different ethical concerns, pick your poison.

it's not that remunerative jobs are boring. it's that they are mostly unethical.

believe me, i tried to help them notice. there were some shouting matches.

Trump did negotiate the agreement under which Biden withdrew the troops. To be clear, I think that negoti8n was shameful (it cut out our allies who we claimed were Afg’s legitimate govt) + the withdrawal was a catastrophe (for which I blame both Trump+Biden). But these friends credit the agreement

🙂

yes. they say no wars in his term (they overlook the crushing of ISIS and accelerated drone wars), tried to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan. they see Biden as risking WWIII, doubling down on an ill-starred US orchestrated coup in Ukraine (Maidan 2014). to be clear, these are far from my views.

definitely not libs. people coming from the chomskyist, anti-US-imperial left. once upon a time you might have described Glenn Greenwald as left. the arc they’ve followed, and our political realignments, put them on the right now. their self-id is beginning to catch up with that, maybe, sluggishly.

i'm sure i'm worse.

a couple of amazing people i know from elsewhere and have i have found here recently: @lmsacasas.bsky.social @robertmanduca.bsky.social

definitely. drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/10/15/a...

he's in it for the good of Humanity. x.com/elonmusk/sta...

i think they may be lying to themselves.

i have lefty friends who voted for Trump entirely on the theory that he'd challenge the "blob" and US security state, be a force for international peace. maybe so! maybe he's just speaking loudly and carrying a tiny stick. but the case is looking weaker than it did (and it never looked so strong).

remarkable deference. x.com/mattyglesias...

maybe it's just his way of retaliating against Jimmy Carter for voting Kamala.

call me old-fashioned, but i still think the norm against territorial expansion by military force is worth adhering to and enforcing.

i’d prefer ‘60 tax rates…

people will still think they’re dicks, and because they can’t resist social media, they see some of the world beyond their sycophants, and they can’t abide it. they manufacture scapegoats not just to distract the plebs from class war, but to absolve themselves from their own notoriety.

i think the GWB era US was, for all its many mistakes and betrayals, lots more attractive as a model than the US ca 2024.

a lot of crowing about the US’ “amazing” economy leaving Europe in the dust, but one doesn’t see a lot of mass protest by states looking to draw closer to America, while what’s going on in Georgia and Serbia is remarkable.