You can move within your country and your experience will be entirely different. You can’t in China, because it’s an authoritarian hellstate.

I agree that Republicans are authoritarians, and that sucks. I also acknowledge that you likely view hierarchies as inherently authoritarian and that we’ll likely not see eye to eye on where to draw lines. Also fine - that’s what liberal ideologies want, is that disagreement.

But to compare China positively with the US in terms of authoritarianism is, frankly, a bit silly.

My guy, I’m living in a state that tried to arrest a woman for removing an ectopic pregnancy.

Yep, and your state voted for that. My state amended it’s constitution to prevent this situation, also through voting.

In China, you don’t get that option, because China is an authoritarian state.

Authoritarian doesn’t simply mean “bad” even though authoritarianism is bad.

You know what’s not a sign of an authoritarian state? An appeals court overturning a bad verdict.

Crystal Mason’s contentious illegal voting conviction must be reconsidered, criminal appeals court says

You should really click the links you use as evidence.

China wants people to move from rural areas to cities, which is why they forcibly move them from rural areas to cities.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/asia/chinas-great-uprooting-moving-250-million-into-cities.html

China is an authoritarian state that had a literal one-child policy until recently

I agree your comment here was just bad lol

Like, volunteer on any campaign whatsoever and see how wrong it is

Or they could all be vampires, if we’re just making shit up.

why is everything not different 6 hours after a policy is enacted???

You, right now.

Pardons aren’t just about not being in prison.

What is a pardon?

A pardon is an expression of forgiveness to a person convicted of a crime. It does not signify innocence or expunge the conviction. A pardon can, however, remove civil or legal disabilities—such as restrictions on the right to vote, to hold office, or to sit on a jury—that are imposed because of the pardoned conviction. A pardon may also be helpful in obtaining licenses, some types of insurance, or employment.

From, interestingly enough, the DOJ site about this very topic.

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession

Personally I like that fewer lives are ruined due to stupid laws.

So by letting a company keep their monopoly due to federally subsidized patent thus harming citizens but helping the company is… less neolib?

Yes. Monopolization is one of the many externalities that government exists to address within a neoliberal framework

Neoliberalism is a good thing, actually.

Who are you doing the math to figure out the divisor of 0.6% but not bothering to read where I say

While the civilian deaths are excessive, irresponsible, and a terrible humanitarian, strategic and geopolitical decision, in no way can it be argued that Israel is “indiscriminately bombing” or committing genocide.

It was literally the very next sentence.

Gonna go ahead and throw out that people whose job it is to make said revenue saying that selling more makes them more revenue makes this not track

Yes, legislation that changes zoning policy and incentivizes building.

Because they want to build more to make more money.

Please explain how this is a bad thing? This is rental org explicitly stating that the lack of supply is hurting their growth and profit.

That means they believe that the supply/demand curve is so out of whack that cheaper housing will make them more money.

This is absolutely and 100% a win-win.

People are priced out of homes specifically because the market has been kneecapped by bad zoning policy.

Homeowners got theirs and then pulled up the ladder

why would you admit that lol

So long as you don’t like a functioning economy, sure.

Assuming some large capital group buys all those homes, they’re going to do it to try to make money off of it.

More supply means lower prices

The trade organization is arguing for investment into their marke

This is the only solution to the housing crisis. We have too little housing. We need more.

The situation is not caused by a lack of number of houses

This is not supported by math.

There should be something like a land value tax that pushes for more efficient use of land

Stop, stop - I can only get so erect! I’d absolutely love to see more of a push for LVTs, but we both know that’s our fantasy and not a serious discussion in the near term.

In that case, how about “uncaringly” bombing? No matter how you swing it, they are taking a hammer to a population.

Totally agreed. I don’t support the bombing campaign as it has been prosecuted by Israel. I think it is a very poor choice.

And just to also address that, 0.6% has died because of this. Another fair stat, but hides the actual number of 15k+. This all kicked off due to a horrific attack that killed 1.5k.

I specifically address this in my comparison to Mosul, in which a similar amount of civilians died, while being 20% as dense as Gaza. The US was clearly not aiming to maximize civilian casualties in Mosul.

My entire point here is not “bombing civilians is fine,” but “war kills civilians, which is why war is bad, and there is zero evidence that this is genocide.”

This situation sucks and the outpouring of pure rage-bombing from Israel is completely stupid, immoral, and counter-productive. It is not genocide, nor is it indiscriminate.

On a personal note, thank you for engaging with me as a person. I can pretty much guarantee I’m gonna catch a lot of really offensive and personal attacks for saying true things here, and I thank you for not being part of that.