which single issue do you think is most important

[crossfire]

Well it's complicated.. I think before we get to human rights, which is important, we have to really address what human nature actually is. It is good, I think, to maximize freedom in a context where it can be maximized, but what are we? Maybe to start with, I would say that all of us are potentially corruptible, and most of us ultimately seem to live in a state of reaction, as opposed to a state of being self-determinant.

So where scarcity exists, or is produced, I think we all kind of turn into people that kind of want to claw our way to the top. Where a ton of space exists, the broader behavior of the public likely gets a lot better, but the leaders probably would continue to see all the open space itself as capital. I don't really know what the solution is, but seems like 'human rights' is always going to be a context issue. Human rights in what context

You wrote:
"Human rights in what context?"
I wrote:

In my system of giving weight to the issues, human rights issues are primary. So abortion rights and the humane treatment of immigrants carry the most weight with me this election cycle. I really don't have much patience with those who simply brush human rights issues aside with quips like "aside from abortion...blah blah blah" thinking that taking human rights issues off of the table is going to pursuade me.

In the context of this election, the biggest human rights issues are abortion rights (bodily autonomy) and the humane treatment of immigrants.

 

[wellwisher]

Well then Harris is your babe because she wants to increase the supply of affordable housing so people aren't stuck paying to others for rentals and doesn't want to impose pointless tariffs that will increase the cost of everyday goods to the average person by $2600 dollars or so. She would also like to increase taxes on those most capable of affording it like huge businesses and the top 1% of earners to pay down the deficit so that we can reduce the pressure on the credit market and save on the interest we will all end up paying anyway.
Really better than Trump taking a cash advance on a credit card and leaving it till later to pay it back like he did last time.

All that Harris promised, without explaining how she can do it, has been tried before and leads to disaster. Do you remember the housing crisis, where the housing bubble burst, right before Obama took office in 2008? That was do the Democrats pushing a bill that would have the Fed securing housing loans to all people, including those who otherwise would not have qualified for buying housing; not enough income or bad credit. This increased the demand for housing and caused all houses prices to rise. As more people got free loans their debt went up and up. This caused the supply to spike; demand exceeded supply, and then with so many people over their heads, too much supply, causing home values to go down, which caused an amplified default and a recession.

As far as tariffs Biden and Harris kept the Trump tariffs since it was a substantial tax revenue stream. Now they promise no tariffs, but still do not deliver, while still in office, as a show of faith. You fall for the con again.

The political Left is the problem, since they pander to emotions and freebies, that lead to economic problems, until their base thinks it is a good idea, due to no rational thinking skills to analyze. The DNC did the same with college debt. They made it possible for anyone to go to college, by rigging student loans away from the free market; socialism not democracy. The easy loans increased the demand for education causing all the price of all the college to go up. They offered loans to anyone, even those who were taking courses, that would never allow the jobs needed to pay their huge future debt. The Liberal run colleges were not even at the negotiating table, to help the student deal with their debt. The colleges benefited from than debt and had all that debt money in their coffers. It was a DNC/college scam, with the tax payer almost screwed to cover the tab for the scam artists and their patsies. It was a Socialist flavored con job of something for nothing. I bet the dopes are bllaming Trump for that, since they are not very rational and simply let fake news be their teacher.

Recently, the DNC did the same thing to the Blacks, starting in California, promising reparations; lures and promises they will not keep, used to get their voter support. To a critical thinker, how can you pay people, who were never slaves, for being slaves, by taxing people; tax payers, who never had anything to do with slavery since that end 150 years ago? This was a DNC scam they knew would never pass the courts. All it was, was just another lure to pander to the simple and greedy liberals to get their vote. Crooks like DNC need to brought to justice. Their illegal behavior impact all, such as inflation, cause by the con job called the Inflation Reduction Act. That was just another bait and switch. It sounded good to their clueless base and even came back to bite them. Reparation was another bait and switch.

