I'm pretty ticked about the things identified in this article.
However, I don't think we have to worry about the Democrats will "speak in moral terms and work to ensure young men build decent lives" when they consistently say they don't know what a man or a woman is, except when they've defining men as toxic.
Why is maga so obsessed with trans kids? Because Don told you to be? What kind of people choose to pick on the most vulnerable among us? Have you met a trans kid? Had a conversation with one, talked to any parents? Why the need to pick on a vulnerable population of kids that face such unique and difficult struggles, struggles that lead to high rates of depression, substance abuse, suicide? To further Don's political fortunes? Because you heard on Infowars that a faraway trans kid in Toledo got a third place ribbon in a cross country meet, and you ain't happy about it? What harm do they cause you?
Do you think these kids "choose" to face the hatred, the cruelty, the discrimination, just for the heck of it? I always thought we conservatives were the small government party, the ones who opposed undue government intervention in our lives. The last thing these families need is maga's big government intrusion just to prop up an aging, angry, incoherent politician.
I don't know where you got "trans kids" from my comment, Karl. I'm just quoting Democrats own statements, who for the last 5-8 years, have, across the board, insisted they don't know what a woman is.
Separately though, if you really can't see by now what the problems with pretending that "woman" and "man" are simply linguistic categories instead of reflections of actual differences between humans, I'm not sure what to say.
Ah I see, Democrats are responsible for your obsession. Not you. Not Don.
Since maga is supposedly all about helping the workin stiffs, I'm always perplexed how picking on these struggling kids, or adults, helps the laid off factory worker in Hamtramck. To me it's simply an example of Occam's razor. An age old tactic similar to those employed by demagogues throughout history. Gotta keep the subjects whipped up, and angry at "those people", the people the strongman is here to protect us from... Who "those people" are changes over time based on the needs of the demagogue. Gays, Italians, Jews, Hispanics, Catholics, etc, I guess every group eventually gets its turn in the barrel. How odd that supposed conservatives, who rightfully criticize the left's proclivity to judge people based on group identity, so willingly follow suit.
Brian, all I can say is, be scared, be very scared. "Those people" may be coming for you...
Thank you, Karl, for this spot-on reply. Let's get past Trump Derangement Syndrome on the Left and Trans Derangement Syndrome on the Right. Hating on kids and families is not only none of our business - it also has nothing to do with helping the US economy rebuild itself in support of US workers. Thank you!
And PS, we've all met plenty of trans kids - when they get their early interventions before puberty they transition into their correct gender and are unrecognizable as trans, "drag," etc.
Perhaps rather than generalities, the author could provide a factual foundation for his rant and provide all of us greater understanding of his specific attacks on the president. Politically creative speech is hardly useful as a tool for us to understand specifically what the author believes is wrong.
I think the author's position seems pretty straightforward for sports gambling and marijuana. He seems to support making them illegal again, or for marijuana, actually enforcing existing laws against them.
I'm less clear where he stands on prediction markets and especially AI regulation. Is he in favor of banning prediction markets? Ok, then he should just say so. Perhaps he can then explain how this ban would work in a world where the internet exists and everyone in the US can access it from their phones, which is exactly the reason why historical bans on sports betting have run into challenges. And does AI need some sort of regulation? Almost certainly. Does anyone know what that should be? Almost certainly not. We need a specific proposal that can be debated and reviewed. Otherwise, you get the classic two-step of a generality that everyone can agree with ("protect the children", "prevent self-destructive behavior") being used to promote a specific law or regulation that is highly controversial and frequently counterproductive.
The world is full of vice. I don't approve but outlawing it is futile. Let us stick to direct harms like murder, rape and robbery and stay away from vague notions of social harms. Specifically, I don't approve of adolescents accessing porn but as we have seen in Europe that is camouflage for suppression of political dissent.
it’s an appeal to the authority of the activities in question being illegal previously and the broadly accepted bipartisan notion that young men are not being served by swimming in vice. Particularly during a time when they aren’t succeeding in society by any accepted metric.
As an economically oriented progressive I can hardly agree more with Oren's latest. "Vice" president is new to me, but it couldn't be more apt. Hedging the temperature benefits the betting app owners and no one else. Like high frequency trading it is a vampire parasitically sucking wealth out of actual productive work. Similarly, crypto is useful only to criminals and scammers and is very expensive to run.
It is not simply Trump's approbation of vice tech that makes "vice" president appropriate. Trump embodies bad character and in his position offers a strong example of bad behavior to imitate. That behavior ranges from blatant lying to absurd braggadocio to degrading and demonizing decent people to grift and illegal self dealing and beyond. He works to degrade everyone he interacts with either directly or by making them subservient to his self-serving whims. He exhibits the lowest of moral character and rank stupidity as virtues.
I appreciate that Oren is starting to acknowledge the canyon wide gap between conservative and whatever Trump actually is. I see Trump as the apotheosis of Libertarian "freedom". Even though he not a professed Libertarian he is strictly transactional. He is unfettered by decency and to a shocking extent the law in his transactions. The end game of Libertarian policy is rule by wealth. It is ultimately anti-democracy, neither conservative nor progressive. Trump is the closest to achieving that of any president.
