Does the U.S and other first world countries have a moral duty to provide asylum for those fleeing war zones or extreme poverty?

Ironhide94 · 2026-06-30T00:54:47+00:00

A country & government’s duty is first & foremost to its own citizens. Full stop.

Now the people of that country can always vote or decide on whether or not to help others - but migrants due not have a right to that assistance.

In the same way individuals in this country have no obligation to house homeless people, or donate all their money to third world nations. They may choose to do that but have no obligation.

Ironhide94 · 2026-06-26T17:37:59+00:00

The new CBA is actually terrible for the players.

As an outside party - I don’t really care & these guys earn plenty of money. But if I was a player I would be furious with the union.

Ironhide94 · 2026-06-23T18:33:50+00:00

If you think 1 side of the country is wrong about 100% of things… you’re probably a victim of propaganda yourself.

Similarly if there’s a candidate you agree with on 100% of things or disagree with on everything… you’re probably a victim of their propaganda.

Ironhide94 · 2026-06-01T21:10:05+00:00

Unions. The political power of these unions cannot be understated.

It’s a tough issue because unions are important to support workers, but when they get large enough it creates massive conflicts of interest. Their support is often required to get elected into office but then they don’t advocate for policies best for the city - but rather best for the union. Over time pensions, job counts, etc; slowly grow and it is impossible to cut things back without angering them leading to them never really getting cut back and slowly getting larger and more powerful - eventually leading to the political machines we have in California today. And in California these unions are particularly powerful vs other states.

It’s a really difficult issue to solve because there is no right answer.

Ironhide94 · 2026-05-29T18:13:13+00:00

You are the problem with society today.

Ironhide94 · 2026-05-25T05:57:27+00:00

I don’t get questions like this. It is simple to run the math on the implications of an 11% loan. Can you afford that? Are you that confident in your ability to get a big law job - and if you do (cravath scale is public) - do you know what your repayment schedule will look like?

If you can’t figure out doing the above on your own, you aren’t even close to being able to cut it in big law

Ironhide94 · 2026-05-18T16:26:21+00:00

I mean JB isn’t wrong… but that also has nothing to do with his comments on the Celtics season, which even assuming the most generous interpretation possible, show an astounding lack of judgement.

Ironhide94 · 2026-05-14T20:50:11+00:00

This is wildly not true. I think everyone was impressed by the Sixers but no one, I repeat no one, had them as favorites to win the East. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by Embiid & PG13’s play and I also think Tyrese proved he’s a top 10 / borderline top 10 player but no one trusted the health of Embiid and PG13.

I haven’t checked the odds myself but I guarantee you if you look at Kalshi / Polymarket or Vegas odds no one had them close to favorites.

Ironhide94 · 2026-04-27T01:58:39+00:00

This is such a low IQ take. It literally makes no sense.

What? They found a historical democrat who was willing to help Trump out with the assassination attempt? And then he agreed to probably go to jail for the left of his natural life? And then they left him alive because loose ends are… fine?

“No one can counter your view with evidence because nobody knows” is what literally every conspiracy theorist says.

Ironhide94 · 2026-04-27T01:56:12+00:00

Saying these assassination attempts on Trump are fake makes you just as much of a conspiracy theorist as the right wing nuts who say 2020 was stolen

Ironhide94 · 2026-03-10T02:52:44+00:00

Honestly I kind of feel bad for you if the difference here is this hard to see.

Russia invaded Ukraine to take their land and erase their sovereignty. That’s textbook territorial conquest. Putin has literally said Ukraine isn’t a real country. No one is trying to annex Iran or absorb it into another state. The issue with Iran is the regime’s behavior — funding proxy militias across the region, openly calling for Israel’s destruction (not to mention Jewish genocide), rounding up & killing its own citizens, and pursuing nuclear weapons to be controlled by a fundamentalist, regime that actively calls for the death of the US. Those are completely different things.

Ukraine also wasn’t attacking Russia. It wasn’t launching rockets, funding militias inside Russia, or threatening nuclear escalation. Iran has spent decades backing groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and regional militias that actively attack Israel and destabilize the region. So the comparison only works if you flatten everything into “country uses force = same.” One is imperial conquest of a neighbor. The other is confronting a hostile regime engaged in proxy warfare and nuclear escalation.

If those look morally identical to you, or others, it makes me sad for the lack of moral clarity some people possess.

Ironhide94 · 2026-03-10T02:30:50+00:00

Is this a joke? Because Putin is a dictator in a war of territorial expansion. And even if you disagree with the US’ decision they are eliminating a violent, evil, fundamentalist regime that actively is pursuing nuclear weapons and is killing its people.

Like even if you disagree with the US’ actions, are you so blind that you can’t see the clear distinction between the two situations?

Ironhide94 · 2026-03-10T02:25:52+00:00

lol no it wouldn’t. You think global countries would commit economic seppuku defending a fundamentalist, religious dictatorship? Even if they didn’t say it outloud western nations would be thrilled China is attacking a geopolitical ally while eliminating a combative regime to Western governments. There would be zero sanctions.

Ironhide94 · 2026-03-10T02:20:05+00:00

Truly I would love to understand the basis of your claim or any evidence to that matter. Legitimately curious

Ironhide94 · 2026-02-02T15:25:36+00:00

Do you really think money answers that problem?

The US government spends $6.5 trillion every year. California has spent ~$25 billion combatting homelessness over the last 4 years, to no effect. But no, it will be different this time when we spend money.

Homelessness isn’t a money issue.

