0xDEAFBEAD
Joined 5 years ago
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Member since
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Recent submissions
Comment · 15 hours ago
They alleged that Michigan makes it difficult to get an ID for voter suppression purposes, but ID is not required to vote in Michigan. Which leads me to suspect that the user in question is making up their talking points out of thin air.
Comment · 1 day ago
"By our estimate, national constitutions have lasted an average of only seventeen years since 1789"
https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/lifespan-written-constitut...
Most countries are not as politically stable as the US. We're very privileged in that way.
Comment · 1 day ago
>Allocation and staffing of DMV and similar offices where one has to go in order to get an ID are manipulated in the same way.
Interesting. Michigan doesn't even require ID to vote.
https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/voting/vote-on-electi...
There goes your credibility.
Comment · 1 day ago
>Thank you for reminding us that you aren't working three jobs in the same day to make ends meet, have disposable income and free time to collect the documents and get to the office twice,and live in a district where said office isn't half a day of driving (with the current gas prices) away.
Sure, I mean, going to the grocery store is also very oppressive. You need money, time, transport, etc.
>And of course, you are fine with people with less affodances than you not being able to vote. Such moral character on top of your comfortable life.
I have no issue if people want to implement measures to make it easier to get ID. But given the state of US democracy, election security currently seems important enough to me that voter ID laws seem reasonable. That's how policy works--there are tradeoffs. Want me to pearl-clutch about your moral character in allowing the country to descend into fascism through a contested election?
Comment · 1 day ago
Yes, but just because a law disproportionately hurts a particular group is not necessarily a problem.
Comment · 1 day ago
>Americans are among the most propagandized because they are taught theirs is the greatest among all nations from birth, even though it really, really isn’t.
That's not what it means to be the "most propagandized".
In any case, as an American, I wasn't taught that the US is the "greatest among all nations" from birth.
But I think there are some quite good arguments for this claim nonetheless. Here's a nice detailed article from a historian which lays out the evidence: https://acoup.blog/2022/07/08/collections-is-the-united-stat...
The world has gotten much better while under US hegemony by the way. This has generally been a peaceful and prosperous era by historical standards. https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/The...
Usually the anti-US argument depends on implicitly assuming that:
* All the good things which have happened, would've happened without the US. (Example: The global abolitionist movement started in the US. We'll just assume that would've happened somewhere else.)
* All the bad things which have happened are the direct fault of the US. Other actors are deemed irrelevant/not morally culpable/etc. (The US gets blamed for the actions of people in other countries even if it has a weak to nonexistent relationship with them. Other countries are not generally blamed for the actions of their partners/allies.)
* Bad things that the US successfully prevented or interrupted would somehow have been prevented or interrupted via other means. (Example: Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. We'll just implicitly assume other nation(s) would've taken a lead role in enforcing territorial integrity norms.)
* If the US could've done something, but did not, they are also morally culpable for that omission. (Example: Rwanda genocide.)
It's a "heads I win, tails you lose" type of game. We aren't being judged based on whether our presence makes the world a better place. Rather, if there's any delta between the US and a hypothetical perfect nation, that makes us evil.
Observe how things work: Listen to Europeans complain about the US "playing world police", and also insist that the US should do more to police Eastern Europe. They'll claim the US bears responsibility for the Ukraine War by expanding NATO, and also insist that Ukraine should be armed to the teeth. Naturally, e.g. Poland's push to join NATO is left out: only the US is morally culpable (see second bullet point above).
Comment · 1 day ago
Sometimes it happens. Taxation can systematically impact rich people negatively, for instance.
Comment · 1 day ago
I think it is bad faith to implicitly assume a driver's license is required when there are easier options.
I have a state ID, a REAL ID. It was not particularly difficult to get. I'm a bit skeptical of the claim that there are major cross-national differences in difficulty here.
Comment · 1 day ago
>The US is one of the most heavily propagandized populations in history.
I see this statement repeated often with no supporting evidence. Seems a little ironic!
Is this claim falsifiable?
Would you be able to name the 2nd or 3rd most propagandized populations, in your view? Do you know anything about propaganda in e.g. the USSR or North Korea?
"Historian Sergo Mikoyan claimed that decades prior to the early 1960s, offices and stores had to submit papers with examples of their typewriters' typeface to local KGB branches so that any printed text could be traced back to the source, to prosecute those who had used the typewriter to produce material deemed illegal. With the introduction of photocopying machines, the KGB's Fifth Directorate and Agitprop Department required individuals to get authorization to use printing office photocopiers to prevent the mass production of unapproved material, though restrictions could be bypassed by bribing employees."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat
That's what an actual heavily-propagandized population looks like. Meanwhile, I can open up any social media app and be greeted by a sea of anti-American slop.
Comment · 1 day ago
Pretty sure I have less than the average index fund investor since I tilt my portfolio very conservative.
Comment · 1 day ago
>every single election, someone runs on the platform of abolishing democracy
So was this person Romney in 2012? McCain in 2008? Kerry in 2004? Gore in 2000?
Any one of those presidents would've abolished democracy?
Somehow we picked the right candidate every time?
The average constitution lasts about 18 years. The US constitution has lasted almost 250. Statistically, that's quite unlikely if a candidate ran on a platform of abolishing democracy in every election.
Comment · 1 day ago
>Americans manifestly do not have a right to possess a driver's license, it's a privilege. The process for obtaining one requires expenditure of time, energy, and money.
Just get a state ID or passport then.
Comment · 1 day ago
>You do need to get a passport photo taken for that, but those can usually be done in about 10 minutes for around 10 Euros.
This doesn't sound like a big difference in effort from the last time I got myself an ID.
>Oh, and you usually also get polling stations popping up before the actual election day so that people may vote in advance, in said shops, schools, and similar assorted places.
Yep, the US also has early voting and vote by mail.
>their usage doesn't seem to be out of a genuine worry about election integrity or other similar concerns
Gallup says 80% of people of color in the US favor a voter ID requirement: https://news.gallup.com/poll/652523/americans-endorse-early-...
Comment · 1 day ago
In a democracy, voters are free to petition their elected officials regarding policies which affect them. I think that should usually be enough.
Some HN users like to "flag" comments which are compliant with the HN rules, on the basis that the comment in question goes against their ideology. You can turn on "showdead" in your profile to see flagged comments. (I recommend doing this.) If a rule-abiding comment has been flagged, you can click the comment permalink to "vouch" for the comment and vote against the flag. For reference, the comment rules are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
You can try to contact me if you want, by emailing my username on protonmail, but I probably won't see it. Sorry.