Online betting should be illegal. That won't stop betting. But it will slow it down and make it less harmful to society. Crypto should be abandoned. AI should be fully examined and constrained before foisted on us. The Libertarian "free market" is a flawed concept based on a flawed and juvenile understanding of freedom itself. The self-rule of democracy requires self imposed limitations on behavior. No murder, for example. There is no virtuous
"invisible hand" in highly industrialized economies. We must manage our economy for our benefit and stop the scams and leeches and bad actors and raw power of wealth from ripping us off and doing other damage.
I couldn't agree more with this excellent critique of wrong-headed moves from the current administration. None of these schemes, scams, and distractions are helping young men build better lives - I just published a post with Dr. Michael McKee re: his many years treating gambling addiction, and how this public health crisis has exploded in the age of online sports betting. Thank you so much!
Oren Cass is a moral riser, which in the economic context, is certainly a stupid and bad idea. He is hiding behind anti-Trumpism trying to politicize the subject and attract innocent woke souls for the weird crusade against Trumpian vices as if there were no other sinners on both ends of the horseshoe.
Oren Cass must answer why the prohibition law turned out to be a disastrous overall morality plunge despite seemingly obvious health, social order, and family benefits. He is an economist, isn’t he? Then write as an economist, not as Savonarola.
Proving that young men need be extricated from today's psuedomatriarchy and brought into the man's workshop and taught the virtues of masculine teamwork and not be left to flounder in their own devices.
Glad to see gambling highlighted as a vice. It is antithetical to the idea of hard work as the surest path to material success. Government-sponsored lotteries are the worst, but it’s all bad.
I generally agree with the main points of this article. We need to again outlaw sports betting and do a much better job of regulating social media. That said, I don't think we need to fear the left taking the moral high ground from the right. Quoting a politician from Massachusetts is rich. Massachusetts legalized casinos and marijuana. This guy is more likely irritated that Trump is shutting down his plans to us AI regulations at the state level to gain rent seeking consultancies for his family and friends, even while using the threat of more regulations to drive ransom, I mean campaign contributions.
I'm so glad to see this article. I'm fairly new to Commonplace, having only found it about 6 months ago, and while I agree with an awful lot of Oren's policy positions, it had seemed to me that Commonplace was sanewashing Donald Trump, JD Vance, etc all. It's good to see this article.
I'm pretty ticked about the things identified in this article.
However, I don't think we have to worry about the Democrats will "speak in moral terms and work to ensure young men build decent lives" when they consistently say they don't know what a man or a woman is, except when they've defining men as toxic.
Why is maga so obsessed with trans kids? Because Don told you to be? What kind of people choose to pick on the most vulnerable among us? Have you met a trans kid? Had a conversation with one, talked to any parents? Why the need to pick on a vulnerable population of kids that face such unique and difficult struggles, struggles that lead to high rates of depression, substance abuse, suicide? To further Don's political fortunes? Because you heard on Infowars that a faraway trans kid in Toledo got a third place ribbon in a cross country meet, and you ain't happy about it? What harm do they cause you?
Do you think these kids "choose" to face the hatred, the cruelty, the discrimination, just for the heck of it? I always thought we conservatives were the small government party, the ones who opposed undue government intervention in our lives. The last thing these families need is maga's big government intrusion just to prop up an aging, angry, incoherent politician.
I don't know where you got "trans kids" from my comment, Karl. I'm just quoting Democrats own statements, who for the last 5-8 years, have, across the board, insisted they don't know what a woman is.
Separately though, if you really can't see by now what the problems with pretending that "woman" and "man" are simply linguistic categories instead of reflections of actual differences between humans, I'm not sure what to say.
Ah I see, Democrats are responsible for your obsession. Not you. Not Don.
Since maga is supposedly all about helping the workin stiffs, I'm always perplexed how picking on these struggling kids, or adults, helps the laid off factory worker in Hamtramck. To me it's simply an example of Occam's razor. An age old tactic similar to those employed by demagogues throughout history. Gotta keep the subjects whipped up, and angry at "those people", the people the strongman is here to protect us from... Who "those people" are changes over time based on the needs of the demagogue. Gays, Italians, Jews, Hispanics, Catholics, etc, I guess every group eventually gets its turn in the barrel. How odd that supposed conservatives, who rightfully criticize the left's proclivity to judge people based on group identity, so willingly follow suit.
Brian, all I can say is, be scared, be very scared. "Those people" may be coming for you...
Thank you, Karl, for this spot-on reply. Let's get past Trump Derangement Syndrome on the Left and Trans Derangement Syndrome on the Right. Hating on kids and families is not only none of our business - it also has nothing to do with helping the US economy rebuild itself in support of US workers. Thank you!
And PS, we've all met plenty of trans kids - when they get their early interventions before puberty they transition into their correct gender and are unrecognizable as trans, "drag," etc.
Perhaps rather than generalities, the author could provide a factual foundation for his rant and provide all of us greater understanding of his specific attacks on the president. Politically creative speech is hardly useful as a tool for us to understand specifically what the author believes is wrong.
