"The big question I keep coming back to is why? The savings are trivial..."
The people who want this just want to see something be done. They don't actually care how much they personally will save or even how much is saved overall, they want to see a statement being made that government waste will not be tolerated, "waste" defined as "the government spending money on literally anything".
Like,
" that means opposition from the wealthy and powerful, who the abundance crowd are usually so unwilling to target."
buddy, the "wealthy and powerful" are the people the abundance message is specifically targeting, saying to them "it's possible for you to make more money by building houses than by not building them", "new power plants and refurbished infrastructure will require large construction contracts and you can make money from that".
That bit about "a useful idiot for the right" is the reason so much stuff proposed by the left never goes anywhere, because they're worried about giving any impression of any kind that The Right was correct about literally anything, even in the tiniest imaginable way.
"You can’t pass laws that do not clearly explain what people cannot do, that people cannot read and understand what behavior is barred."
hey remember all those times I'd quote Nancy Pelosi saying "we have to pass the law to find out what's in it" and you would get really upset and post a whole bunch of words about That's Just How Laws Work And If You Thought Differently You're Either Stupid Or Dumb?
"[T]hat itself has strange first amendment implications, as now other countries can punish people in the US for their speech by using US law. "
people have been asking for this for years. now they're getting it.
That essay has rather more than most of Freddie's work of "thinking that he can justify his aesthetic distaste for Centrist Liberals as Actually Objective Moral Judgement if he throws enough words at the problem".
Saying "abundance" in a nose-wrinkled tone has become very popular among the Online Left, and it's very clear that it's not really about any problem they have with the idea and more about a new way to...well, to signal ingroup allegiance, as it were.
I mean, the only place they might find to criticize it is that it suggests you can get Capitalism to produce desirable results, versus smashing Capitalism And Also The State.
What makes AI good at microcode is less that it's good at microcode and more that processors are now so powerful that they don't need good microcode to run sufficiently well for the purpose.
Maybe this is the reason sound editors are refusing to do a 2.1 mix, because they know that "can actually hear the dialogue" is the last reason for anyone to go see a movie in a theater...
Why doesn't it exist in the United States? Was that a decision by the people who worked there to stop working there, or was it a decision by the people who owned the factories to close them and go somewhere cheaper?
"Keep manufacturing domestic" used to be a left-wing, pro-labor position!
I always wonder why people think that doomposting about "supply shocks" and "everything's gonna cost more" is necessarily going to bring readers to their side.
It's entirely possible that someone will look at that and say "wait, why were these vital materials that we can't run society without being made overseas? Don't we remember 2020 where suddenly it was impossible to get masks because the Chinese government refused to ship them to us? Why do tariffs on Mexican imports mean that a car factory in Detroit has to shut down, shouldn't that factory be making all its own parts anyway?"
Heck, I remember in 2015 when Trump was just some weirdo that nobody was taking seriously, and people talking about how Ted Cruz looked like a drowned man's cock and Rubio was a Tio Tom and so on.
One of the things people forget about the 2018 trade thing was that China had a massive swine-flu outbreak at the time, and the trade war was less a "war" and more an expected downturn in demand. If it had been Clinton instead of Trump we wouldn't have heard much about it.
Given that the majority of these new buildings turn out to be "apartment complexes built out to the lot lines behind the original dumpy two-bed-one-bath ranch house in a way that's very clearly an exploitation of regulatory loopholes", I think Bass's move makes sense.
"I’m mostly unclear on the requirements that you have for my answers to you and the requirements that you hold for yourself when it comes to the answers you give me."
Clement doesn't want answers. He wants you to play a role. He assumes that if you refuse to play the role then saying "lol UR A RETART" is a good fall-back position, and because there's no judge here to spank his dick he keeps doing it.
Would you say that German far-right movements of the time were uniquely persecutive of queer people, relative to the rest of Western Europe and America?
This is the kind of thing people say when their first thought (and their second) is "right on" but they realize that looks bad and they think larding it up with extra words will make people accept it.
*shrug* you were the ones who said that if we didn't uncritically and unquestioningly celebrate Woke Snow White then we were racist jerks. How'd that work out for you?
They told me that if we voted for Donald Trump people would be doing Nazi salutes in public and burning electric-car dealerships...AND THEY WERE RIGHT!
*shrug* this is the world that a lot of people wanted. "if you have the Wrong Politics you should be punished", that's what we heard was Good, that's what we heard Ought To Happen.
I guess it sucks that the Wrong Politics turned out to be different from what everyone expected but, well, maybe next time it'll be your turn to call the tune.
Or we could have just not given the government such power to fuck with your life, but I guess that's just the sadistic racist transphobic conservative in me talking.
On “Throughput: Telling Women They’re Womening Wrong, But In Space”
"The big question I keep coming back to is why? The savings are trivial..."
The people who want this just want to see something be done. They don't actually care how much they personally will save or even how much is saved overall, they want to see a statement being made that government waste will not be tolerated, "waste" defined as "the government spending money on literally anything".
On “From Freddie de Boer: Abundance, Up To A Point”
Like,
" that means opposition from the wealthy and powerful, who the abundance crowd are usually so unwilling to target."
buddy, the "wealthy and powerful" are the people the abundance message is specifically targeting, saying to them "it's possible for you to make more money by building houses than by not building them", "new power plants and refurbished infrastructure will require large construction contracts and you can make money from that".