As far as Trump, being called a threat to Democracy how about we list all the tangible things, based on actions, that Trump did that support this claim? Then we can list all the things the DNC has done such as take away Biden's Democratically voted nomination by a small cabal, who then appoints Harris. Isn't protecting the Democrat vote part of Democracy? The left repeats a mantra, but will be hard pressed to support it by showing specific actions. You can spin words but not actions.

The biggest threat to the US is the dimmed witted DNC base. Their dim wit empowers the DNC leadership, who are a criminal element. If the base was not so Socialist, you could better define and support Democracy and not be such a threat. Trump is a threat to the DNC, who is trying to push for Socialism, and not Democracy; Housing, student loans and even reparation was Socialism not Democracy. We may need to reboot the Department of Education since Lefty control has led to a 50% dumb down of America.

One of the big problen is the irrational hate caused by the fake new disinformation drum beat. Hitler did this too. It created a delusion Germany driven by hate and ego-centricity but little in the way of common sense. You are the threat. People are getting sick of it which is why Trump is now starting his final surge.

 

[Koldo]

All my life I've watched suburban developments, which are pretty big, go up over the land of bought out farms, here in the midwest. And now, we get ads talking about politicians wanting to control rising food prices. I suspect this area of the country has the best potential farmland. But show me some articles that defend what you are saying

Articles defending what specifically?

 

[amorphous_constellation]

You wrote:
"Human rights in what context?"
I wrote:

In the context of this election, the biggest human rights issues are abortion rights (bodily autonomy) and the humane treatment of immigrants.

Maybe I misunderstood you before, sorry about that. Well I think valuing both birth control and immigration make a somewhat uneasy match, but I think I've already written about that here. To add to that, do you think there are great chances that many immigrants coming here don't have more of a right-wingish view about reproduction? Or are they convinced quickly out of that, or do they not have that?

I do believe people should be treated humanely, that's always good. But you know, I work with lots of immigrants, and I like most of them, but they strike me as pretty capable people. Did they really want to come way out here to work with me on 3rd shift factory shifts? That seems like kind of extreme thing to do in a sense, since it seems to mean they could not find this very humble line of work wherever they were from, because I assume that if they could find it there, they wouldn't travel huge distances just to come here and do it

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Articles defending what specifically?

how about a good article on how easy or hard it will be in the future to consistently feed the human world

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Well it's not a happy topic. I guess I'd suggest "Bright Green Lies", and then an older book "Overshoot".

I agree that reducing the human population is critical. A couple of thoughts:

- give BIG retirement bonuses to retiring women who have had 0 or 1 kids.

Well I might try one of those, but hm.. this is something that you know, I want it to be like a happier thing. I think I wouldn't want to actually mandate that it be this way, in spite of what might be gathered from my language earlier, and so like you say, maybe an incentive structure is the way to go. In my view, fixing the world has to be something that people want to do. Everything good that we do, every effective way of living, should be something that one wants to do, in my view. If you want to have 7 kids, alright, you do that. If you want to have 1, you do that.

It's just that people likely have to see more of long-view, to want to have less. And as well, it's gotta be the whole world that thinks that way. It can't just be different parts of the world that already are below replacement level, for this to work. But they should figure it out eventually, I would assume, that this makes sense. If it makes sense, I'm not a genius, but it seems to make sense to me

 

[icehorse]

Well I might try one of those, but hm.. this is something that you know, I want it to be like a happier thing. I think I wouldn't want to actually mandate that it be this way, in spite of what might be gathered from my language earlier, and so like you say, maybe an incentive structure is the way to go. In my view, fixing the world has to be something that people want to do. Everything good that we do, every effective way of living, should be something that one wants to do, in my view. If you want to have 7 kids, alright, you do that. If you want to have 1, you do that.

It's just that people likely have to see more of long-view, to want to have less. And as well, it's gotta be the whole world that thinks that way. It can't just be different parts of the world that already are below replacement level, for this to work. But they should figure it out eventually, I would assume, that this makes sense. If it makes sense, I'm not a genius, but it seems to make sense to me

Well humanity is facing a massive ecological crisis. Full stop. Step one is to acknowledge that fact.

