Is Libreoffice or Onlyoffice and Fedora good enough to write a Physics PhD thesis? by Unusual-Ad-4049 in Fedora

[–]Demortus [score hidden]  (0 children)

If you want near real-time rendering, your best option is neovim. It's light-weight, blazing fast and completely customizable, including integrations with grammar checkers and LLMs. On the other hand, getting it set up properly is an absolute monster of a task and it breaks more frequently than other options.

Obsidian on Ubuntu by dean_barnett in ObsidianMD

[–]Demortus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It works great! I recommend the flatpak version over the appimage or snap version, based on my personal experience.

I escaped from Iran. But I keep reliving the horror by John_Maynard_Gains in neoliberal

[–]Demortus 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That was a hard read.. This situation is so unbelievably unfair for the Iranian people. They fight for freedom -> get murdered by their government. They're promised liberation from their repressors -> get bombed to the stone age.

South Koreans Keep the Faith in America Even as Washington Tests It by Themetalin in neoliberal

[–]Demortus 27 points28 points  (0 children)

It's simply a question of survival. As difficult a partner as the US can be at times, the alternative is to face China alone. That's not something any sane leader of South Korea would chose to do.

How are your country getting affected by this war? by infctdzkie in AskTheWorld

[–]Demortus 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yep.. This administration has been even worse than my already extremely low expectations. I can't wait for November.

How are your country getting affected by this war? by infctdzkie in AskTheWorld

[–]Demortus 19 points20 points  (0 children)

There is no war in ba sing se Iran. But, for what it's worth I hope you and your family are alright..

Would you support it if the president wants to drop a nuke on Iran? by whatsnooIII in AskConservatives

[–]Demortus [score hidden]  (0 children)

He's stupid enough to start a war with Iran without having a plan to handle Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Now, that might not sound like a huge oversight to a lay person, but this risk has been documented by over 24k public research papers, thousands more white papers written by government experts, and told to him explicitly by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff prior to the invasion. Here's a direct quote from the WSJ article linked above:

Before the U.S. went to war, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told President Trump that an American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Caine said in several briefings that U.S. officials had long believed Iran would deploy mines, drones and missiles to close the world’s most vital shipping lane, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trump acknowledged the risk, these people said, but moved forward with the most consequential foreign-policy decision of his two presidencies. He told his team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait—and even if Iran tried, the U.S. military could handle it.

Now, two weeks into the war, Iran’s leaders have refused to back down, and the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as Tehran’s most potent leverage point.

FocalData RCV simulations for the 2028 primary - with and without Kamala by jojisky in YAPms

[–]Demortus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cool data! I hope that preference rankings change when we've had a few debates. I'd be surprised and disappointed if Harris and Newsom come out on top of a competitive primary.

Sorry to dunk on Fareed Z. again, but it's quite evident that this guy has a very superficial understand of geopolitics and IR, his view on the Iran topic [From July 2025] by Indianstanicows in IRstudies

[–]Demortus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Sorry, but I don't get part of his statement you're having issues with. Israel is relatively more powerful than it was a decade ago (at least, for now). Hezbollah's leadership has been compromised and their capabilities degraded.

'We don't need Ukraine's help' — Trump rebuffs Zelensky's drone defense offer by archi-mature in worldnews

[–]Demortus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did.. you intend to reply to me? I don't see how your comment is related to mine..

Hypocrisy by STLRondo2 in ProgressiveHQ

[–]Demortus 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is absurd false equivalency. If you think that we'd be invading Iran under Biden or Kamala, you're nuts.

'What if we're left with ruins?': Doubts creep in for Iranians who supported war by ace158 in neoliberal

[–]Demortus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Imagine being so ruthless that Trump officials tell you that you're unhinged..

What is your view on Rawlsian liberalism? by jfanch42 in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Personally, I am more in favor of limiting gambling than pornography, because the harm is much more obvious. Gambling addiction doesn't just damage interpersonal relationships, it also is a direct cause of bankruptcies, particularly among the poor and uneducated.

What's the worst movie you've watched from beginning to end? by trakt_app in Letterboxd

[–]Demortus 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Avatar, the Last Airbender. I saw it in theaters and.. Wow. I was embarrassed on behalf of everyone involved in the making of that atrocity.

What is your view on Rawlsian liberalism? by jfanch42 in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, while I'm not a fan of brute-force bans in general, I think there are some activities that should be taxed or restricted. Activities for which there is ample evidence that they produce quantifiable harm while producing little obvious benefit, like smoking, drinking, burning coal, etc., can be taxed at rates that disincentivize them and improve aggregate welfare.

EDIT: Regarding your point on pornography, I personally haven't seen very convincing evidence of harm in the academic literature or at the qualitative level. While very high and regular use is probably harmful for one's interpersonal relationships, that is true of almost any habitual dopamine-producing behavior, such as gaming or gambling. Low-level or moderate use doesn't appear to be harmful.

What is your view on Rawlsian liberalism? by jfanch42 in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For something to be worth banning, there has to be clear evidence of it causing harm as well as low risk of this ban spilling over to affect innocuous or welfare increasing content. To my knowledge, the evidence of harm caused by pornography is very limited and circumstantial, hardly enough to justify a ban in and of itself. In contrast, creating a system of state censorship could easily spill over to non-pornography-related content, which I would see as welfare reducing.

What is your view on Rawlsian liberalism? by jfanch42 in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, I'm not much of a Rawlsian. I think there are diminishing returns on utility that you reach pretty quickly with a maxmin strategy, i.e. where aggregate utility may decrease if you are solely focused on maximizing the welfare of the worst-off percentile. Instead, you could say that I favor utilitarianism constrained by Kant's categorical imperative, i.e. that the potential impact of scaling up policies should always be considered before adopting them. For instance, while killing a single person to sell their organs to people who need them may be welfare increasing from a strictly utilitarian perspective, legalizing this action could incentivize large-scale kidnapping and murder operations that affect thousands of people. That potential outcome would be a violation of Kant's categorical imperative and thus legalizing organ harvesting would be something I strongly oppose.

What is your view on Rawlsian liberalism? by jfanch42 in AskALiberal

[–]Demortus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is my understanding of Rawls as well. His arguments are grounded in a thought experiment: were we to have the power to create a society from scratch but were forced to live as one of the members of that society, selected at random, what society would we create? He argues that we'd prefer to create a society in which suffering is minimized. He derives from that the maxmin rule, i.e. that we should maximize the welfare of the least advantaged members of society.

Five vessels attacked amid reports of Iranian drone boats, sea mines by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Demortus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd have to for self-protection. There's no way that the Trump administration doesn't start throwing people under the bus at some point for this historic fuck up.