This argument is pointless. I could tell you that I know governments do horrific things, but that they also do wonderful things, things no one else can do, but it won't matter. I could tell you that terrible wars will go on regardless of whether governments or megacorporations (or some combination) are calling the shots, because war is profitable, but it won't matter. I could tell you that without government regulation, unscrupulous corporations will flood our air, water, and food supplies with dangerous chemicals and life expectancy will drop like a stone, but it won't matter. I can even tell you that Bill Gates, perhaps the most famous living exemplar of capitalist success, wants to more than double government investment in basic energy research, but it won't matter. Nothing I can say will change your mind in the slightest, and nothing you can say will change mine, at least not if we stick to a reasonable tone. Only simplistic emotional appeals stand a chance. Ideological disagreements suck that way.
Your side is winning the emotional battle. 58% of Democrats were convinced (http://www.wbir.com/rss/article/178795/16/Poll-Thumbs-down-on-the-debt-ceiling-deal) that the trillion-dollar spending cuts were better than any alternative, whether because the behavior of insane conservative politicians made them disgusted with government in general, or because they were terrified of the economic collapse that now seems to be happening regardless. Our side tries to do the same thing, endlessly repeating the graphic stories of extreme weather events that drown or set aflame inconceivably huge swaths of landscape, but conservatives have seemingly perfected the art of refusing to notice or care that human actions may have had some substantial role in triggering these calamities.
But since neither of us is interested in playing that game, let's change the subject. Are you coming to this year's Space Elevator Conference? I'll be there representing a website called SpaceWiki (http://spacewiki.com), and my colleague Brandon Sanders is giving a talk on Sunday about how to motivate people to work on a project that would, in his words, "fundamentally change how the human species relates to the cosmos."
no subject
Your side is winning the emotional battle. 58% of Democrats were convinced (http://www.wbir.com/rss/article/178795/16/Poll-Thumbs-down-on-the-debt-ceiling-deal) that the trillion-dollar spending cuts were better than any alternative, whether because the behavior of insane conservative politicians made them disgusted with government in general, or because they were terrified of the economic collapse that now seems to be happening regardless. Our side tries to do the same thing, endlessly repeating the graphic stories of extreme weather events that drown or set aflame inconceivably huge swaths of landscape, but conservatives have seemingly perfected the art of refusing to notice or care that human actions may have had some substantial role in triggering these calamities.
But since neither of us is interested in playing that game, let's change the subject. Are you coming to this year's Space Elevator Conference? I'll be there representing a website called SpaceWiki (http://spacewiki.com), and my colleague Brandon Sanders is giving a talk on Sunday about how to motivate people to work on a project that would, in his words, "fundamentally change how the human species relates to the cosmos."