Isaac

I haven't read the thread, I've not been on the forum for a while, just noticed a few 'mentions' yesterday. Glancing through now I see your OP develop...

@"Banno" Just to be clear, since I've been invoked, the distinction I'm articulating there is not the ultimate resting place for 'truth' (universe vs ...

Really interesting article, thanks. I think it's interesting how the influencing mechanisms can be handled by bots, like its not really about being co...

You mean like... ...? If you don't like it, perhaps refrain form doing it, at least in your own threads, or maybe just try dialling down the sanctimon...

Yes, this really is the pinnacle of media psy-ops - to make war-mongering, not only acceptable, but actually to have people advocating peaceful method...

More of the same. Yes, we get that Russia is bad, that invading places is bad. The question is what we do about it, not whether it's bad or not.

I have already done so in the discussion above, but broadly it is through the appropriation of the means of production in the hands of groups of indiv...

The comment wasn't aimed directly at you, just at the conflict your post highlighted between a willingness, in this thread, to accept the gritty reali...

Exactly.

That's true, but I think what's going on these days is not really progressivism. The reason why there's no movement on poverty is because there's no p...

That was the idea, yes. Makes sense, but as I've been discussing above, there's more than one way to restrict freedom and government-type actions aren...

Yep. So... Do they justify the cost of war? Same question. It's no good just listing a load of bad stuff and not weighing it in any way against the co...

These are just two sets of raw data, not theories. It's a fact that measures of wealth inequality and absolute poverty are largely unaffected by the c...

Well, it's just that my preferred way of opposing racism is the sort of radical socialism @"Jacques" disagrees with. Since we're deciding that anyone ...

Well, I was actually thinking of lobbying my politicians to stop drip feeding them weapons, stop discouraging negotiations, stop promoting the approac...

Ah, I see. Much the same way as you support racism then?

They can't 'conflict'. They're both true. Well then no. I don't agree. The 'economic power' of your average citizen hasn't changed all that much, if a...

https://words.bighugelabs.com/significant Seventh synonym, first line.

Exactly. So Chomsky's not wrong to say that there's no significant difference is he? Since there's no objective measure of significance against which ...

No, it wasn't all I offered. Parties change, the measures I gave haven't. It's easy to demonstrate a lack of effect. It's just hard to demonstrate the...

None of the issues I mentioned affect me. I'm perfectly well off financially, I'm white, and I'll be dead before climate change has any effect. It's n...

Agreed. Doing "what they can" with the votes they can muster in half the states (with little chance of achieving any stability, or consistency), and a...

See above.

Yes, now you mention it I do see a significant difference. The latter are some actual laws and the former are, as yet, empty promises.

Here's income inequality. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.shu.edu%2Fstillmanexchange%2Ffiles%2F2020%2F09%2FIncomeIne...

Not disputing there's differences. The argument was about how significant they are, and I see no one addressing that beyond just declaring them to be.

No there isn't. Great conversation... Really nailing this topic. I expect readers are riveted.

So the measure of significance is "Michael says so"?

It's obviously a simplification, but to support the idea that it's "overly" simplistic you'd have to put some measures to those differences. What exac...

That's literally the point of the quote function. Ahh! I see now. You "disagree". That's when you think one thing is the case but other people think s...

Well... it's that the state is an alien Kafkaesque entity, remote and distanced from oneself. So people are saying that. Is there something you don't ...

Well, possibly... But since everyone is in the same boat as me, then it's everyone's free choice to give that money to the government (as opposed to a...

I know! Imagine taking a really complex scenario like, say, border conflicts in a ex-Soviet region (just an example), and trying to just boil down all...

Good. Glad we understand each other. Perhaps give things a little more thought before posting next time? It might make for a better exchange.

In fact, I hadn't even thought. The farm gets basic payment scheme (government money) which isn't even charitable. So the net flow is even greater tha...

No, that's not how tax relief works. The money that I would have paid in income tax is paid instead to the charity. The government doesn't get it, the...

I don't pay the government any net tax. How is that not avoiding tax?

They haven't left America then. They're still subject to any laws America might implement. For example the modern slavery legislation in my country in...

Have you read my post? I use government schemes to avoid paying tax. A concerned, ethical individual (which is what we were talking about) need not pa...

Really? Like whom? Whatbdo you mean by 'civil' liberties here? Is, for example, freedom from deprivation a 'civil' liberty?

I don't see how the one follows from the other. It's perfectly possible for laws opposing civil liberties to receive sufficient support to be implemen...

Which ones did you have in mind?

Fraud is, tax evasion isn't. As I said, I largely avoid paying tax. I don't profit. One cannot simply take government money. But I can take government...

No it isn't. As I've said to @"Mikie" above, I pay virtually no tax and it's all perfectly legal.

Oh, indeed. I hadn't even thought of those. I was just thinking of staying under the tax bracket (is there such a thing in the US?). In England, if on...

Nonetheless. Throwing our hands in the air and pretending there's no cost to consider isn't an option. Funny how when justifying war, evidence from 19...

Yes. Plus, as I've just pointed out above. One needn't pay tax either if one is committed to not supporting some government or other. One can organise...

Yes, it seems that way. As I said, I think the corporations make us part of their 'wicked schemes' using techniques other than threat of violence. the...

What an offensively ignorant comment. Acting as if we were allocating ownership like an interview board assessing candidates. There is a cost to keepi...

So my version of what I think is my property (shared property) involves massively more 'theft' by private corporations than by governments, hence my d...