Patricia Aas

You think you’re safe because you’re white? He’s talked about leftist, queer folks, journalists, activists. They will grab anyone they want. They will steal from everyone they can get away with. You’ll have neighbors informing on neighbors to snap up their property on the cheap. Y’all are […]

All anyone will have to say is that they saw you with a banned book or they suspect you of being antifa. Fascists and their collaborators don’t need an ideological reason. They are driven by greed and lust for power just like regular folks.

Them: “why didn’t you warn us?”
Everyone: “we did”
Them: “why didn’t you warn us louder?”
Everyone: “WE DID”
Them: “Well you should’ve warned us in a way that got through to us. This is definitely on you”

It would be disturbing enough if Kimmel's show had been pulled (at the FCC's behest, no less) for speaking ill of Charlie Kirk. But the monologue wasn't even about Kirk. It was about the hypocrisy and opportunism of those using Kirk's murder to advance a right-wing narrative.

Comedy can be a […]

21/ Y’all should study this protest. Bring in some social scientists and break it down to its parts.

The other top 3 are George Floyd at 26 million on the high end of a multi day protest, but the US population was much larger in 2020. No kings comes in at 6 million.

20/ Relative to population size the 1970 Earth Day protest seems to be the largest US protest ever?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size

19/ That was 10% of the entire population, including babies, children, the elderly etc.
Well done ✊

18/ But boy does the internet and the book center Hero Politicians. Wouldn’t want the pesky populace to think a general strike might hurt the elites.

17/ ROFL Turns out it was regular people protesting that pushed politicians to change policy.

«April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million people gathered around the country in one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history to celebrate the first Earth Day and demand action be taken on a variety […]

16/ How can we create an empathetic society if we keep villainizing our fellow citizens?

This seems massively useful to the powerful: make them fight eachother so they don’t fight us.

15/ The Evil Selfish Homeowner trope has given way to The Hapless Idealistic Politician. I’m sorry, but why is the regular person just trying to get by, being blamed for bad policy, but the political class gets the credit for good policy?

This is annoying.

Summary so far:

The Evil Selfish […]

14/ Sorry, got distracted by a knitting 🧶 emergency and had to undo stitch by stitch which English speaking knitters call «tink»* (the word «knit» in reverse, because these folks have humor).

As opposed to «frog» when you just rip it until the right place and pick up the stitches again.

I […]

@tedmielczarek yeah, brought up Zoom requiring people to come in «to build trust» etc etc

I feel that this part is a bit forced. I don’t think you have to scream «but innovation!» to say «I think people should afford to live where they work.

13/ I also think we might in some cases be too generous and take people at their word. They might say «to protect my property value» and actually the reason might be more «I don’t want black folks in my neighborhood».

@maco I suspect it’s just an excuse for most people who use it. To shield what is really the reason. But again it depends on the purpose of the ownership. If you own a home to live in and not to sell, it’s «exchange value» is mostly theoretical. Also if you want to continue to live in the same […]

@maco not yet, but they cite a paper about causes of homelessness which I should probably dig up. Basic conclusion from their summary: lack of housing leads to more homelessness.

@billseitz I’m more of a «read the book myself» kind of person

12/ I feel they might be attributing to malice things that probably are not, at least not for the vast majority of people. I really don’t think all home owners have pushed for stricter and stricter regulations to suppress the building of new homes to maximize profit on their own «property […]

11/ Also, as in programmering, what seems like a bad idea today was often a good idea at the time. But things change.

10/ I can see how liberals/Democrats/leftists are getting very defensive about this book. There is an underlying assumption in any political theory that «my way will give better outcomes».

But I think we’re doing ourselves a disservice by framing everything as a binary. Wanting zoning reform […]

9/ Ok. When you put it like that it is quite damning.

California has 12% of the US population
30% of the homeless population
50% of the unsheltered homeless population

@billseitz one book at a time 😅

8/ Ok. We’re into zoning rules.

7/ Huh, they’re forming a strange argument, I don’t have all of it yet. But for now they seem to make the following assertions/assumptions:

1. The best workers live in cities
2. Innovation therefore happens there
3. Maximum performance requires in-office presence (so no remote)
4. It is easier […]

6/ Started on chapter 1 «Grow» and I think it is about «productivity» which I have struggled with before.

I was also reminded of this video I saw a few months ago, which surprisingly explained to me why in American movies and shows everyone lives in apartments on a corridor like in a hotel. And […]

Unrelated, the Team Topology agile coaches are still hilariously defensive over on LinkedIn.

When you get that in your feelings in defense of a software development methodology, you need to touch all the grass.

Also a small amount of introspection is probably in order.

5/ Done with the introduction.

It seems like what they want to achieve is mostly around affordable housing. They are very critical of liberal/Democrat states, because of a logic that goes something like: «if we can’t make it there, we can’t make it anywhere».

They also seem to put this into a […]

4/ This reminds me of this interview with Professor Lina Khan (former FTC chair) I listened to earlier today. Where she in part argues that allowing monopolies to buy up their competition through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) actually stifles innovation.

Fundamentally because the value of an […]

Argument so far in the introduction:

1. They describe a future utopia, where technology is used for the good of mankind. For me it gives a Star Trek Future light.
2. They argue that what got us here is the belief that either the unrestricted free market or the highly regulated free market can […]

Example criticism from the left

https://youtu.be/iTC5jKpYYNU