The problem is the assumption of linearity. Things are good now but it seems to me things are getting better at a decelerating rate, and some trends have even started to reverse in the most westernized countries. Most of what’s getting better in the world is in places like Africa or Brazil, emerging economies. Things aren’t getting better for a lot of people in a lot of cities in America. People are fleeing la, sf, etc... Empires rise and fall, predictably.
I have a similar reaction to a lot of YouTube psychology. So much confirmation bias and other nonsense passing for facts. It takes a lot of caution and care to discuss behavior without inadvertently misinforming people. Pinker is really excellent in this regard. Scott Alexander would be another person who is able to reason about behavior without misinforming. I think both should be more active in advocating for criminal justice reform, knowing what they know. Forensic psychology has a lot of skeletons in its closet.
> Forensic psychology has a lot of skeletons in its closet.
I'm in agreement. One minor example, for as much as anyone thinks the Hippocratic Oath has worth - let's be honest, this is HN, there is sure to be a spectrum of opinions - psychologists are NOT required to swear it.
Because the Hippocratic oaths are reserved for doctors of medicine/osteopathy , not for psychologists. Psychiatrists are doctors of medicine, psychologists are not
Just need to add Osteopathy believe that the Subluxation is the cause of disease, just like Chiroprators.
(Modern Osteopathy Schools are basically medical schools, usually for people who didn't get a spot in a med school. Are they as prestigious, or fancy--no, but the graduate can prescribe, and do surgery.)
The soft bigotry of different standards is talked about but rarely is the premise carefully examined. Can there be a single standard? Maybe the problem is expecting a good essay, composed in earnest, by a kid that can “barely string a sentence together.” We ought not be surprised when humans act human.
Maybe we should redefine public education to be a bit more exclusive, and not shame those that aren’t on a college track into pursuing mentally challenging work for which we are unfit. Give kids the money that would be spent on their education (loosely defined) and let them invest it, or spend on vocational training or seed money to start their own small business. Too much focus on producing som eidetic notion of the educated individual. People don’t wind up homeless because they weren’t exposed to Shakespeare. Some people will be lucky to attain enough basic skill to stay afloat. If such a person is able to fool plagiarism software, maybe that’s something to celebrate.
Security is impossible. As long as there are incentives, nothing will be secure. It’s just a matter of incentive/difficulty. With enough incentive stuxnet or solar winds or omb are possible. Bitcoin values are causing this equilibrium to be disrupted, making this appear as though it were a new problem.
It’s odd to hear so much focus on America and American politics. We have more liberal drug laws than other non-western countries but the discussion always has a lot of American exceptionalism in reverse.
Dems span all the way from Sinema to AOC. GOP goes from Collins to Taylor Greene.
People can express their individuality in the primary process fairly well, especially for national elections with lots of candidates.
But at the end of the day, every election is between the #1 and #2 candidates, and those candidates are going to be a hard compromise for lots of people.
Sure, Collins is vastly different from MTG in style/demeanor, but are their voting records really that different?
That’s the mistake people keep making about Collins: she says things that sound reasonable and sensible, but at the end of the day, she votes with the rest of the party almost all the time.
Lisa Murkowski has been more independent and she may well lose her seat because of it.
> Lisa Murkowski has been more independent and she may well lose her seat because of it.
Luckily, Alaska passed a ranked choice voting / open primary proposition in the last election cycle so it won't be possible to primary her out of the election (as was done in the past, forcing her to run and win a write-in campaign.) Still, We will have to see how much the administration drags it's heels on implementation...
Ironically, Lisa has been one of the better state representatives from Alaska (many others have been very corrupt). This is despite her father literally giving her his senate seat when he was elected governor.
It is naïve in the extreme to pretend that Susan Collins is any kind of moderate. She never takes a stand for her supposed principles and never casts a vote that makes a difference. The GOP allows her to occasionally vote with the Dems on symbolic gestures, or in cases where her vote would not be decisive anyway, so she can better present a façade of comity, moderation, and political independence to her constituents despite years of shattered promises. In practice, she takes marching orders from Mitch McConnell and always falls into line when it matters.
The only single time within my memory that she was part of a 1-vote margin against the GOP was when John McCain faked out McConnell and at the last minute rejected the ACA repeal in 2017. Collins had been told she was allowed to vote against because her vote would not matter, she did so, and McCain’s No vote came afterward.
I think you'll find both sides are aligned on about 60 or 70 percent of things. This is due mostly to them all belonging to the same class and seeking to advance class goals.
Pick a few wedge issues for either side and voila: you have a 'representative' democracy.
That’s because the vast majority of things have a clear correct answer. Even in multiparty nations, many legislative acts passed with the overwhelming majority of mps
The conservatives are the party of letting the poor starve and die with their constant demands of eliminating social programs and fighting against universal health care.
I wasn't singling a specific party out here. Merely pointing out that the ruling class is largely (neo)liberal.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but even if GOP opposition to social programs disappeared overnight, I would wager money that we still wouldn't get basic social necessities like UHC or UBI or housing rights. Liberal ideology is just as good at letting the poor die and starve as are the conservatives. The dog and pony show where they pretend their hands are tied cause of opposition is almost completely BS.
See how we still haven't gotten any student debt relief even though the executive could immediately provide it. See how these two liberals are still blocking the filibuster.
Indeed. It is a scale problem. We have too many producers of research, too few destroyers of research, like Gelman. Show me the incentive and I can tell you the outcome. Encourage the whole world to become “experts” and then be amazed as the reverence and trust in expertise is devalued. That’s us.