And I agree that humans want things to be happy and they want convenient lives and they tend to be short sighted. So authoritarian-feeling austerity measures are flawed before they even begin.

My idea of giving large bonuses to women who have had less than 2 kids is an example of trying to work with human nature, not against it.

I think we have to stop thinking in terms of "replacement levels". I think that idea is founded on the false premise that economies must grow endlessly to be healthy.

 

[crossfire]

Maybe I misunderstood you before, sorry about that. Well I think valuing both birth control and immigration make a somewhat uneasy match, but I think I've already written about that here. To add to that, do you think there are great chances that many immigrants coming here don't have more of a right-wingish view about reproduction? Or are they convinced quickly out of that, or do they not have that?

They are entitled to hold their own beliefs and make their own choices regarding their own (not anyone else's) bodies. (aka bodily autonomy)

I do believe people should be treated humanely, that's always good. But you know, I work with lots of immigrants, and I like most of them, but they strike me as pretty capable people. Did they really want to come way out here to work with me on 3rd shift factory shifts? That seems like kind of extreme thing to do in a sense, since it seems to mean they could not find this very humble line of work wherever they were from, because I assume that if they could find it there, they wouldn't travel huge distances just to come here and do it

Have you asked them?

 

[Koldo]

how about a good article on how easy or hard it will be in the future to consistently feed the human world

Because.... ?
Doesn't that have far more to do with the expected human population growth rate and climate conditions than housing issues?

 

[amorphous_constellation]

They are entitled to hold their own beliefs and make their own choices regarding their own (not anyone else's) bodies. (aka bodily autonomy)

That's fine, although this is where some dissonance enters the argument as I alluded to in my last post. They may or may not share your views on bodily autonomy. What's more, is that beliefs about this seem also to apply more to groups than to individuals, when people have beliefs about this.

Have you asked them?

No, I just try to talk only about work at work. No politics, nothing like that. I want to mind my own business at work, and just relate to other people there as workers. That's plenty.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Because.... ?
Doesn't that have far more to do with the expected human population growth rate and climate conditions than housing issues?

I am not wrapping my head around what you mean right this instant, but I have to go now. Can you maybe a expand a little more on this?

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Well humanity is facing a massive ecological crisis. Full stop. Step one is to acknowledge that fact.

And I agree that humans want things to be happy and they want convenient lives and they tend to be short sighted. So authoritarian-feeling austerity measures are flawed before they even begin.

My idea of giving large bonuses to women who have had less than 2 kids is an example of trying to work with human nature, not against it.

I think we have to stop thinking in terms of "replacement levels". I think that idea is founded on the false premise that economies must grow endlessly to be healthy.

I guess I am kind of stumbling with the topic a little bit, I maybe don't fully understand the foundations and goals involved with the issue. Maybe I should lay off it. I don't know

 

[amorphous_constellation]

It is obvious that none of you are paying attention the new preemptive first strike nuclear weapons use policy of the US. If America is reduced to radioactive ash do any of these other issues matter, any of them?

Hello.. and I've posted plenty wondering about that in the past , but I guess maybe I see war as a symptom.. Do you agree? Russia versus Ukraine, China versus Taiwan, situations in the Middle-East.. that's all about a resource problem first, which leads to a war problem. Do you agree, or understand what I mean. Or what's your take

 

[Balthazzar]

I'm not voting for either candidate this election season, so my assessment will be on completely neutral grounds as well as determining whether my personal life has improved or not.

At the moment, I' won't be voting either. Instead, I've chosen to become a mouthpiece and exercise my 1st. I'm walking a line, I guess. I may change my position as a non-voter, but I haven't been convinced enough that my vote will actually lend itself to our favor, so I like you, stand in a more neutral position. I am a Republican and I actually do like Trump. This doesn't equate to it being best decision. I favor his able, his business sense, his connections, his determination, and resolve but Kamala may prove more able in principle areas. So yeah, I'll become a mouthpiece and exercise my 1st. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and moving on the best I can.

Two attempts in a single year. It's concerning, but to be honest, it suggests he has some very bad people in a corner. I like him.