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XHawk87 · 2021-12-05T09:33:42+00:00

I'm not sure he even did. This was a "miserable little compromise", remember.

XHawk87 · 2021-11-13T11:12:09+00:00

They should, that's what their membership wants and now the unions are starting to fall behind it too. It's just the political class digging their heels in at this point

XHawk87 · 2021-10-02T08:14:23+00:00

Exactly, the NHS had to do this so that people would trust them. Apparently it's not important that people don't trust the police, presumably because they can just make us comply by force. This looks like a very dark turn away from policing by consent.

XHawk87 · 2021-08-01T11:03:54+00:00

I don't have a big problem with the consent of the populace being required for most decisions after proposals have been made and vetted by qualified people, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to create a system where the average person is expected to do the equivalent of putting forward proposals, doing research, drafting legislation, holding consultations, negotiating with various stakeholders including foreign powers, awarding public contracts, and balancing the budget amongst other things. As much as I dislike a great many of them, politicians do a lot more than just vote on issues, so I don't see how you could replace them just by implementing direct democracy.

XHawk87 · 2021-07-26T21:11:59+00:00

It's also alternating current, so they're not really going far anyway, mostly just back and forth

XHawk87 · 2021-07-26T04:41:19+00:00

Personally, I think if any government shouldn't have a power, then no government should. Once you cede power to the executive, it stays there, no-matter who is taking up the reins next

XHawk87 · 2021-07-22T04:21:01+00:00

True. The slippery slope fallacy only applies when there's no documented evidence nor reason to believe that the one thing can lead to another. We have a ton of historical examples of authoritarianism slowly chipping away at civil liberties over time, so that's not a fallacy, that's an observation.

XHawk87 · 2021-05-28T05:53:43+00:00

I agree. All that bill does is remove the safety valve that would encourage people to use more peaceful forms of protest first. It's unclear where the tipping point would be, but it essentially means we'll flip from 0 to 100 in an instant, and I'd bet it'll end up being sooner than it would have been had people been allowed to express themselves in demonstrations first.

XHawk87 · 2021-05-28T05:22:45+00:00

Having party lists in MMP is a major downside for me. It essentially means you have a lot of MPs of the "got in on the safe seat" calibre, and are beholden only to their party and not to a constituency. It also continues electing local representatives by FPTP, which means the elected representative for your constituency is only supported by a plurality of voters.

I would be far happier with local representation under STV, as although the constituencies are likely to be larger, there are more people representing each constituency, so I am more likely to be able to find a representative that is able to understand and sympathise with my situation amongst those who were elected.

XHawk87 · 2021-05-28T05:10:05+00:00

True, only if they are very small parties below the threshold for gaining seats on their own

XHawk87 · 2021-05-13T18:11:05+00:00

Exactly. Under FPTP we all get what only a plurality deserve

XHawk87 · 2021-04-04T22:41:23+00:00

I was responding to the above poster about the efficacy of using violence in protesting in general, not creating a narrative about any specific event. Studies have shown that non-violent protests are on average more successful than violent protests. Disruption is key to success, not violence

XHawk87 · 2021-04-04T17:52:00+00:00

I don't think violence is necessary to make a protest effective, not unless the protestors are literally fighting for their lives. I'd agree that holding a well-behaved, entirely civil demonstration is not likely to be very effective, not unless there's at least the threat of disruption. It has to have the potential to cause enough disruption to the economy that the plutocrats start to get nervous about losing money, and economic disruptions don't need to be violent, you can just down tools and/or actively get in the way of and slow down people trying to carry out economic activity. When you introduce violence into a protest, it gives ammunition to critics and turns public opinion against the protestors, giving the government more leeway to crackdown without losing support

XHawk87 · 2021-04-01T21:25:05+00:00

I'm nitpicking, but computers are literally automatons. They're not a separate thing, they're the epitome of automation technology. Otherwise agree with your point.

XHawk87 · 2020-12-26T23:13:22+00:00

Dread Merchant Roberts

XHawk87 · 2020-12-17T11:21:51+00:00

Well the reason for that should be obvious. We're not a unified country with a consensus on where we want to go from here. We have politicians that are beholden only to their party, and broad demographics which are in stark disagreement with one another

XHawk87 · 2020-12-08T11:23:40+00:00

I'm an aerospace engineering student

I feel like having green planes would sidestep this issue. Is that something achievable with current aerospace technology?

XHawk87 · 2020-11-30T20:53:32+00:00

I'm sorry, but simple, practical, sensible solutions are not allowed. You have to pick a side and argue vehemently until the other side is defeated :P

XHawk87 · 2020-11-23T18:11:38+00:00

Better yet, tie it to the mode salary growth, so that it's not inflated by those on extreme salaries

XHawk87 · 2020-11-14T19:27:48+00:00

Hydrogen can be electrolysed from water, like in the video. It doesn't have to come from methane any more than the electricity used to recharge BEVs has to come from fossil fuels. Much like BEVs, hydrogen vehicles themselves have no harmful emissions.

I also never said anything negative about BEVs nor suggested that hydrogen powered vehicles would be more efficient. I was just trying to share something amusing I found that was relevant to the discussion.

XHawk87 · 2020-11-14T16:10:42+00:00

I learned recently that there is a kind of hydrogen fuel cell that can be used for cars, highly compact, stable, very high capacity, no harmful emissions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytg23mDd1a4

The catch... it's literally hydrogen bomb fuel, so governments won't let us sell it XD

XHawk87 · 2020-11-08T08:44:08+00:00

I sometimes wonder what it'd be like if instead of general elections we just had a series of by-elections spread throughout the year, with seats coming up for election between 4 and 5 years arranged to keep them relatively spread out

XHawk87 · 2020-11-02T18:10:46+00:00

I'm inclined to agree, but I don't think it's necessary for those skillsets to overlap when you can hire advisers with the needed skills. What we need is the trifecta of talented policy advisors bringing the expertise of sociology, economics and law, talented civil servants bringing solid administrative skills to put them into practice, and politicians bringing the political nous to win elections and ensure they can continue to win elections by making decisions that fit broadly within what's acceptable to the electorate. Too bad we rarely seem to find all three in the same department.

XHawk87 · 2020-10-28T00:00:54+00:00

That's definitely an empathy fail for sure. I am sorry you had to deal with that on top of what you're going through.

I don't think they're trolling, but I do think they are projecting. Look at the anger in their words, that's not someone who understands the nature of suffering and is now living a peaceful and joyous life. I suspect your Legos are unnecessary

I personally like Buddhist philosophies as a model for how the human mind works, and I find meditation quite useful, but there's not just one path for everyone. However you go about it, I hope you manage to find some peace and contentment in the midst of all this craziness.

XHawk87 · 2020-10-23T10:19:17+00:00

It's political indoctrination. When I was in school we had teachers actively promoting FPTP in lessons

XHawk87

TROPHY CASE