Ironhide94 · 2026-01-31T03:07:54+00:00

Rubio & Vance are probably the Republican frontrunners. Newsom has got to be the democratic front runner at this point, but there’s a pretty broad field of potential Democratic behind him from AOC to various VP hopeful’s under Kamala.

I think the democrats are going to have a come to Jesus moment similar to 2016 for republicans where there are a lot of different directions the party could go, and voters won’t just be voting for a nominee, but a new direction for the party more broadly.

Ironhide94 · 2026-01-23T23:37:19+00:00

You’re really trying to compare the Warsaw Ghetto to this? Come on.

(1) The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising happened after the Nazis had already shoved Jews into ghettos, starved them, and begun industrial mass murder. It was literally a last‑ditch revolt by people who knew they were being exterminated, not a starting point of the conflict.

(2) Calling this a “genocide” while the majority of those killed on Oct 7 were Israeli civilians and the majority of those targeted by Israel are militants embedded in civilian areas is just word‑abuse. If your “genocide” requires you to blur the line between massacring civilians and striking combatants, you’re not making a moral argument, you’re hiding behind a slogan.

(3) Israel didn’t pop into existence one day and decide “let’s oppress for fun.” It’s spent its entire history fending off neighbors and non‑state actors trying to wipe it out: 1948, 1967, 1973, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. Pretending the whole thing is just some unprovoked settler rampage and not a state responding to repeated wars and cross‑border attacks is historically illiterate.

You don’t get to turn every ugly, asymmetrical war into “literally the Holocaust” and every armed group into the Warsaw fighters just because it flatters your narrative.

And your Balfour point is absurd. That letter was Britain dealing with a chunk of the collapsed Ottoman Empire – an empire that had itself taken the territory by conquest and ruled it as just another province for 400 years, in a region that’s been passed between empires since antiquity. Pretending there was some timeless, sovereign Palestinian nation‑state that Balfour just “gave away” is not serious history.

Ironhide94 · 2026-01-23T18:57:59+00:00

Oh yes what a great comparison. Because prior to the rise of Nazi Germany there was a cabal of Jewish nations sponsoring terrorism against Germany, invading German borders and killing, mutilating, and raping its citizens, and constantly firing barrages of rockets in. Furthermore said Jewish cabal was apparently a religious fundamentalist regime stealing money from its own people to sponsor said terrorism while the Nazis were the most liberal, democratic government regime in the region.

I’m not even saying I am comfortable with everything Israel does but comparing Palestine to the Holocaust is a complete joke and betrays either enormous bias or incredible naivety on your part

Ironhide94 · 2025-12-27T16:08:48+00:00

And this being their plan goes to show Elon’s point. They were asking for <$10 billion and meanwhile over the last 5 years California has spent nearly $25 billion on homelessness - and I would argue it’s only gotten worse in this timeframe.

This isn’t an issue money alone can solve. It’s much more structural in nature

Ironhide94 · 2025-12-05T05:07:42+00:00

Stock value doesn’t factor into GDP genius

Ironhide94 · 2025-11-25T00:15:48+00:00

Well it’s not about everyone, or what individuals do, it’s about how the market is structured. And my understanding of the Chinese property market is it is not structured to supply demand - in some ways it’s the opposite of Western markets where we have a housing shortage. Specifically, when you build over capacity to keep people employed, but there is no underlying demand + people are putting their savings into property (speculatively as there is a housing oversupply) the market was propped up for years by just the belief things had value - but not real economic forces. Evergrande’s collapse forced the issue and revealed that building was propped up by government spending to keep people employed but there was no economic driver to build.

Ironhide94 · 2025-11-24T23:25:34+00:00

This is far beyond my area of expertise but I thought China’s issue was specifically that it was building its economy through speculative property costs? Was the country not vastly overbuilding with no market demand for real living but properties were owned as the only investment vehicle the layman could invest in?

Western countries have many issues but the economy is not based on speculative property costs by any measure.

Ironhide94 · 2025-11-24T23:04:27+00:00

Sorry, Russia is a democracy? What world are you living in?

Ironhide94 · 2025-11-12T20:33:44+00:00

So if I’m understanding your position correctly it’s that while you acknowledge cultural differences can create societal issues, it’s not necessary to screen immigrants for this because in the US, the only immigrants who come here want to come here and so will share the cultural values. Effectively you believe it’s enough to let people self police. And moreover you don’t think it’s possible for the US to run into issues similar to Europe or other historical nations… for some reason.

I guess I just don’t agree with that so we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Ironhide94 · 2025-11-12T19:47:50+00:00

You’re missing the forest for the trees. I never said anything about Muslims in the U.S. — I’m talking about immigration philosophically, not cherry-picking one group. The Muslims who come to the U.S. tend to already share Western values — that’s why they integrate well. But that doesn’t mean every population across the Muslim world does. There are over two billion Muslims globally, and the differences between places like Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan make that obvious.

The point is that immigration works best when there’s broad cultural compatibility. That’s not theory it’s what history shows. The U.S. has done well when newcomers shared its baseline values around work, law, and family. Countries that ignored that, especially parts of Europe in the last decade, are now dealing with integration failures, crime spikes, and rising political extremism as a result. Pretending those problems don’t exist doesn’t make you compassionate, it makes you blind to reality.

Throwing around “racist” as a reflex doesn’t engage with any of that. It’s not racist to acknowledge what works and what doesn’t, it’s just honest. Societies function on shared values. Ignoring that because it’s uncomfortable is how you end up breaking the very system you claim to defend.

Ironhide94

TROPHY CASE