"
That bit about "a useful idiot for the right" is the reason so much stuff proposed by the left never goes anywhere, because they're worried about giving any impression of any kind that The Right was correct about literally anything, even in the tiniest imaginable way.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
"You can’t pass laws that do not clearly explain what people cannot do, that people cannot read and understand what behavior is barred."
hey remember all those times I'd quote Nancy Pelosi saying "we have to pass the law to find out what's in it" and you would get really upset and post a whole bunch of words about That's Just How Laws Work And If You Thought Differently You're Either Stupid Or Dumb?
"[T]hat itself has strange first amendment implications, as now other countries can punish people in the US for their speech by using US law. "
people have been asking for this for years. now they're getting it.
On “From Freddie de Boer: Abundance, Up To A Point”
That essay has rather more than most of Freddie's work of "thinking that he can justify his aesthetic distaste for Centrist Liberals as Actually Objective Moral Judgement if he throws enough words at the problem".
Saying "abundance" in a nose-wrinkled tone has become very popular among the Online Left, and it's very clear that it's not really about any problem they have with the idea and more about a new way to...well, to signal ingroup allegiance, as it were.
I mean, the only place they might find to criticize it is that it suggests you can get Capitalism to produce desirable results, versus smashing Capitalism And Also The State.
On “What To Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade War”
and I'll be honest, based on local results the "high-speed pizza delivery" ain't lookin' so great either.
"
Thing is, once "sufficiently good" is nearly free, opportunities for "good but not top-tier" tend to dry up real fast.
"
Why are you doing this?
"
What makes AI good at microcode is less that it's good at microcode and more that processors are now so powerful that they don't need good microcode to run sufficiently well for the purpose.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
Maybe this is the reason sound editors are refusing to do a 2.1 mix, because they know that "can actually hear the dialogue" is the last reason for anyone to go see a movie in a theater...
On “What To Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade War”
Why doesn't it exist in the United States? Was that a decision by the people who worked there to stop working there, or was it a decision by the people who owned the factories to close them and go somewhere cheaper?
"Keep manufacturing domestic" used to be a left-wing, pro-labor position!
"
I always wonder why people think that doomposting about "supply shocks" and "everything's gonna cost more" is necessarily going to bring readers to their side.
It's entirely possible that someone will look at that and say "wait, why were these vital materials that we can't run society without being made overseas? Don't we remember 2020 where suddenly it was impossible to get masks because the Chinese government refused to ship them to us? Why do tariffs on Mexican imports mean that a car factory in Detroit has to shut down, shouldn't that factory be making all its own parts anyway?"
"
Heck, I remember in 2015 when Trump was just some weirdo that nobody was taking seriously, and people talking about how Ted Cruz looked like a drowned man's cock and Rubio was a Tio Tom and so on.
"
One of the things people forget about the 2018 trade thing was that China had a massive swine-flu outbreak at the time, and the trade war was less a "war" and more an expected downturn in demand. If it had been Clinton instead of Trump we wouldn't have heard much about it.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
Given that the majority of these new buildings turn out to be "apartment complexes built out to the lot lines behind the original dumpy two-bed-one-bath ranch house in a way that's very clearly an exploitation of regulatory loopholes", I think Bass's move makes sense.
On “Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For”
You don't have much to do, huh?
"
"I’m mostly unclear on the requirements that you have for my answers to you and the requirements that you hold for yourself when it comes to the answers you give me."
Clement doesn't want answers. He wants you to play a role. He assumes that if you refuse to play the role then saying "lol UR A RETART" is a good fall-back position, and because there's no judge here to spank his dick he keeps doing it.
"
Would you say that German far-right movements of the time were uniquely persecutive of queer people, relative to the rest of Western Europe and America?
On “Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals”
It's just like Apollo 13, if Apollo 13 were somehow caused by cats!
On “Don’t Go Torching Cyber Trucks”
"How I feel about this is incredibly complicated"
This is the kind of thing people say when their first thought (and their second) is "right on" but they realize that looks bad and they think larding it up with extra words will make people accept it.
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25”
*shrug* you were the ones who said that if we didn't uncritically and unquestioningly celebrate Woke Snow White then we were racist jerks. How'd that work out for you?
On “Don’t Go Torching Cyber Trucks”
They told me that if we voted for Donald Trump people would be doing Nazi salutes in public and burning electric-car dealerships...AND THEY WERE RIGHT!
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25”
Harry gay?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxrWuE5qC5c
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/17/25”
*shrug* this is the world that a lot of people wanted. "if you have the Wrong Politics you should be punished", that's what we heard was Good, that's what we heard Ought To Happen.
I guess it sucks that the Wrong Politics turned out to be different from what everyone expected but, well, maybe next time it'll be your turn to call the tune.
Or we could have just not given the government such power to fuck with your life, but I guess that's just the sadistic racist transphobic conservative in me talking.
"
"“How is radio astronomy Marxist?” is a question that I can’t imagine any government spokesperson answering well."
Oh, is that what they mean when they talk about Fully Automated Space Luxury Communisum?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.