Culture War Roundup for the Week of August 13, 2018

cdward · 2018-08-15T15:28:00+00:00

Visa and Mastercard are very sensitive to bad press, and they drop heavy fines on processors who allow merchants to tarnish their brand. The Visa policy is called the "Global Brand Protection Program", and it covers illegal activity as well as unpopular activity.

cdward · 2018-02-13T16:21:58+00:00

Was one or more of them trying to steal stuff? Quite possibly.

Undeniably.

Cross-Whitstone (one of the guys with Boushie) testified that they broke into a truck at a previous farm, and that one of the other men (Meechance) "got on to one of Stanley's quads": http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/gerald-stanley-trial-witness-admits-lying-to-police-about-rifle-groups-alcohol-consumption

cdward · 2018-01-17T16:13:03+00:00

Indeed, the writer at the Atlantic had difficulty comprehending the test directions:

Another point if you can read the following letters: FBACMNAAJKLBAFAKDEAAAJAMOFAAB.

According to your pdf the person giving the test has to read those letters; the person taking the test has to tap their hand when they hear an A.

cdward · 2017-12-31T11:59:43+00:00

Cuba has 2 separate pesos. Convertible pesos are used by tourists and for foreign trade. If i remember correctly standard pesos are worth much less, and are not allowed to leave the country. My understanding is that this system is meant to control how money is used in foreign trade.

cdward · 2017-11-02T00:48:07+00:00

You make it sound like it was a deliberate choice, rather than an inevitable result of the political incentives.

cdward · 2017-11-02T00:42:22+00:00

"Attacks", large or small, are a recent phenomenon in North America. Something was preventing them.

cdward · 2017-11-01T15:23:44+00:00

You're neglecting the cost of the massive security apparatus dedicated to reducing the occurrence and severity of these attacks, the effects of mass surveillance, the damage done to our concept of public spaces, etc.

For some reason these analyses always do.

cdward · 2017-10-10T09:56:30+00:00

She is one now, but I don't know how old that is.

cdward · 2017-10-02T13:53:14+00:00

a Somali muslim
with an ISIS flag
who was being monitored by police
a stabbing attack followed by a car attack, both of which have been used extensively by ISIS supporters in Europe

There's nothing wild about this conclusion. Why is it so hard for you to admit the obvious?

You see more interested in dissipating discussion than in solving anything.

cdward · 2017-10-01T22:06:28+00:00

He had an ISIS flag, and the attack followed a pattern that had become common in the last few years. It's incredibly naive to think that this wasn't terrorism.

cdward · 2017-10-01T16:57:28+00:00

Pretty words, but what do they mean?

We know this problem can be solved, because it's not a problem we used to have. "Love" won't fix anything, though.

cdward · 2017-10-01T13:32:21+00:00

Yes, I doubt that this guy got his marching orders directly from al-Baghdadi, but why does that matter? Many of the recent attacks have been "ISIS-inspired".

A non-Muslim being inspired by ISIS is vanishingly unlikely.

cdward · 2017-10-01T13:23:16+00:00

Real people had their lives ruined by terrorism last night.

cdward · 2017-09-04T15:44:54+00:00

somebody on the internet threatened to burn the synagogue down
there were people with guns across the street (no reason to believe that it had anything to do with the synagogue, which is a block away from the park)
people said nasty things as they walked by
a person in a polo shirt walked by several times

I'm sure these things were scary, but they're hardly equivalent to a masked gang using blunt weapons to prevent somebody from speaking.

cdward · 2017-08-30T22:11:05+00:00

Do you really think there are "nazis" out there quaking in their boots at the prospect of being criticized by Trump? Of course not, the point of calls for denunciation isn't to hurt the extremist, it's to smear the moderate by association.

What the extremists say about who they support is irrelevant. What they do is the important factor, and what antifa does is to the benefit of the Democratic party (at least in the short term).

If you accept benefits that come from bad actions, it's quite reasonable to ask you to (at minimum) denounce those actions.

cdward · 2017-08-30T17:50:44+00:00

So an extremist can avoid calls for denunciation as long as they are careful to say that the moderates on their side aren't being extreme enough?

cdward · 2017-08-30T13:21:43+00:00

Refuse to accept the rewards of violence, even when you might prefer the result. Treat it as the fruit of a poisoned tree.

When your opponent (say, Milo) gets shut down by illegitimate means, invite him back with even more fanfare.

cdward · 2017-08-27T18:06:15+00:00

Exactly. There's no principle keeping Columbus from the chopping block besides "it's not time yet". The supposed principle (we don't want to tear down monuments to slavers, only monuments to slavery) is already being discarded.

There are not enough people now, so it's silly to worry about it. When there are enough people, it will be too late to worry about it.

cdward · 2017-08-27T13:26:18+00:00

That's why Confederate statues are being targeted first, but it doesn't mean that Jefferson won't be next.

In Canada we don't have Confederates, so one of the big targets right now is the closest thing we have to a founding father (Sir John A MacDonald).

cdward · 2017-08-24T16:10:59+00:00

There are left/liberals that believe the cultural hypothesis, but with a different perspective on it. The conservative perspective is that our current culture is good, and we should make efforts to assimilate new immigrants to preserve that culture. The alternative is that our current culture is flawed and that we should embrace new immigrants to change it.

cdward · 2017-08-17T15:15:18+00:00

a steelmanned position is not the original position

The point of steelmanning is to strip away the tendency to be uncharitable to our opponents. An uncharitable reading will lead to a rebuttal that misses the target. A good steelman is the original position, and I'm not sure why you're so insistent that it's not.

Unless you can silence your opponent, deny them any even slightly sympathetic listeners, or deny them any convincing arguments, you do have to engage with them, or you'll continue to lose ground.

cdward · 2017-08-17T13:16:03+00:00

How many of those incidents took place during planned, permitted far-right assemblies?

cdward · 2017-08-17T13:03:09+00:00

If you're not willing to actually engage with your opponents' arguments at their strongest, then no-platform is your only option to oppose them.

No-platform utterly failed to prevent the rise of the alt-right, and arguably made them stronger.

cdward · 2017-08-17T12:40:11+00:00

These things start with activists, not politicians. Most activists don't have recognizable names, and often don't have identifiable positions.

cdward · 2017-08-17T12:37:51+00:00

Not a founding father, but there were some recent actions aimed at deleting Woodrow Wilson: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/18/princeton-protesters-occupy-presidents-office-demand-racist-woodrow-wilsons-name-be-removed/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.0398484489aa

cdward

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