I think the author's position seems pretty straightforward for sports gambling and marijuana. He seems to support making them illegal again, or for marijuana, actually enforcing existing laws against them.
I'm less clear where he stands on prediction markets and especially AI regulation. Is he in favor of banning prediction markets? Ok, then he should just say so. Perhaps he can then explain how this ban would work in a world where the internet exists and everyone in the US can access it from their phones, which is exactly the reason why historical bans on sports betting have run into challenges. And does AI need some sort of regulation? Almost certainly. Does anyone know what that should be? Almost certainly not. We need a specific proposal that can be debated and reviewed. Otherwise, you get the classic two-step of a generality that everyone can agree with ("protect the children", "prevent self-destructive behavior") being used to promote a specific law or regulation that is highly controversial and frequently counterproductive.
The world is full of vice. I don't approve but outlawing it is futile. Let us stick to direct harms like murder, rape and robbery and stay away from vague notions of social harms. Specifically, I don't approve of adolescents accessing porn but as we have seen in Europe that is camouflage for suppression of political dissent.
it’s an appeal to the authority of the activities in question being illegal previously and the broadly accepted bipartisan notion that young men are not being served by swimming in vice. Particularly during a time when they aren’t succeeding in society by any accepted metric.
As an economically oriented progressive I can hardly agree more with Oren's latest. "Vice" president is new to me, but it couldn't be more apt. Hedging the temperature benefits the betting app owners and no one else. Like high frequency trading it is a vampire parasitically sucking wealth out of actual productive work. Similarly, crypto is useful only to criminals and scammers and is very expensive to run.
It is not simply Trump's approbation of vice tech that makes "vice" president appropriate. Trump embodies bad character and in his position offers a strong example of bad behavior to imitate. That behavior ranges from blatant lying to absurd braggadocio to degrading and demonizing decent people to grift and illegal self dealing and beyond. He works to degrade everyone he interacts with either directly or by making them subservient to his self-serving whims. He exhibits the lowest of moral character and rank stupidity as virtues.
I appreciate that Oren is starting to acknowledge the canyon wide gap between conservative and whatever Trump actually is. I see Trump as the apotheosis of Libertarian "freedom". Even though he not a professed Libertarian he is strictly transactional. He is unfettered by decency and to a shocking extent the law in his transactions. The end game of Libertarian policy is rule by wealth. It is ultimately anti-democracy, neither conservative nor progressive. Trump is the closest to achieving that of any president.
Online betting should be illegal. That won't stop betting. But it will slow it down and make it less harmful to society. Crypto should be abandoned. AI should be fully examined and constrained before foisted on us. The Libertarian "free market" is a flawed concept based on a flawed and juvenile understanding of freedom itself. The self-rule of democracy requires self imposed limitations on behavior. No murder, for example. There is no virtuous
"invisible hand" in highly industrialized economies. We must manage our economy for our benefit and stop the scams and leeches and bad actors and raw power of wealth from ripping us off and doing other damage.
A society that allows easy, immediate access to the kind of porn we allow will not survive. Literally. Physically.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
I couldn't agree more with this excellent critique of wrong-headed moves from the current administration. None of these schemes, scams, and distractions are helping young men build better lives - I just published a post with Dr. Michael McKee re: his many years treating gambling addiction, and how this public health crisis has exploded in the age of online sports betting. Thank you so much!
Oren Cass is a moral riser, which in the economic context, is certainly a stupid and bad idea. He is hiding behind anti-Trumpism trying to politicize the subject and attract innocent woke souls for the weird crusade against Trumpian vices as if there were no other sinners on both ends of the horseshoe.
Oren Cass must answer why the prohibition law turned out to be a disastrous overall morality plunge despite seemingly obvious health, social order, and family benefits. He is an economist, isn’t he? Then write as an economist, not as Savonarola.
Trump is just a grifter, I would no associate with his actions...
Proving that young men need be extricated from today's psuedomatriarchy and brought into the man's workshop and taught the virtues of masculine teamwork and not be left to flounder in their own devices.
I love porn
Glad to see gambling highlighted as a vice. It is antithetical to the idea of hard work as the surest path to material success. Government-sponsored lotteries are the worst, but it’s all bad.
I generally agree with the main points of this article. We need to again outlaw sports betting and do a much better job of regulating social media. That said, I don't think we need to fear the left taking the moral high ground from the right. Quoting a politician from Massachusetts is rich. Massachusetts legalized casinos and marijuana. This guy is more likely irritated that Trump is shutting down his plans to us AI regulations at the state level to gain rent seeking consultancies for his family and friends, even while using the threat of more regulations to drive ransom, I mean campaign contributions.
I'm so glad to see this article. I'm fairly new to Commonplace, having only found it about 6 months ago, and while I agree with an awful lot of Oren's policy positions, it had seemed to me that Commonplace was sanewashing Donald Trump, JD Vance, etc all. It's good to see this article.
Comstock is back!
Is the pro-bribery part of the ‘vice’?
That is well spoken Oren. Now the question I have is how do you get this into the hands of the President?